Where is The Flying Yankee located?

The Flying Yankee is located in Conway, NH.

How do I get tickets to The Flying Yankee?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at https://flyingyankee.org/.

Photo by Edward G. Budd Company, Philadelphia, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

The Flying Yankee

Conway, NH

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Upcoming Events

No ticketed events are currently listed for The Flying Yankee. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.

Check the operator’s website for current hours and special runs, or subscribe to event alerts and we’ll email you when something is scheduled.

About The Flying Yankee

One of North America's first streamliners is coming back to life in New Hampshire. The Flying Yankee, a gleaming stainless-steel Budd trainset that raced between Boston, Portland and Bangor beginning in 1935, now rests at the Conway Scenic Railroad while the Flying Yankee Association restores it, aiming someday to operate the train in the Mount Washington Valley. The trainset joined the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places in 2025.

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History

The Flying Yankee name dates to at least 1891, when a steam-hauled heavyweight train ran between Bangor, Maine and Boston, but the trainset preserved today is the lightweight diesel-electric streamliner the Budd Company built for the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1935, with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive. Only the third streamliner in North American service — after Union Pacific's M-10000 and the Burlington's Pioneer Zephyr, of which it was a virtual clone — it entered service on April 1, 1935 and covered 750 miles a day, six days a week, on a Portland-Boston-Bangor circuit, proving so popular it turned a profit and later wore the names Cheshire, Minute Man, Mountaineer and Business Man on other routes. Retired after a final run on May 7, 1957, the train went on static display at the Edaville Railroad in Carver, Massachusetts, moved in 1993 to Glen, New Hampshire under Story Land owner Bob Morrell, and was purchased by the State of New Hampshire in 1997, which launched structural restoration at Claremont before storing the train at the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln from 2005. After a planned Concord move fell through in 2017, the state offered the trainset for sale in November 2023, and in April 2024 it was sold to the Flying Yankee Association, which moved it to Conway on July 30, 2024 for continued restoration with the goal of operating it again, possibly on the Conway Scenic Railroad. In May 2025 the train was added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places.

The Trains

The trainset itself is the artifact: a three-car articulated streamliner constructed by Budd in 1935 from welded stainless steel using the company's patented process. Power came from an eight-cylinder Winton 201-A diesel driving a generator, with traction motors on the lead truck. Air-conditioned throughout, the train seated 142 passengers and carried no dining car — meals were prepared in a galley and served on trays that clipped to the seat backs. Unlike its near-twin the Pioneer Zephyr, it gave up baggage and mail space to fit those extra seats.