Riding the rails to the slopes
"Despite the proximity of the hills for the Yankee rural population, it was the city people who first embraced skiing in a big way. In the winter of 1931-1932, the Boston & Maine Railroad began running a 'snow train' out of North Station in Boston up to Conway, New Hampshire, and back each Sunday. The first run filled three cars with 197 people. By 1940 {with the Great Depression ending} the Boston Snow Train carried some 3,000 skiers. Trains then ran every Sunday out of New York, and frequently from Albany, Hartford, and Springfield, Massachusetts.''
From Mountain New England: Life Past and Present, by William F. Robinson