severed feeder lines

I know it's a new era with new management etc. That said, how many former B&M/MC lines that were/are short lines/other RR's have been severed by Springfield Terminal/Guilford/Pan Am out of competive paranoia or other reasons when they may have added revenue service to "B&M"/"MC"? And how may of these potential feeder lines that are not abandoned could be reconnected with the advent of more enlightened management at Pan Am?

the Westover Industrial track would have been a good one to still have. They abandoned it instead of letting the Pioneer Valley operate it about 10 years ago. There are no less than a dozen active businesses left along the line, probably more.

Three I'm aware of are: The Conway Branch, where GTI retained a half-mile or so just beyond the end of the NHNC in Ossippee, presumably to prevent the NHNC from extending toward the Conway Scenic. The Northern, where GTI kept pieces at both ends while the middle was torn up, and then fought tooth and nail to prevent one of VTR's subsidiaries from serving a customer in West Lebanon, NH using it. There are a couple of former rail customers just beyond the end of the Newburyport commuter rail platforms; both fought for service in the 1980s but gave up when the Beverly bridge burned; the tracks have been replaced by a paved trail. There may be others in Gloucester.

newpylong wrote:the Westover Industrial track would have been a good one to still have. They abandoned it instead of letting the Pioneer Valley operate it about 10 years ago. There are no less than a dozen active businesses left along the line, probably more.

And as of Tuesday there is nothing left. They finally removed all the ties, rails, everything. Its truly saddening.

Does the Armory Branch on the MA side of the border count as a cut-and-run? Service ended 1986 north of South Windsor, restored to state line under CNZR circa 2000 give or take. CDOT purchased the line in '95 and it had to still have been carrying an extant operating charter or else they never would've been able to pull it back in service that easily. Doesn't look like MA EOT zoomed in and locked it under landbanking (per the state rail map), so whether they own the property or not it doesn't look like the operating charter's still alive. Did Guilford hold onto that track for a decade and then dump the Springfield side overboard to local ownership when CDOT started angling to restart it with a new carrier?

jbvb wrote:Three I'm aware of are: The Conway Branch, where GTI retained a half-mile or so just beyond the end of the NHNC in Ossippee, presumably to prevent the NHNC from extending toward the Conway Scenic.

To my knowledge Pan Am sold that portion to the state 10+ years ago. There is also one section near Madison Station that I believe is privately owned which is now utilized by the Silver Lake Railroad.

When the Pioneer Valley RR took over the former B&M Easthampton Branch, Guilford pulled the switch at Mt. Tom Junction, eliminating the opportunity to interchange there. PVRR was already interchanging with Big G at Holyoke, but I believe the move was to sever the possibility of a new coal routing into Mt. Tom.

I lived in Springfield in the mid 1990s, while attending Western New England College. The Armory Branch cut through the city just a mile of so west of campus. I remember the crews scrapping the line.

While in school, I was studying logistics. We had a few really good field trips to local companies. One was to Milton Bradley, in E. Longmeadow. The traffic manager said that they used to have rail service, but it was poor, so they switched to intermodal via CR West Springfield.

The date of '86, which one of the last posters said the line was last used makes sense. It was likely due to the strikes. There weren't enough managers or scabs, so they concentrated on the main lines. This dried up many of the branches.

The Brunswick to Rockland portion of the Maine Central is owned by the State and leased to the Maine Eastern, however Pan Am still has rights to use the State owned Lewiston Lower branch. I believe that PAR owns a small portion of the branch still in order to protect its rights to us the branch.