speed limits

Anyone know what the speed limits on the B&M/Main Central main lines were say, in the 70's compared to what they are now on GRS?

Guilford has a main line? I thought the whole railroad was one long industrial siding.

NRGeep wrote:Anyone know what the speed limits on the B&M/Main Central main lines were say, in the 70's compared to what they are now on GRS?

The April 29, 1973 Boston & Maine timetable shows most lines limited to
40 MPH for both passenger and freight outside of Boston commuter
territory. A few commuter lines has a passenger speed of 50 MPH. The
branch lines were generally 25, 20 or 10 MPH.
Maine Central may have been a little higher on their main lines as they
were not in bankrupty for a period of time and did not suffer under the
likes of McGinnis.
Even the Conn. River with Amtrak on it had a top speed of 40 MPH.
Noel Weaver

As Noel has written, the pre-Guilford B&M was pretty much a 40 mph railroad outside of passenger territory, but thanks to a lot of trackwork during the administration of President Alan Dustin, it was a *good* 40 mph railroad without a lot of slow orders. In particular, the mainline between Ayer and Mechanicville got a major upgrade in 1979 with ballast cleaning and drainage improvements, new welded rail, and signal improvements.

To go back six year from Noel's '73 timetable, the April 1967 timetable shows maximum authorized speeds of 70 MPH between:

Boston & Portland
Boston & Ayer
Boston & White River Jct.

and 60 MPH between:

Boston & Portsmouth

As a kid, I remember them screaming thru Wyoming Ave. (Melrose) when I hung out at the gatetenders shanty. And if I remember correctly, one train was scheduled in the public timetable to do Boston to Lawrence in 28 minutes.

Rockingham Racer wrote:To go back six year from Noel's '73 timetable, the April 1967 timetable shows maximum authorized speeds of 70 MPH between:

Boston & Portland
Boston & Ayer
Boston & White River Jct.

and 60 MPH between:

Boston & Portsmouth

As a kid, I remember them screaming thru Wyoming Ave. (Melrose) when I hung out at the gatetenders shanty. And if I remember correctly, one train was scheduled in the public timetable to do Boston to Lawrence in 28 minutes.

I have a copy of Timetable No. 15, Dated April 30, 1967 and I do not
think your timetable and mine are the same. On the Portland side,
Western Route Main Line, the speed between Boston and Dover for
passenger trains was 70 MPH but between Dover and PT Tower 1 it was
only 50 MPH. Boston and Portsmouth it was 60 from Draw 7 East
Somerville to Beverly, 50 from there to Newburyport and finally only 30
from Newburyport to Portsmouth. Between Boston and White River
Junction the speed between Boston and Concord was 70 MPH and between
Concord and White River Junction it was 40 MPH.
By the time of the above timetable, the number of passenger trains
operating beyond the commuter zone was basically limited to one train a
day in each direction to Concord, Dover and Newburyport.
The last passenger trains to White River Junction, Portland, and
Portsmouth all came off in January, 1965 and the speeds in those areas
were reduced nearly immediately after the last passenger trains ran.
This was a tough period on the Boston and Maine as McGinnis and his
associates and successors were cutting everything and maintenance was
being cut absolutely to the bone.
Noel Weaver

Noel,

We've got the same timetable. All I was meaning to indicate was the max authorized speed given in the timetable. I didn't mean to imply that those speeds prevailed over most of the routes. And yes, the B&M did take a nosedive then, didn't it?

Despite the B&M being in a financial straight jacket it seems they managed to hold it together pretty well compared to the current "B&M" in name only which has the benefit of the multi billion dollar Mellon Corp to insulate them from ever going bankrupt.

NRGeep wrote:Despite the B&M being in a financial straight jacket it seems they managed to hold it together pretty well compared to the current "B&M" in name only which has the benefit of the multi billion dollar Mellon Corp to insulate them from ever going bankrupt.

For want of a better way to put it, comparing the Mellon regime to the
McGinnis regime is like comparing two barallels of "rotten apples".
In my personal opinion, the McGinnis bunch was worse but maybe the
book is still open on this one.
Noel Weaver