The abandoned and existing lines in my area a bit of RR Tycoon in the early days!

[JCitron]

The B&M and its predecessor competitors played a game of Railroad Tycoon with the smallest of the lines gaining control of the competition and winning in the end. Today, the B&M no longer exists sadly due to Guilford and later Pan Am Railways destroying much of the rail infrastructure in the region, and more recently with the PAR merger into CSX there will be fewer and fewer traces of the old blue-dip diesels.

Here's a map of the lines both existing and abandoned in my area where this played out.

Legend:

Solid lines, all colors, are existing and operating today
Dotted are abandoned.

Red = Eastern Railroad
Yellow = Boston and Lowell
Blue = Boston and Maine

The purplish-colored dotted lines near Marblehead are supposed to be red. I decided to refer to those as the original Eastern and instead of B&M.

Other lines shown:

Green = New Haven
Light Blue = Worcester, Nashua, Rochester and Portland

Up until 1906, the Boston and Maine (B&M) competed fiercely for its life with two major competitors on either side. The Boston and Lowell, incorporated in 1832 controlled the shots for the fledgling Andover and Wilmington which was the original segment of the present-day Boston and Maine and incorporated around the same time. The A&W ran from its present-day connection in Wilmington all the way to what is today, North Andover (North Andover separated in 1854, with Andover inc. in 1646) where it connected to other segments that made up the present-day B&M.

This small railroad struggled daily with the B&L which controlled the connection as it made the A&W trains wait for hours on end. In the 1840s, the B&M had enough and built its own line between Wilmington Jct. and Reading. The B&L brought the B&M to court because no one else was supposed to connect to Boston from that area except for the B&L which had a special decree drawn up by the state congress.

The B&L, however, wasn't going to let the B&M grow any more than it did and set out to chop into the line from the west. This was to become the Lawrence and Lowell.

This short connector route lasted until around 1925 and was supposed to run along the Merrimack River and instead was rerouted south through Tewkesbury due to wealthy investors wanting a railroad station. This mostly rural area was a small source of revenue on this line, meaning a very, very small amount of revenue. The other being the state infirmary which received hoppers of coal for the power plant. Never a money-maker, the sole purpose was to drain business away from the B&M by pulling the lucrative freight from Lawrence and sending it via the B&L to Boston.

Today, a mile-long stub is still in service in Lawrence as it connects to the South Lawrence Industrial Park customers. The customers include a Perlite insulation company, a couple of plastics companies and a distributor of some sort.

In the mid-1870s, the B&M built the Lowell Junction connection between its mainline south of Ballardvale to Lowell. This sent the B&L into a tizzy because they again tried to block this move through a legislative move, but the court intervened just as it did when the B&M built its own line through Reading and Wakefield.

The B&L also tried to hit the Eastern Railroad, or perhaps cut the B&M off from the south by building the Peabody and Lowell. This line ran from Tewkesbury Junction to Peabody via North Reading. There wasn't much in the way of business in the middle and the line crossed the B&M at Wilmington Jct. The middle of this line too disappeared in 1922-25 and short stubs remained in operation until Guilford did them in. The former Lawrence and Lowell portion was active up to Tewkesbury center until the mid-1980s, and the Peabody to West Middleton was active until the same period. Today all is gone with portions now of course turned into a rail trail. Still to be found, in the woods is an old diamond where the line crossed the former B&M Wakefield to Newburyport branch. There was a small junction put in during the 1970s so the trains could run to West Middleton to remove the really unsafe crossing over Rt 1.

The Eastern Railroad too went after the smaller B&M. Incorporated in the 1840s, the Eastern ran along the east coast serving the big cities of Lynn, Salem, Newburyport, and Portsmouth as it continued on its journey to Portland. This railroad was built for speed. It's double tracked mainline was nearly flat as it followed the coastline. The trains literally flew on this line making the Eastern a favored passenger route. The company also served many commuters on its Newburyport to Boston and Rockport branch. This southern portion is still in existence today. The northern part came up in three different eras. The first to go in the early 1950s was the portion between Portsmouth and Portland. This was due to a cash-saving move caused by poor management and overspending by Patrick McGuiness who put more money into his pockets than he did the B&M and New Haven which he controlled.

The Portion between Newburyport and Hampton came up after the swing bridge over the Merrimack got stuck, and finally recently the Hampton to Portsmouth came up after Pan Am Railways chased away any remaining customers. Today the northern section, except for the small segment near Seabrook Powerplant, is a rail trail. There are hopes, as in wishful thinking, to restore rail service along this corridor but that won't occur any time soon. The Portsmouth end of the line is served via another branch coming in from the west.

The Eastern attempted two digs at the Boston and Maine. The first being the Essex Railroad. This very poor line was built wholly within Essex County, thus that's where it got its name. I've discussed this line in more detail when I showed pictures of the railroad spikes my brother found in North Andover. This line never had much business to begin with and was bankrupt within its first year or two of existence. The ends of the line, meaning North Andover (Andover at the time as mentioned above), and the southern Peabody and Danvers end were the busiest. The remaining portion served the very small rural town of Middleton and nothing else in between.

The line was abandoned in 1922-25 in the middle as expected between the Steven's Mills and Danvers Center. Both ends remained operational until the 1980s when Guilford ripped them up. The North Andover end went first shortly after the Davis and Furber Mills closed even though there were other businesses on the line that used rail. The Steven's Mills were long gone by then anyway having burned down suspiciously in the late 1960s and the tracks were removed to High Street North Andover. The eastern end between Danvers and Peabody lasted a bit longer, or until vandals burned the trestle across the Danvers River. Guilford was discouraging business on the line anyway and used this as an excuse to cut it completely. Today, this portion is railbanked with future plans, I mean dreams for a connection to Danvers again.

And finally, the other Eastern Railroad branch.

The South Reading Branch built between Peabody and what is today Wakefield Center, was another money loser with the sole purpose to eat into the B&M territory and siphon off business. Like the other lines, there was little business in the middle and after the B&M took control the middle of this line was cut as well. The Peabody portion still sees quite a bit of business today with a medical film and gelatin plant located on the line. The City of Peabody retains ownership of the remaining portion of the line up to the end even though there's little active business there today. Guilford ensured the customers saw poor service and discouraged them from using rail, thus when they were going to pull the tracks, the city purchased the stub. The Wakefield portion lasted until the late 1980s early 1990s. The line ran to an industrial park in Montrose (Lynnfield) and served a gravel pit. Today, this is gone although some of the track is in place still today.

We can still ride on a portion of this line when we drive down I-95/Rt. 128. The interstate near Montrose makes a sharp jog as the highway follows the former ROW as it turns south towards I-93 in Reading.

In the end, the little B&M won the battle. The company grew stronger and more powerful and had the financing behind them from JP Morgan and others. During their peak between 1906 and 1916, they purchased the Eastern Railroad and The Boston and Lowell as well as their other nemesis, the Worcester, Nashua, Rochester, and Portland. This line was a siphon of Central Mass. business to Portland. In 1922, this line was gone and torn up. It was never a money maker due to its cyclic nature of the passenger business and its line had too many hills and sharp curves.

By 1916 the B&M was bankrupt, yet again, thanks this time to JP Morgan taking the cash and pocketing it during the panic of 1916. After reorganizing, in 1922 the railroad set about abandoning these redundant spurs along with many, many others. You can read about these here:

Abandonment Notices — Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society (bmrrhs.org)

It's a dry, but sometimes interesting read as it shows why these lines were removed, along with some others shown on the map. The Lawrence and Lowell for instance, only had $8.36 in passenger revenue the last month before the line was abandoned!

 

[rwk]

It won't let me view the larger version of the map. It says I don't have permission. And why did the B&M abandon its line from Ossipee, NH to Conway, NH? Three miles north of Silver Lake was used for the Silver Lake tourist railroad a few years ago but it closed, and north of Conway to North Conway and up the ex-MEC is the Conway Scenic.

 

[Forester1]

Same problem here with the map. Sad to hear of these lines going away with the price of gasoline these days!

 

[JCitron]

I can see the map fine. That's weird. I'll download it if I can and replace it with a copy located on the Trainz Gallery. This has been an issue since the forum upgrade.

@rwk

And why did the B&M abandon its line from Ossipee, NH to Conway, NH? Three miles north of Silver Lake was used for the Silver Lake tourist railroad a few years ago but it closed, and north of Conway to North Conway and up the ex-MEC is the Conway Scenic.

This portion was abandoned during the early 1970s when the B&M was bankrupt again this time from Patrick McGuiness. McGuiness gained control initially of the New Haven Railroad then very quickly the Boston and Maine during the 1950s. His wife did the weird logo design for both railroads. McGuiness was a scum that set about siphoning off and pocketing the revenue from both railroads. His downfall came in the early 1960s when he sold off the B&M's new Talgo train for scrap and pocketed the cash. He went to jail for this and also for insider trading. In addition to bankrupting the B&M, he did that to the New Haven as well at the same time. Sadly, the New Haven got absorbed into the Penn Central rather reluctantly and got screwed over by that company as well.

Once the damage was done, with declining business and increased costs, the railroad faced the inevitable and cut branches including the White Mountain Branch above Ossipee starting about 1970 or 1972. Up until that time, there were daily trains from Boston to Alton Bay, New Hampshire and trains to Rochester, NH where people could take the ski trains up to Mt. Whittier and Conway and people could take the train to Wolfeboro especially in the summer because of the location on Lake Winnipesaukee. There were also daily freights that ran between Rochester and other towns up to Intervale where the railroad interchanged with the MEC. Sadly, the MEC's Moutain Division met the same fate in the mid-1980s under Guilford ownership where the Conway Scenic runs today.

Today, the line is railbanked by the state of New Hampshire along with the Mountain Division and there have been long discussions off and on about reopening passenger service on the line from Rochester north again to Conway and beyond. New Hampshire being New Hampshire and anti-rail, and anti-spending on anything but highways, there's little chance that line will see any business again. I'm sorry to hear about the Silver Lake.

@Forester1

I agree. It's sad to see the lines gone. Many of the more recent abandonments, such as the Eastern Railroad above Newburyport, would relieve that daily traffic jam on I-95 from Portsmouth to Boston as it moved the commuters from the highway and backroads on to trains again. I remember when trains used the Merrimack River drawbridge. There was passenger service beyond Newburyport to Amesbury, another branch gone now, and up to Portsmouth until the late 1960s. When the bridge went, the passenger service was discontinued on both lines and freight continued from the Portsmouth end down to Amesbury by doing a reverse move to reach that branch. That branch disappeared in the 1980s, thanks to Guilford and is now a rail trail with no chance of being returned to service thanks to a Walmart being built across the ROW in one location.

The Marblehead branch is another line. The traffic in the greater Salem area, including Peabody, Marblehead, and Danvers outright sucks. There are only two backroads into Marblehead. These state roads, Rt. 129 and Rt.114, are horrible and the ride up Rt. 114 from North Andover to Marblehead takes almost an hour due to the congestion for a trip that's about 22 miles if that. Rt. 129 isn't much better as that road heads in from Lynn and the back side of Salem and Peabody, and that road too has the same kind of icky congestion.

Marblehead is a short peninsula and once had three stops on the main branch between Swampscott and Marblehead center. Both of these stations were busy until the line's closure in the early 1960s and there was a lot of outcries back then when that occurred. Today, the line is of course a rail trail and the problem now is NIMBYs. Marblehead is one of the snootiest areas on the Northshore and they definitely would not allow trains to pass through Cliftondale, Clifton and into Marblehead center.

 

[rwk]

I wonder why Conway Scenic makes no effort to acquire at least the Silver Lake portion, about 3 miles, and an additional mile of track up to Conway Station but there is a big breach through Coleman Concrete in Conway where a dirt road was put over the tracks. I guess they feel that south of Conway is not as scenic as the line to the north through the mountains. But, the part that Silver Lake ran on was scenic with the lakes. There is also some rail gone just south of Silver Lake station in Madison and the road crossing is gone south of the station. The problem with much of NH except for the southern portion which Amtrak serves, is sparse population so Amtrak or any other operator would not make a profit on regular passenger service such as to North Conway but the tourist railroad does well. There's also Lake Winnepesaukee and Hobo Railroad, and the steam trains at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, which is also the starting point for the Hobo Railroad. I never actually visited NH, I'm from eastern PA, but I knew all about those tourist railroads for years through books, brochures, and now the internet.

 

[JCitron]

I wonder why Conway Scenic makes no effort to acquire at least the Silver Lake portion, about 3 miles, and an additional mile of track up to Conway Station but there is a big breach through Coleman Concrete in Conway where a dirt road was put over the tracks. I guess they feel that south of Conway is not as scenic as the line to the north through the mountains. But, the part that Silver Lake ran on was scenic with the lakes. There is also some rail gone just south of Silver Lake station in Madison and the road crossing is gone south of the station. The problem with much of NH except for the southern portion which Amtrak serves, is sparse population so Amtrak or any other operator would not make a profit on regular passenger service such as to North Conway but the tourist railroad does well. There's also Lake Winnepesaukee and Hobo Railroad, and the steam trains at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, which is also the starting point for the Hobo Railroad. I never actually visited NH, I'm from eastern PA, but I knew all about those tourist railroads for years through books, brochures, and now the internet.

There has been discussion of opening up the White Mountain branch completely again from Rochester NH as is reopening the full former MEC Mountain Division via Rochester and Portland. Removing a dirt road isn't an issue if there's a reason to do so but part of the problem is the state of New Hampshire. NH is a totally anti-rail state. They will put millions into their highways and nothing into the railroads. Recently, the Hobo Railroad had to fight for its life. Up near Laconia, a group of rich NIMBYs, with the help of some big lawyers and a state representative who had ties to the anti-rail and pro trail group, were pushing to lift the rails and put in trails instead. The railroad won and is able to continue operating for now. There is some freight up there still and this may have been the saving grace. Note - for now. The old Winnipesaukee Railroad is now a trail. It was embargoed in the 1980s and for a while, or maybe they still do operate on what's left of it, rail speeders use the ROW.

Much has been lost in New Hampshire while highways are being expanded. The Portsmouth, NH to Salisbury, MA portion of the Eastern Railroad is now a trail. The bridge is out in Newburyport over the Merrimack and there have been thoughts to reopen that line to Portsmouth to alleviate the traffic on I-95. Many other cuts occurred recently but the worst of all is the former Northern Railway. This B&M-owned railroad ran between Concord, NH and White River Jct., VT. The line was operated until the early 1980s and then sat idle. There were serious talks about using this route as a direct Boston to Montreal line but when push came to shove, New Hampshire backed out and the line became a bike and snowmobile trail instead because it meant spending some cash on railroads. Only a couple of stubs are operated in Concord and Laconia, NH today. There are many other lines ripped up - too many to mention.

The other loss is the former Manchester and Lawrence. This line is now buried under Manchester Airport in the north and expanded I-93 has taken parts of the ROW. When I-93 was being expanded, there were supposed to be provisions for commuter rail including rebuilding the M&L, but that never happened. Today, the line is a trail all the way through Methuen, MA and expanded I-93 still has traffic backed up from Exit 4 in New Hampshire all the way to I-495 and beyond during weekday commuter hours, and Nashua gained a multi-lane highway interchange and cross-city highway at the same time with similar traffic problems on I-3 from the junction with I-93 near Manchester all the way through to Bedford MA. With most of the traffic on both of these roads coming from New Hampshire.

 

[UP5521]

That's really unfortunate, because from what I was trying to learn is that some of those lines were and still struggling to turn a profit, sounds eerily similar to what happened in Britain with that so called modernization plan in the late 50's and 60's, but as far as certain railroad management is concerned, they really made a lot of bad decisions and is beyond corrupt no wonder why the railroad tracks had to be taken up in the areas affected, but if the talk of restoring rail service for areas wherever feasible,I say go for it, that and the fact that the new haven did not spare a single steam engine from the scrapper's torch while dieselizing, and some of the paint schemes are either ugly or questionable at best.

 

[JCitron]

That's really unfortunate, because from what I was trying to learn is that some of those lines were and still struggling to turn a profit, sounds eerily similar to what happened in Britain with that so called modernization plan in the late 50's and 60's, but as far as certain railroad management is concerned, they really made a lot of bad decisions and is beyond corrupt no wonder why the railroad tracks had to be taken up in the areas affected, but if the talk of restoring rail service for areas wherever feasible,I say go for it, that and the fact that the new haven did not spare a single steam engine from the scrapper's torch while dieselizing, and some of the paint schemes are either ugly or questionable at best.

Indeed. The rail companies were struggling to keep their heads above water and were ripe for the taking by investors who saw the opportunity to pull them apart like vultures. Patrick McGuiness was one of the more notorious ones but David Fink and his son were right up there as well.

Patrick McGuiness was not kind to either the New Haven or Boston and Maine. His main goal was to maximize the profits for the stockholders and to cash out what he could for himself. In some ways, this sounds like modern management of big businesses. During McGuiness's tenure on both companies, his wife designed the logos and paint schemes. No one was particularly happy with the designs because here in New England, people are pretty conservative about things such as that. Both railroads had stylish logo designs but they weren't over the top until McGuiness took over. During McGuiness's era, he cut the long-distance passenger service on the B&M starting around 1952. One of the first trains to go was the Boston to Troy, NY along with the tracks. The other famous trains went including the Boston to Portland Flying Yankee and he abandoned and leveled the Portland passenger terminal in the process. Local trains too were cut or severely reduced including the Marblehead branch mentioned, trains serving the Lakes region in New Hampshire, the White Mountain branch, and many others. He also deferred maintenance on both the New Haven and the Boston and Maine to a point that derailments were occurring and passenger trains were outright filthy. He also scrapped the Boston and Maine's then new Fairbanks Morse Talgo train, and this is what put him in jail. He sold the equipment and put the profits in his own pocket.

After he left his president's position, both railroads found themselves in dire straits. There were other contributing factors such as business moving to trucks on the then new nearby interstate highways and industry changing from manufacturing to a service-based industry base, but that didn't mean the railroads couldn't have survived. When McGuiness had taken over, both roads were in pretty good shape but when he left, they were trashed. What kept the scrappers from pulling up the rails for both railroads was their commuter service. Both railroads hauled thousands of passengers daily in and out of the big cities such as New York City, Boston, Worcester, and Springfield and the lines formed the backbone for connections to the rest of the country. When the Penn Central came along in 1969, it was the ICC that forced them to purchase the New Haven - a railroad they didn't want. As a result, the New Haven suffered and when Conrail got the Penn Central, they inherited a very broken-down system. The suspicious fire on the Poughkeepsie bridge really was the nail in the coffin for the New Haven and for many other connecting railroads such as the Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh and New England, and the Leigh and Hudson River because this line was an outside connection to the Northeast outside of the crowded New York City metro area, making for a more efficient connection for those roads. Many people think this was a deliberate action by Penn Central to hurt their competition and force the traffic onto their own lines.

The Boston and Maine survived because in the 1960s, the state of Massachusetts formed the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, albeit on a shoestring and did not join Conrail. The state authority took over the operations of all commuter rail, trolley, subway, and bus service in the greater Boston area and has since expanded its service in conjunction with other regional services in other areas across Massachusetts and down to Providence, RI. At one time, they also ran to Concord, New Hampshire but New Hampshire didn't want to pay their subsidy and that service was canceled.

With the state taking over the passenger rail service, they also took ownership of the rail infrastructure. Most lines within Massachusetts are now state owned but outside of the commuter area in greater Boston, are maintained by the individual railroads that operate the lines while the MBTA maintains those tracks within the commuter area. This took the expensive maintenance out of the B&M's hands and allowed them to focus on operations instead. At the time, the Boston and Maine ran commuter trains out of the northside, meaning North Station and Penn Central, later Conrail ran the southside out of South Station. When Conrail gave up their commuter operations, the B&M inherited that operation as well. At this time, the B&M had the largest fleet of Budd RDC's in the world. Connecticut did a similar thing with their CDOT and they work closely with both MetroNorth and Amtrak to provide commuter service between Springfield and New Haven, via Hartford and in and out of the greater New York City region into Connecticut.

This assistance, however, didn't stop the B&M from heading into bankruptcy where they remained until the early 80s. They had just turned a profit when Guilford saw a low hanging fruit ready to pluck and the cycle started all over again. Hopefully now that CSX has taken over everything that cycle will cease.

 

[UP5521]

The New York central was not any better to go along with what you said, John, the not just those railroads mentioned in your post, because it is from what I can gather, not only did that railroads president at the time the name I'm not going to mention, scrapped all of the Hudson and Niagara engines before they had a chance to be preserved, we got lucky with 2 4-8-2 Mohawks, a 0-6-0 Switcher, and a 4-4-0 American, but, back on track, the infamous merger with the Pennsylvania railroad since both of them were struggling, eventually the those involved got absorbed into Conrail back in the 70's, but as far as the New Haven and Boston and Maine, it's really inexcusable for what happened to both of them , point is that some of those lines could have been another railroad, if they had better management and made better financial choices, they would have possibly been around today, what a messy situation to be in, for those reasons, that's why I prefer the Southern, incompetence especially to the high brass who were in charge at that time had no place in the railroading world.

 

[JCitron]

The New York central was not any better to go along with what you said, John, the not just those railroads mentioned in your post, because it is from what I can gather, not only did that railroads president at the time the name I'm not going to mention, scrapped all of the Hudson and Niagara engines before they had a chance to be preserved, we got lucky with 2 4-8-2 Mohawks, a 0-6-0 Switcher, and a 4-4-0 American, but, back on track, the infamous merger with the Pennsylvania railroad since both of them were struggling, eventually the those involved got absorbed into Conrail back in the 70's, but as far as the New Haven and Boston and Maine, it's really inexcusable for what happened to both of them , point is that some of those lines could have been another railroad, if they had better management and made better financial choices, they would have possibly been around today, what a messy situation to be in, for those reasons, that's why I prefer the Southern, incompetence especially to the high brass who were in charge at that time had no place in the railroading world.

Yup, the NYC did some massive "modernizing" of their rolling stock and it's sad to see these great locomotives turned into scrap. Yes, both the big railroads were in tough shape at the time. Their empires were huge, but that merger was one that was headed to disaster. The management was totally working against each other instead of working together to run the company. In a way, this is like the merger of Compaq, Dell, and HP in our modern times. The same PC management ended up running Guilford and did to the MEC, D&H, and B&M what they did to the Penn Central.

New England railroads for some reason were always that low hanging fruit even back during the B&M and NH heyday. JP Morgan got ahold of the two companies and while he put a lot of money into them, his purpose was to corner the traffic coming in and out of the Northeast. New England at the time was not only an agricultural region, but also a manufacturing center for many products including shoes, textiles, and other manufactured goods. His control came to an end during the Panic of 1916. He had made some poor investments and rather than file for bankruptcy himself, he caved the B&M and NH by taking the cash out of the railroads to pay his debts. This forced the two railroads into bankruptcy causing them to reorganize in the early 20s and trim many lines. It was then the B&M got rid of the Worcester, Rochester, Nashua, and Portland and completely cut up the Essex Railroad. Neither of these lines were profitable and were the first to go.

The New York Central, in addition to dealing with a large sprawling network with a shrinking traffic base, was saddled with high property taxes. NY State, like New Jersey at the time, really taxed the railroads heavily. There's a video about this on YouTube. The then president of the NYC, Alfred Perlman, said that the railroads were responsible for their own maintenance and paid heavy taxes, their taxes were used to subsidize the highways and airlines that competed against them. This unfortunately is still true today.

 

[UP5521]

Yeah,what a mess, I guess when it comes to companies, whether railroads or not, there's almost always a bad apple on or behind the scenes.

 

[UP5521]

Yikes,I'm sure, if one were to look on Google maps to find any traces of where the two railroads were unprofitable lines that were taken up, if anything ,I find it outright pathetic that the so called personal that you mentioned John could be ever allowed to be either president or vice President of the affected companies, I mean look at the catastrophic damage that was done as a result, bottom line, if any of that happened on a railroad that was mine that I built with blood, sweat, tears and the most important thing is money, I'd be steaming mad, waiting to take those people to court.

 

[JCitron]

Yikes,I'm sure, if one were to look on Google maps to find any traces of where the two railroads were unprofitable lines that were taken up, if anything ,I find it outright pathetic that the so called personal that you mentioned John could be ever allowed to be either president or vice President of the affected companies, I mean look at the catastrophic damage that was done as a result, bottom line, if any of that happened on a railroad that was mine that I built with blood, sweat, tears and the most important thing is money, I'd be steaming mad, waiting to take those people to court.

I would be fuming as well but these deeds occurred long after the founders were gone. The B&M and NH were built in the 1830s and 1840s and these things started in the late 1910s, 50s, and 80s. You are spot on, it's all about money and corporate greed. Guilford for example was formed by the owners of American Filter Corporation which also ran a railroad tie company in Maine. They had the backing of Timothy Mellon who was looking for railroads to buy basically because he liked trains. For him, this was one big tax write-off as the company was run on a shoestring with nothing put into it while the property was sold off underneath the railroads for other purposes. Patrick McGuiness and his hacks went to jail for what they did. The SEC fined them for insider trading and got McGuiness on theft charges.

The problem I see is the railroads got pwn'd in the end. The states took what they could out of the companies in taxes on their infrastructure and property at much higher rates than other companies would've paid. The railroads not only built, and maintained their property, but they also paid the employees to run the operations all the while the states and government was taking their money and using that to subsidize the competition as I said above.

Sadly, this is still going on today. Management got the hair brain idea of running trains on that so-called Precision Scheduling with 3-mile-long freights tying up mainlines because the companies did away with the classification yards. This wasn't for more efficient operations and was more to cut the labor costs because they needed fewer employees to run the railroad. From what I read management wants to cut the crews further to just the engineer with no one else to run a 3-mile-long freight. We saw what can happen with these freights as they tie up roads, and derail.

If you noticed, it's not the railroads that were run by railroad men that do this to the companies. These men worked their way up through the ranks and had pride in the companies they worked for and ran. The people that do that are those that came in like locusts on a cornfield are MBAs and big stock and investment companies who saw the railroads as a way to make a quick buck at the expense of everyone else. A good example of this is the MM&Q disaster in Lac Mégantic, Quebec. The locomotives were so bad that one of them caught fire and the track was so bad on the line that there were broken rails all over. CP Rail discovered the mess with the tracks when they did an inspection of the line during the purchase.

 

[UP5521]

Thank you for filling me in on this, I do agree that fool Patrick and and other corrupt so called personel had no business anywhere near the railroads they very well put into financial ruin, I had no idea that the situation was that ugly, it is almost, actually, it is insulting to the residents that live And work up there both on the railroad and others.

 

[JCitron]

It's these actions and decisions that affect more than the local area. In 1952 the New Haven was interested in buying up the New York Ontario and Western, but backed down due to its own financial issues it was having. In 1952 McGuiness was ruining the New Haven and the Boston and Maine.

Now, imagine the what ifs. If the New Haven was able to absorb the NYO&W, would those lines have remained today? With the current rail network probably not, but if the Poughkeepsie bridge hadn't burned, severing the western connection to Maybrook Yard or Campbell Hall where the EL, NYH&R, Leigh Valley and the NYO&W interchanged, this may have been for the New Haven a through route to other places such as Middletown and to Lake Ontario where they would have a Great Lake port.

With that in mind, it was the Penn Central too that ruined things for the Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, and Lehigh and Hudson River by suspiciously burning the Poughkeepsie bridge in the early 1970s because these roads were forced to send their traffic through the more congested connections in New York City metro region losing the quicker routing by forcing them to use the only connections to New England controlled by the Penn Central either over the former Boston and Albany (NYC), or the former New Haven. Prior to that, these companies would send their freight directly to New England via either Campbell Hall or Maybrook Yard where they connected to the New Haven. Being competitors to the Penn Central, we can only imagine that they didn't receive the favorable rates they got with the deals made previously with the New Haven.

The Penn Central too was further damaging to other business in New England. Potatoes, paper and lumber were the main business for the Bangor and Aroostook (BAR). They had connections with the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, and with the Maine Central. The BAR and MEC handled the potato traffic coming off of the BAR, sending the trains down on the B&M where the goods were interchanged with the NYC at Worcester. When the PC took over, they let the potato trains sit in Worcester and the potatoes rotted away in the typical Penn Central fashion. This hurt the farmers in Maine, forcing them to take their business elsewhere, meaning putting the potatoes on to trucks instead. The BAR never recovered from that blow.

I remember the BAR potato trains when I was a kid in the 1960s. They were long freights with engines power pooled in from NYC, NH, and the Pennsy in addition to those from BAR and MEC. These were nothing but those famous red, white, and blue State of Maine BAR boxcars with multiple engines on the front and sometimes helpers on the end or middle. After this fiasco, there were only a few State of Maine boxcars mixed into regular traffic and these freights were the normal 30-50 cars in length.

 

[UP5521]

You know, it's funny that you mentioned the state of Maine boxcar, I happen to have a HO scale model of one that was made by Mantua I just need to replace the coupler on it with a New one and with what you just said John, what a terrible and dicey situation to be in, I can't even begin to imagine the smell of rotten potatoes.