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Trackside along the Boston & Maine 1945-1975 with Donald G Hills by Carl R Byron
Trackside along the Boston & Maine 1945-1975 with Donald G Hills by Carl R Byron
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
Morning Sun Books
128 pages
Copyright 2005
CONTENTS
Donald G. Hills, Trackside Photographer3-6
Foreword7-11
Trackside Prologue in Black & White (1939-45)12-13
SECTION 1 - Trackside in the Postwar Era (1945-53)
Chapter One: Trackside at the Reading Depot14-18
Chapter Two: Trackside at North Station 19-21
Chapter Three: Trackside at Tower C and in the Boston Freight Yards22-29
Chapter Four: Trackside on the Portland Division30-37
Chapter Five: Trackside on Boston's North Shore; the Eastern Route and Gloucester Branch 38-45
Chapter Six: Trackside on the Connecticut River Division 46-59
Chapter Seven: Trackside on the New Hampshire Division at the "W's": Wedgemere. Winchester, North Woburn and Wilmington 60-67
Chapter Eight: A Canadian Pacific Trackside visit via the New Hampshire Division 68-74
Chapter Nine: A Trackside Vignette: The Fitchburg Division 75-76
SECTION 2 - Trackside in the Barriger (1971-73) and Dustin Eras (1974-83)
Chapter Ten: Trackside Towers77-79
Chapter Eleven: Trackside Romance80-81
Chapter Twelve: Trackside with "The Enthusiasts" 82-85
Chapter Thirteen: Trackside at service interruptions and other misadventures 86-89
Chapter Fourteen: Trackside from Boston to East Deerfield on the Fitchburg Division90-98
Chapter Fifteen: Trackside; A Conn River Reprise99-103
Chapter Sixteen: Trackside between Ayer and Lawrence104-107
Chapter Seventeen: A return Trackside to Wilmington108-112
Chapter Eighteen: Trackside for Special Moves113-118
Chapter Nineteen: Trackside in the MBTA Era 119-123
Chapter Twenty: Trackside for three closing vignettes124-127
Don G. Hills 128
FOREWORD
A brief overview of the final 5 decades [1940-1983] of the Boston & Maine Railroad
The Boston & Maine Railroad that hired Don Hills in November 1941 was a battered road beginning to enjoy an unfortunately brief Renaissance. Second only to the New Haven Railroad in power and stature across New England. the B&M had reached its peak of mileage and service between 1910 and 1915.
The fallout from the machinations of the 1907-1914 J. P. Morgan/Charles E. Mellen monopoly combined with imposed government control during the World War One era (1917-1920) marked the first decline in B&M track mileage, services, and profitability. B&M passenger and freight revenues continued to shrink at an ever-increasing rate amid the explosion of paved roads and Ford's "Tin Lizzie" throughout the "Roaring `20's" With the onset of the Great Depression in October 1929 traffic simply collapsed-passenger revenues in 1933 were little more than half what they were in 1929 and freight receipts were similarly down.
Business began slowly improving by the mid-1930's and the B&M purchased its first diesel switcher in 1934. With improving passenger receipts five Lima-built Heavy Pacific type locomotives also arrived that 1935 a near-twin to the BURLINGTON ZEPHYR arrived on the B&M. Ordered in 1934 on the strength of an RFC Loan*, the stainless steel FLYING YANKEE was an instant sell-out in Boston-Portland-Bangor ME service. Baldwin delivered the last five of 18 dual-service Mountain-type locomotives in June and July 1941. They were the last new steam locomotives ordered by the Boston & Maine.
The War Years were Hell-but profitable ones-for the B&M. By mid-1943 with unit oil trains, troop trains, and the explosive growth of general freight and passenger traffic the B&M's largest engines, Mountain class #4100-#4117 were stretched to the breaking point. Finally, the War Production Board authorized General Motor's Electro-Motive Division to release six FT A-B sets in September 1943 followed by an additional eighteen in 1944. Immediately assigned to freight trains on the Fitchburg and Portland Divisions, the 5,400 horsepower, four-unit locomotives introduced B&M's new and magnificent-maroon and gold scheme to northern New Englanders.
The post-war years held such promise. The B&M received 16 E7A's in 1945-46 and split an order for 24 streamlined passenger cars with Maine Central for Boston-Portland-Bangor service. Fifteen F2A cabs and three F2 AB sets plus four SW-1 and three NW-2 class switchers arrived 1946. In 1947 the French Administration announced the B&M was 70% dieselized and had cash in the bank-none of which ever would go to the common stockholders. Two F3 AB sets, four more E7A's, and four BL-2's came in 1948.
An E7A and four F7A arrived in 1949 followed by one E8A and 4 F7B's in 1950- B&M's final cab units. Beginning in 1948 the B&M started buying Alco RS-2 road switchers, and by 1954 had 36 RS-2/-3 and 23 EMD GP-7 model road switchers on the roster. Alco and/or EMD yard switchers were purchased every year between 1945 and 1956. Steam's last run was in Boston commuter service on July 23, 1956.
The B&M's fate in the 1950's and `60's will forever be inextricably linked to that of Patrick B. McGinnis and his associates. A Wall Street promoter, Pat had made a bundle for himself and his investors in the 1930's and `40's by buying up bankrupt railroad stocks and other securities at pennies-on-the-dollar. The reorganized road likely would buy them from Pat at a higher price as part of the settlement to be released from Bankruptcy, and McGinnis & Co. pocketed the difference. McGinnis then developed the idea to organize groups of investors who would target a weak railroad with cheap stock in an effort to gain control over that railroad and then manage the company for the group's benefit. These financial manipulations circa 1947 brought McGinnis to the attention of aged New England financier Frederic C. Dumaine, Sr. McGinnis subsequently master-minded the elder Dumaine's 1948 takeover of the New Haven Railroad.
With the death of F.C. Dumaine, Sr. in 1951, son F. C. "Buck" Dumaine Jr. took control of the New Haven. Buck authorized funds for track work, locomotives, and passenger equipment, along with a public commitment to improve passenger service. Cash invested in equipment and maintenance was not available for stockholder dividends, so McGinnis "voluntarily" led a stockholder proxy fight in April 1954, winning by several proxies.
The New Haven's McGinnis Era lasted 22 months. The Flamboyant Irishman promised wonders like three Talgo trains for 2.5 hr Boston-New York service, but actually employed creative financing to maximize stockholder dividends, slashed maintenance, and sold everything not nailed down. What remained was painted a flashy red-orange, white, and black scheme developed by wife Lucille's artistic associates: Herbert Matter and Florence Knoll of the prestigious New York City-based design firm Knoll Associates. A commuter rebellion of Madison Avenue executives helped force him out-but not far enough out....
McGinnis' real desire was to merge the New Haven and Boston & Maine railroads. Both the Public Utilities Commissions and the ICC said NO! While McGinnis was President of the New Haven, his associates in 1954 had wrested control of the B&M's board from the French/Sughrue management. On January 20, 1956 Pat was forced from the New Haven Presidency only to become the B&M's President some 6 hours later!
Mid-1956 found the B&M's 48 wartime EMD FT freight locomotives being "rebuilt" by La Grange into 50 new GP-9 locomotives that "contain some remanufactured parts." They arrived in a bright black, blue, and white scheme clearly related to Lucille's touch on the New Haven. Six similarly painted low-nosed GP-18's arrived in 1961-five of the six using four BL-2 and one F2A cab unit as trade-in credit. They were the last new pre-bankruptcy power.
The postwar departure of manufacturing industries all across New England combined with the opening of the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Turnpikes and Boston's Central Artery between 1954 and 1959, resulted in the loss of most B&M inter-city passenger and much freight business. Compounded by the continuing construction of the Interstate Highway System and exacerbated by the liquidation-based policies of the
The B&M in 1947. McGinnis era, the B&M's traffic base was decimated. Its last profitable year was 1957, and the deficits mounted-along with massive layoffs, deferred maintenance, stockholder dividend payments, and questionable land deals bordering on liquidation.
Boston to Troy passenger service over the B&M ended on January 19, 1958.
Patrick McGinnis resigned as B&M President in 1962 after being promoted to the created position of Chairman of the Board. Passenger service to Portland ceased January 3, 1965, the same year he and three associates were convicted of kickbacks on the sale of B&M streamlined passenger cars. McGinnis served an 18-month jail sentence in the US Federal Prison, Danbury, CT during 1966-67. He purportedly taught English to fellow inmates while incarcerated, a commendable use of his time and skills if true.
He died in 1973 with no tears shed by what few New Haven (by then PennCentral/Amtrak) and B&M railroaders remained employed. Suffice it to say, Buck Dumaine-still bitter at McGinnis' NH takeover-sent an Amoskeag Company employee to Pat's funeral specifically to, "make sure ..(he).. is really in the box!"
The mid-60's B&M was in shambles. Its main purpose had become serving as a corporate tax write-off against more profitable non-rail investments held by Bomaine Industries, its Delaware-based holding company owner. The freight main line between Portland or Boston and Worcester, Mechanicville or Rotterdam Jct., NY was little more than worn out rail resting on rotted ties. North Station saw as few as 4000 passengers a day, and there was serious talk of the complete abandonment of commuter service. The only commuter bright spot was the 1964 formation of the MBTA-Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority-to create an eastern Massachusetts regional transit authority.
While the Sixties ended badly, the 1970's started worse. After defaulting on repayment of $50 million dollars of First Mortgage Bonds and accumulated interest the Boston & Maine Corporation filed bankruptcy in US. District Court in Boston on March 12, 1970. The Court formally granted Bankruptcy protection on March 23, 1970. Five major insurance companies together known as the Group of Institutional Bondholders, held over $14 million dollars worth of the 1st Mortgage Bonds and wanted their cash-now. They immediately petitioned the Bankruptcy Court to order the railroad sold piecemeal at liquidation auction to the highest bidder. E. Spencer Miller's Maine Central coveted the Portland-Worcester main, and Penn Central wanted to eliminate competition to their B&A line by having the B&M abandoned west of Ayer, or at least west of Greenfield and through the Hoosac Tunnel.
The long road back to solvency began with the Bankruptcy Trustees Robert W. Meserve, Paul W. Cherington, and Charles W. Bartlett appointing John W. Barriger, III, nationally known and respected "Doctor of Sick Railroads" as B&M President effective January 1, 1971. It took little more than a cab ride down the 187 mile Fitchburg Division from Mechanicville, NY to Boston, before Barriger remarked that the B&M suffered from a triple bankruptcy: financial, physical, and managerial. However, to the consternation of the GIB lawyers the Bankruptcy Court agreed with JWB that it would give the B&M time to attempt an income based reorganization. There would be no quick dismembering of the railroad with pieces sold at firesale prices to the highest-and likely only-bidders.
Overnight the remains of the McGinnis-era senior management were swept away, and a new "brain trust" of executives was assembled by President John W. Barriger and Trustee Paul W. Cherington-on leave of absence from Harvard Business School.
By 1973 the red ink was receding, and Buck Dumaine's Amoskeag Corporation purchased $10.5 million of B&M's defaulted-upon 1st Mortgage Bonds at roughly thirty-five cents on the dollar from three of the five members of the Group of Institutional Bondholders, de facto liquidating the group. Buck was then second only to the Bankruptcy Judge and Trustees in control of the B&M.
With John W. Barriger's departure in January of 1973, Paul W. Cherington assumed the Presidency, and Buck had his Executive Assistant, Alan "Dusty" Dustin appointed as B&M's Executive VP. Dustin later remarked, "When I first came to the B&M, Buck had me running the BAR (Bangor & Aroostock -- owned by the Dumaine family's Amoskeag Corporation since 1969) on weekends and coming down to the B&M each week to see what we could do! That lasted from April until July or August of 1973." Upon the untimely death of Paul W. Cherington in midsummer 1974 Alan Dustin assumed the position of President & Chief Executive Officer.
Slowly the turnaround progressed. A dozen new 2000 HPI GP-38-2's arrived in late 1973 followed by eighteen 3,000 HP GP-40-2's in December I977-January 1978. The ex-Western Route Reading commuter line was sold for $18 million dollars' September of 1973 to the MBTA. On December 31, 1976 MBTA spent $39.5 million dollars to purchase all B&M proper ty used for Boston area commuter service. As part of the agreement, the B&M retained freight service trackage rights in perpetufty over the sold lines. As a source of additional revenue of March 12, 1977 the B&M took over the South Station ex-B& NH commuter line services under a cost-plus operating contract.
The B&M sued Bomaine Industries in Federal Court to get the Federal Tax Credits which Bomaine had accumulated in the 1960's disallowed and credited instead to the account of the Boston & Maine Corporation, Debtor, the true accumulator (alas) of said losses. Ultimately the US District Court rendered its decision in the B&M's favor, reducing its deferred federal tax obligations by $ millions.
Circa 1976 Buck Dumaine sold his B&M 1st Mortgage Bonds on the open market-at a respectable profit. (Just because he despised Pat McGinnis didn't mean he wasn't willing to let from his example). Buck had helped the old B&M immensely, but ultimately was denied his dream of melding the B&M, Maine Central and Bangor & Aroostock railroads into one operating system largely thanks to the intransigence of his longtime rival E Spencer Miller. In the late 1970's Spencer Miller sold the Maine Central to US Filter Corp, who resold it in 1981 to Tim Mellon, of the Pittsburgh banking family, as part of his abuilding "Guilford Transportation Industries". With black ink on its ledger and serious financial discussions about the B&M's future beyond release from the Bankruptcy court, Tim Mellon and Dave Fink came knocking on the B&M's door.
On June 30, 1983 at midnight the Boston & Maine Corporation came to its end. Tim Mellon's Guilford Transportation Industries purchased the B&M for $26.25 million dollars, the sum necessary to purchase all of the B&M's common stock, satisfy the Bankruptcy Trustee and settle its outstanding debts. The longest income-based reorganization of an American Railroad in the post-Great Depression years was complete.
Although Guilford did not turn in the B&M's corporate charter, its spirit is crushed; destroyed by Guilford's "Springfield Terminal" machinations. Alan Dustin and his talented executive team gradually decamped and dispersed their talents and expertise worldwide. Indeed, former B&M executives have be involved in such diverse projects as running the New Jersey Transit rail operations, various commuter rail operation nation wide, consulting for the Alaska Railroad, and the British/French "Chunnel" project. Guilford's loss has been to the gain of much of North American railroading, as for one final time the 19th Century Moniker, "New England, Mother of the Nation', Railroads" has proven true.
Still, the B&M lives on. It remains in the hardware, memories, photographs, and the impact its 150 years of existence has had on Northern New England and the people, industry and investments therein.
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