Guilford Business Train to the cape

Does anyone remember the year that Messrs. Mellon and Fink took the Businees train down to Hyannis? Guilford and Amtrak were fighting about the Downeaster at the time and Amtrak "delayed" the special train deliberatly at Attleboro as a casual "protest".

I remember visiting the Hyannis yard with the gleaming trainset surrounded by Guilford train protectors (read guards) I took some pictures or video and have been looking for them now,....but no luck yet/

I remember John Pimental of Bay Colony RR being in charge of the layover at the yard. He was running around to make sure everything was secure and OK. I know the 500 series engines (515 and 516 ?) were fairly new to Guilford at the time.

Anyone else remember this occasion?

Paul

I think it was 1997

paulrail wrote:Does anyone remember the year that Messrs. Mellon and Fink took the Businees train down to Hyannis? Guilford and Amtrak were fighting about the Downeaster at the time and Amtrak "delayed" the special train deliberatly at Attleboro as a casual "protest".

I remember visiting the Hyannis yard with the gleaming trainset surrounded by Guilford train protectors (read guards) I took some pictures or video and have been looking for them now,....but no luck yet/

I remember John Pimental of Bay Colony RR being in charge of the layover at the yard. He was running around to make sure everything was secure and OK. I know the 500 series engines (515 and 516 ?) were fairly new to Guilford at the time.

Anyone else remember this occasion?

Paul

Oh yeah, I remember it. It went right through all the construction going on for the Old Colony. When it was first proposed we all laughed, "You want to do waht? Bring a train through a half completed construction zone to the Cape? No way this will happen."

Well, never underestimate the power of friends in high places. The word came down: "Get this train through!" And of course they wanted to come through at 10:00 AM. Right in the middle of the construction day. We had to shut down all the contractors and get them out of the way. Also, put a patrol truck on ahead of them to make sure the contractors didn't sneak back to work. Had to run around to all the grade crossings and hand flag them as most of the gates were not in service yet. Had to spike all the switches because the machines weren't connected yet. Let me tell you it was one busy day. The rumor was that it was run to bring an elder member of the Mellon family from the Cape to Boston for a birthday luncheon, but I could not confirm that.

I did receive a nice letter from Guilford thanking me for all my efforts, though.

DAW