Milk trains

West Lynn Creamery's old location was near the abandoned West Lynn station platform, at the junction of the Saugus Branch. They definitely got milk by rail into the late 1950s, and the building was still standing in 2003 when I last regularly rode the Eastern Route.
The McGinnis 50' steel milk cars bought in 1957 were originally more-or-less Engine Black, with the interlaced BM logo.
You can find out a lot more about New England milk trains by searching the web, particularly http://users.rcn.com/jimdu4/MilkTrains/ ... rences.htm, Jim Dufour's site. There's also a lot in the (open) archives of [email protected].

Milk trains were a substantial part of the Cheshire Branch's business, and that was because they were a substantial part of the Rutland Railroad's business. The Rutland used to haul milk all the way from far upstate New York down through its Lake Champlain main to Bellows Falls, where it connected with the B&M. With the abandonment of passenger service on the Cheshire in 1958 and the subsequent death of the Rutland in 1963, the Cheshire was reduced to a lesser branch of the B&M, and eventually met its own sad fate by the early '80s.

I remember the West Lynn Creamery; if I'm not mistaken it was the dairy that supplied milk to the college I attended on the North Shore back in the late '60s-early '70s. I think the company was still around into the 1990s, though someone from that area would have to confirm that.

H.P. Hood & Sons had plants here and there all over New England. There was one in Newport, Maine, that sat aside the MEC main and closed in the '80s. The buildings are still there. And doesn't the company still make Hoodsie Cups?

OK, here's a milk train question for the really old-timers out there -- or at least for people who are better researchers than me.

I model the St J & LC RR and therefore running a milk train is a must. I know that the B&M delivered empty milk cars to the CP at Wells River in the wee hours of the morning each day; the CP would then deliver several empties to the StJ & LC at St Johnsbury. SJL then sent tehe westbound as part of passenger train 51, setting out the empties at the creameries along the way.

My question: Train 51 only went as far as Cambridge Junction. How did the empties destined for Fairfield and Sheldon Junction get there? Did an extra come down from Swanton to pick them up at CJ, or were they relayed west by a later train out of St J?

Honestly, I'm not losing sleep over this, but I would like to know...

Ron

Garelick bought out West Lynn around 2000.