B & M Motive Power from Boston Nov 16, 1952

Sometimes filled in railroad forms from the past yield lots of information and are great to find. On Sunday, November 16, 1952, the B & M sent this motive power out of Boston (I don't have what came into Boston, but many of these units came in and then went out.)

Passenger power:

Eastern Route/Gloucester Branch - GP-7 territory; 1555, 1562, 1565, 1566 & PT 1081 handled the trains that day also 3819 on midnight train 269 to Portsmouth. 3 GP-7s made more than one trip.

Western Route: Portland Trains: 3814, 3800, MEC706-3808 paired, 3801, 710-3807 paired, 3820-3810 paired on the Gull. Dover: 3810 (paper train), 3802 local,
Haverhill service: RDC 6100 (Mon-Sat running to Troy) made 6 Boston-Haverhill round-trips, 1537, 1545 and 1571 handled the few conventional trains running along with Pacific 3648

New Hampshire Route: Concord trains: 3803 on paper train, CPR 1802 on Aloutte #5, 3806 (Ambassador), 1560, 1563 and 4226 on Red Wing
Lowell service: 1555, 1563, 1571, Pacifics 3659 and 3684 and #6000 (nee the Flying Yankee now the Minuteman) made two early-mid afternoon round-trips, Boston-Lowell. Coming in from Troy as #52, the 6000 headed over behind BET from Tower H and backed in to North Station so no turn was required to set the unit up for first trip to Lowell and I have a hunch the return from Lowell on that first trip was also wyed and backed into NS for its next trip.

Fitchburg Route/Cheshire Branch: MEC 707 on paper train #65, Troy Trains MEC 711, 3821, 3811-705 paired
Fitchburg local train #5003 3811, Cheshire Branch 1542 (Green Mtn Flyer), 3818 (Cheshire), MEC 708-709 paired (Mt Royal-milk empties)

Steamer #1496 handled a "milk extra" maybe to West Lynn?

Freight power: Sunday was pretty normal for incoming freight, but light for outgoing and locals.

#1265 ran to Salem
Portland-Western B-11 had 4209 and BP-5 had 4203
New Hampshire Route: BU-3 had 4223-4256(?), BU-1 4202, 351s Extra 4204
Fitchburg: BR-3 4216-4262, BM-11 4218-4265A, BM-3 4210-4222, BR-1 4251-4201

BW-1 did it run via Waltham or Lowell at this date? 4214

And thanks for that. Amazing what ran in those days compared to now.

Agreed. Thanks for sharing!

It's interesting to see that the GP7s, which most of us think of as freight power, were being used exclusively in passenger service on that day, while the freight trains had no Geeps at all.

According to a friend of mine, we are pretty sure BW-1 ran via Lowell at this
time.

D

It's interesting to see that the GP7s, which most of us think of as freight power, were being used exclusively in passenger service on that day...

It's probably becoming a faded memory that B&M's GP-7's were specifically equipped (with train lighting equipment) to work in commuter service.

I believe only some of the B&M's GP7's had the bulge at the end of the long hood for train lighting equipment, and I think Athearn has picked correct numbers for the models in the as-built livery it announced in its Genesis series with delivery estimated for next February.

That's true. 1557, 1559, and 1560 never did have the train lighting electrical cabinet.
However, all the GP7s did have steam generators for passenger service.

Two more indicators of how the GP-7s were initially used: the 1952 order (1563 - 1571) wasn't delivered with MU, and most photos of GP-7s with MU from before about 1958 don't show hoses installed on the pipe stubs above the pilot.

One other consideration would be which units had cab signals for the Fitchburg. I don't know if all of the geeps or Alcoa had them. Does anyone have a list? Didn't just some Budds, but not all have cab signals?

Only some Budds had cab signals. 6100, 6101, 6104, 6105, 6146, 6147, 6148, 6153, 6155, 6156, 6212, 6213, 6214. I think 6154 had them when delivered but it lost them after an accident. (6212 also had the galley in baggage section and bracket below windows to attach food trays - used as a business car).

How about the Geeps and RS2&3 on the cab signals?

B&M RS-3s and RS-2s had some of the cab signal equipment visible on the running board. Per Scott Whitney ( http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmr ... e.html#RS2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) they all had cab signals. Only the last group of GP-7s, 1572-77, had cab signals.

This was a neat snapshot of power assignments. The FTs had 5 more years, and steam had 4. Note the FT and single F2A consists.

I know that the MEC E7s freely pooled throughout the B&M, and also noted the PT Geep in commuter service. Did freight power pool between B&M, and MEC?

No pooling of MEC-B & M freight diesels.

PT GP-7 1081 was purchased primarily to run on the B&M. The idea was to 'equalize mileage' vs. B&M locos used over PT track, presumably mostly between Portland Union Station and PT Tower 1 on passenger trains. In 1956 (probably because E. Spencer Miller had finished dismantling the joint management agreement), it became MEC 581 and received MU.