Patrick McGinnis turns up again

Look what turned up recently.

First major continuous welded rail
program of any Eastern railroad
New Haven Railroad
July 21, 1955

Presented to
T.P. Polson Chief Engineer
by
P.B. McGinnis President
New Haven Railroad Aug, 1955.

The New Haven had a special press event on that date in June 1955 at Branford, Connecticut to commemorate the construction of the first segment of continuously welded rail on the railroad. A special train composed of the old boat race observation train cars was assembled to take VIPs out to see the track gang laying the welded rail. Gold-painted railroad spikes, with a special card featuring the NH logo and Pat McGinnis' signature, were handed out as souvenirs at this event. I believe that Poulson was the engineering manager in charge of this welded rail operation, and that's why he got the specially mounted spike maul and spike. The railroad had planned to lay welded rail from Boston to New York and make other changes to roadbed, alignment, and signals to accomodate the anticipated high speed passenger train service (Talgos, etc.) but financial difficulties prevented this from happening.

So McGinnis did two good things, a flashy paint scheme that has made the New Haven image iconic, and CWR. It's a shame he screwed up the rest of the railroad .
C.J.V.