This railway line was conceived in the mid-1850s out of the desire of communities in the northern New England region to connect with the growing economic center that was Boston, MA. In fact, there were originally three railroads, with this common purpose, that built this line:
- The Worcester and Nashua Railroad, which constructed the segment of this line between Worcester, MA and Nashua, NH in 1848
- The Portland and Rochester Railroad, who completed their line between Rochester and into Portland, ME, in 1871
- The Nashua and Rochester Railroad, who extended the line of the W&N at Nashua into Rochester in 1874
By 1883, all three lines had consolidated into the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad; leasing of this line by the Boston and Maine Railroad started in 1886 under its Worcester, Nashua and Portland Division.
By the early 1900s, the B&M had three lines that ran parallel to each other in the region, and they deemed pertinent to shed some of the redundant routes. The entire line was abandoned in segments over the next 50 years. In 1949, the eastern portion of the line, between Sanford and Portland, in Maine, was sold to the Sanford and Eastern Railway, a shortline that operated over that line until 1961.
The rough timeline below shows the construction and abandonments of the route between Ayer, MA and Westbrook, ME:
MA | New Hampshire | Maine
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Ayer Hollis Nashua Hudson Fremont Epping Gonic Rochester Sanford Westbrook
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1848 |---- W&N -----|
1871 |---- W&N -----| |------ P&R --------|
1874 |---- W&N -----|----------------- N&R -------------------|------ P&R --------|
1883 |---------------- Worcester, Nashua & Rochester Railroad --------------------|
1886 |------------------- Leased to Boston & Maine Railroad ----------------------|
1932 |------- B&M -----------|.......|- B&M -|......|----------- B&M -------------|
1942 |- B&M -|...............| |- B&M -| |----------- B&M -------------|
1949 |- B&M -| |- B&M -| |------- B&M -------|-- S&E --|
1952 |- B&M -| |- B&M -| |-- B&M --|.........|-- S&E --|
1961 |- B&M -| |- B&M -| |-- B&M --| |.........|
1982 |.......| |.......| |.........|
|.....| = year of abandonment of right-of-way
Today, some of the former right-of-way serves as rail-trails, while yet other portions serve as roadbeds for regional highways and local roads. Additionally, bridge piers still stand in a number of rivers crossed by the WN&R.