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  • CSX Acquisition of Pan Am Railways

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1604154  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Yes, Mr. Markhb, it would seem as if Timmy thought of himself as Charles Foster Kane :-D :-D :-D

Of course, we ignore that in reality he was just a rich kid who "took out his tantrums" by playing with his 1:1 Lionel trainset.
 #1604186  by lordsigma12345
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:26 am (I've now learned that PAS is strictly the 114 mile "Route of the Flying Yankee" Ayer-Mechanicsville and any N-S lines showing on their map are trackage rights).
Mr. Norman the north south CT River line (NECR at East Northfield to CSX at Springfield) is also considered part of PAS as they have freight easement rights over this MassDOT owned track not just trackage and ST also still dispatches, operates, and maintains it on behalf of PAS. They retained the easement as a condition of their sale of the track to the state. They also own outright the Waterbury branch in Connecticut.
 #1604192  by JCitron
 
Well guys, this has been an interesting read and I mean all 269 pages of it! The saga played out like one of those intriguing novels with suspense right up until the final chapter! :grinning:

Just because, I checked out the conductor jobs for CSX and of course I saw the ones offered for the former PAR. The first thing that caught my eye was the pay. The pay for PAR is only up to 47K per year after all is said and done whereas on CSX it's 67K per annum.

That's quite a difference because the pay for working for PAR is what it was 14 years ago when I was looking to work for CSX. Now, I was wondering if this is because CSX is still honoring the old contract until everything is integrated into CSX or is there always going to be that big disparity in pay? Seeing that, makes think no wonder no one wants the job given the costs of everything these days.

Reading through the posts, yikes there were a lot of them, I noticed Lawrence came up quite often as it may play a bigger role than what it does today. Another new guy, whose username begins with Eli-something, asked about upgrading the yard. If any of you haven't seen it recently, it's pretty bad. I mean the rails are buried completely in the ground. The yard was never this bad in the past, but it was bad and got worse over the years. Like much of Guilford and later PAR, there were and probably still are plenty of standing derailments as the car weight squishes into the ground and rolls the track.

The video on the Worcester main was interesting. Those reeds next to the track aren't a good sign because they live in wetlands. Looking at the video closely, and we can see standing water between the rails at that location. When CSX upgrades those tracks, they'll really have to raise up the roadbed and put down a substantial amount of ballast, otherwise, that line is only a smidge above the old Watertown branch in this regard out to Wonder Bread.

Anyway, it's been quite some time since I last logged in here. Many years ago, I used to live about 4 miles from Lawrence over in Andover and used to ride my bike down to the yard to watch the switching. I got to know the crew there, who used to drive the old SW9 that lived there, as well as the old railroad police.

They were a great crew and one day they brought me around for a cook's tour of the yard. This was way before the strike. During this time, I was even offered a job and told to apply at Billerica. For some reason, I didn't do that, and life went on. Today, I'm too old and disabled to apply for the job, but it was fun looking at the job pages anyway.
 #1604200  by newpylong
 
Yes sir, ST contracts must be used until new ones are ratified. The pay is one reason many have jumped ship from PAR to the MBTA or Amtrak after becoming an engineer. That and of course quality of life and not working for a Mickey Mouse outfit.

I do wonder where they came up with that pay number, I made 50 to 60K there in my first few years in the mid 2000s and felt I did not work any more or less than anyone else.
 #1604217  by MEC407
 
$47K is not even a livable wage in the Greater Portland area, with small one-bedroom apartments in undesirable neighborhoods now costing over $2000 a month.

I guess it would be an ok wage if you're still living with your parents or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, to put $47K in perspective, you could make the same amount of money as a rookie at the Five Guys in South Portland. Their starting pay is $20/hour plus tips.
 #1604250  by JCitron
 
Yes sir, ST contracts must be used until new ones are ratified. The pay is one reason many have jumped ship from PAR to the MBTA or Amtrak after becoming an engineer. That and of course quality of life and not working for a Mickey Mouse outfit.

I do wonder where they came up with that pay number, I made 50 to 60K there in my first few years in the mid 2000s and felt I did not work any more or less than anyone else.
That makes sense. I can well imagine what it's like working for a place that appears to be barely surviving and getting paltry pay. I worked for a place like that which eventually went out of business. The employees took a pay cut while management got a raise. As the IT department, meaning I was the IT department, I lived on edge waiting for a critical piece of equipment to fail and not having any funds to pay for it. It did happen and I got blamed for the failure, which I pointedly stood up and fought back and left.

I have no idea why they came up with at either. It could be someone at the top rolled some dice and thought that was good enough to start at. $50 to 60K is more reasonable given the dangerous conditions of the job.
$47K is not even a livable wage in the Greater Portland area, with small one-bedroom apartments in undesirable neighborhoods now costing over $2000 a month.

I guess it would be an ok wage if you're still living with your parents or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, to put $47K in perspective, you could make the same amount of money as a rookie at the Five Guys in South Portland. Their starting pay is $20/hour plus tips.
I agree. That's good for a kid living at home but not for someone trying to make a living, but then again this is a lot harder work too!
 #1604268  by JCitron
 
There's more I want to say here and more on topic. I got a phone call in the middle and then forgot the rest of what I wanted to say...

CSX's purchase reminds me of some of those we see on the Home and Garden TV house flipping shows. CSX inspected the property and found the copper pipes ripped out along with the wiring. and what's left is a shell that needs a total rebuild from scratch because the ants and termites had eaten the beams and joists, and the roof was compromised by hail and rot. They saw the potential for something good in this old house, but it'll take a lot of work and resources to bring it back up to where it should be.

Guilford's operations, while they claim were always profitable came at a cost to the infrastructure and employees. If we look at what they did the moment Mellon and Fink took over, we cringe inside as they destroyed two working systems immediately and then ruined and threw another away in the trash.

Thinking about it now, I wonder how much of the railroad was a real estate property venture and the actual railroad was a tax write off to offset the profits. Mellon et al claimed the railroad was profitable, but how much. After writing off scrap and employee costs maybe but in reality, why was the system sold? I'm thinking Mellon got what he could out of it and spat the corpse off to the side much like how all the hedge funds and big financiers do to other companies.

The only reason Guilford and later PAR still ran trains is because they had too not because they wanted too. Now with a real railroad company operating the property, let's hope we see the return in business in due time once the infrastructure is rebuilt.
 #1604269  by newpylong
 
You hit the nail on the head on your last paragraph.

However, things weren't bad off the bat at all under GTI. The B&M was just coming off the massive 4R mainline reconstruction project and had a 40 mph East to West Freight Main. Besides new paint and symbols, the combined MEC and B&M were fairly harmonious until the lease (and subsequent strikes) to the ST was initiated. The workers at the time were hopeful that the cash infusion and combined system would be able to compete with Conrail in the Northeast and return both railroads to the forefront. Guilford used the dwindling carloads of its staple industries at the time as an opportunity to implement those draconian labor practices. The end result was the bottom fell out never to return. If industry was leaving New England, Guilford gave them a kick in the ass to get them out the door.
 #1604274  by bostontrainguy
 
CSX has finally changed its System Map to include the PAR. Interestingly enough the line from Mattawamkeag to Saint John is not included even though it was in the STB application:

Application map:
Image

New System Map:
Image
 #1604279  by johnpbarlow
 
a.) I didn’t know CSX has an “operating agreement” over CP/D&H to Montreal given it owns the Montreal secondary via Watertown. NS does have a haulage agreement over this CP track.
b.) It’s interesting that CSX uses that same vague “operating agreement” label to refer to its 50% ownership in PAS as opposed to a partnership.
 #1604280  by newpylong
 
I think it's sufficient information to inform a customer of their routing options and not clutter the map with 10 different line types.
 #1604286  by NHV 669
 
bostontrainguy wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:33 am Interestingly enough the line from Mattawamkeag to Saint John is not included even though it was in the STB application.
Probably because it isn't their track, nor part of their system.
 #1604297  by johnpbarlow
 
Is it possible that CSX and CP are going to execute an operating agreement between Montreal and Mechanicville/PAS D3 as a condition for CP’s acceptance of the CSX / G&W role in PAS ownership etc?
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