Providence & Worcester

The June issue of Railpace has a nice piece on P&W in "The New England Report" section.
There is also a photo of a New England Southern Geep.

Even though I live out here in upstate NY, I've taken an interest in P&W since I discovered it in the early '90s. Got to give the shareholders credit for realizing that PC was a loser from the start. It's funny to think how well P&W has done with trackage that was previously owned by NH, who couldn't seem to make a profit from any of it. If P&W had been able to take over (and rationalize) all NH lines, maybe my beloved EL would have survived, too.

First question: when did P&W sell the M-420s?

Sell the Alco M-420's:

Gee that's a long time ago.

They only have GE C-40s & some EMD GP38s now.
(not too long ago they had some "U" boats)

Doesn't P&W still own U-18Bs or are they gone now? What about end-cab switchers?

I think all they have is a couple of GP-38s & GE 39s & 40s.

We cover most of the P&W topics in our New England Railfan Forum.

-otto-

P&W has B40's, GP38's GP40's as well a B23-7's. They sold there U23B's and U18B's at leased 3 U23B's made it to Utica, NY on NYS&W P*W 2211 was sold to the Finger Lakes Railway a few months ago the outher 2 are part of the BDLX Fleet last I saw or hear?

I purchased #2209 a few years ago from SLRR in Utica.

I have leased it out to NYS&W and it has been in service with them for the past 1.5 years.

It wears the reporting marks BDLX.

It's funny to think how well P&W has done with trackage that was previously owned by NH, who couldn't seem to make a profit from any of it.

For the record (for those who stumble onto this thread), the line was ALWAYS owned by the P&W. The NYNH&H had simply leased the line. When PC took over the NYNH&H, the P&W people successfully argued that their lease did not automatically carry over and returned to independant operation.

The P&W of today is the same corporation as the one that first opened the line in the 1840s.

The P & W Yahoo Group blog was taken off line by it's owner about a week ago.
There is a NEW P&W group starting up.

JBlaisdell wrote:

It's funny to think how well P&W has done with trackage that was previously owned by NH, who couldn't seem to make a profit from any of it.

For the record (for those who stumble onto this thread), the line was ALWAYS owned by the P&W. The NYNH&H had simply leased the line. When PC took over the NYNH&H, the P&W people successfully argued that their lease did not automatically carry over and returned to independant operation.

The P&W of today is the same corporation as the one that first opened the line in the 1840s.

IIRC, the real value of the P&W, and the driver motivating the P&W to achieve independance from the PC in the early 1970's, was the real estate owned by the railroad. And, that hasn't changed to this day --the value is in the land owned and developed by the land development arm of the corporation controlling the P&W. The P&W has never, to my knowledge, provided good financial returns and has relied upon lots of government aid including, most recently, $196 million ($145m. Federal/$51m. RI) for improvements. Makes you wonder what the New Haven would have been able to do with that kind of government support

I haven't read the financials in enough detail to know if what you say is correct (P&W owes it's profits to realestate). But they have a nice operation (equipment in good shape, provide good service to their customers).
They are about to do one of the railfan trips ... never been on one.

BTW, the new Yahoo group is chugging along.

That's true, they do attract strong railfan interest and provide good service for their customers. They certainly were a blessing for the railfan community when they established their own feisty, independant, and optimistic operation during the very dark days of early 1970's southern New England railroading.
Their 3-man, conductor/trainman/engineer-rotation crews were a big innovation at the time, as was the crew comfort cabs of their new MLW's. And, the icing on the cake came with their reactivation, completely unheard of at the time, of the (ex) B&M Worcester-Gardner branch.

Does anybody know what the heritage of the P&W passenger cars is?

Seen here at NERAIL Photo Archive
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20081 ... 023822.jpg
Photo Credit: Mr. Fred Guenther

Where these cars used on a named train somewhere else?

No one ever talks about my favorite P&W engine. Engine #150 which is GE 25Ton. They use it near the maintenance facility in Worcester. It is in shiny paint to.