The "Nessie System" (as it became known; a tongue-in-cheek combination of the railroad's early reporting marks, NES, and the nickname of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the "Chessie System") provided freight service solely on the White Mountain Branch until 1984, when it entered talks with B&M President Alan Dustin to assume switching rights in Concord. An agreement was worked out not only for switching rights in the capital but freight rights on the B&M's Northern Mainline between Manchester and Penacook (an exception being the Merrimack Station Coal Plant, which would continue to be served by B&M and later Guilford coal trains). The New England Southern made its inaugural freight run to Manchester on July 14, 1985, using leased Maine Central EMD GP7 581, on loan from Guilford (which had purchased the Maine Central in 1981 and the B&M in 1983).