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  • Pan Am Railways Paint Scheme (boxcars, etc.)

  • 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

 #108143  by bwparker1
 
Via Kevin Burkholder & Yahoo GRS Group:

Guilford Rail System.to be or not to be? Interesting revelation in the
last week is that many of the recently sighted freshly-painted Guilford
boxcars are being re-repainted into a new Pan Am Railways scheme. I've
noted at least two, maybe three, variations of the scheme on the
boxcars which are emerging from the Waterville, Maine paint booth during the
past week. The boxcars wear a mixed coat of what almost looks like
Boston & Maine blue and Guilford grey. (A B&M PS 5344 boxcar sat adjacent
to these and matched perfectly - albeit with slightly faded paint). I
noted six cars today that had just the bottom halves painted in
Guilford grey, indicating to me that they are going in for the same Pan Am
Railways scheme as the cars depicted in my links below.

Now on an interesting side note, either Guilford is getting a jump on
April Fool's Day or there is something to this new name/scheme. There
is a fuel truck at Waterville now painted for Pan Am Railways, as well
as a pick-up truck with door logo depicting the Pan Am Railways and.with
drum roll playing.a worker relays A RUMOR that there is contemplation
on completing a GP40 that is being repainted into the Pan Am Railways
scheme! I can not verify this to be true, so it is merely just a rumor,
although with all of these logos turning up everywhere on everything at
Waterville, there may be some validity?

BTW, the variations of the boxcars include the ones with links below
and also cars with the logo on the left of the door and a large 12-14"
stylized PAN AM spelled out on the right in lieu of the Pan Am Railways
name. One such car emerging today (3/16) was MEC 31799. All of the
cars are carrying MEC reporting marks.

The links below take you to photos of two cars taken on 3/16/2005:


MEC 32132

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 001789.jpg


MEC 31881

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 511160.jpg

 #108252  by octr202
 
That is interesting. For the life of me, though, I can't figure out what benefit they get out of putting the Pan Am name on the railroad. I wouldn't think that a regional railroad like GRS is in that much need of branding...

Maybe they found a stash of unused blue paint up there and wanted to do something with it... :wink:

 #108450  by Ron Newman
 
Wouldn't be the first time that this company co-branded a railroad and an airline. Remember Boston & Maine Airways in the 1930s?

 #108455  by NRGeep
 
The original Boston & Maine Railroad/Airline was the real thing not just a small subsidiary of multi billion dollar Mellon Corp. Is "Pan Am" still even running any puddle jumpers anymore?

 #108549  by nhguy21
 
Yep, the puddle jumpers (Actually JetStream 31's) are still flying. I saw 2 yesterday at Pease along with a 727 (N348PA) take off. I have no idea what they are upto with painting all the box cars. They did the first one as a publicity stunt, but now that Pan Am doesn't really fly anywhere I am not sure what the motive is. Its Fink behind this, so know one will truly know.

NHGUY21
 #108739  by paulrail
 
I thought that Pan-Am Airways filed for bankruptcy and that all of the unionized pilots were told that if they wanted to continue flying, they would be hired by Mellon's non-union, Boston & Maine Airways.

Anyone know more about this?

Paul

 #108780  by nhguy21
 
Paul, the new Pan Am (Pan Am III) I don't believe has filed for chap 7 /11. The gave up their 171 certificate (Aircarrier status) in hopes of only flying with Boston & Maine Airways. This was done to get around the pilots union ALPA. The union went to court and B&M/Pan Am was ordered to return the pilots to Pan Am, but they can't fly anymore. Its a huge legal mess, that basically Fink created by trying to force the unions out. (Sounds a lot like what happend in the 80's at GRS)


NHGUY21

 #108968  by MEC407
 
They are now known as Pan Am Clipper Connection, Operated By Boston-Maine Airways. The "operated by" is the important part.

This is indeed quite similar to the arrangement under which Springfield Terminal Railway operates the Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads, under the more broad banner of Guilford Rail System.

For comparison:

Boston-Maine Airways = Springfield Terminal
Pan Am Clipper Connection = Guilford Rail System

As ST is the operator and GRS is the brand name, BMA is the operator and PACC is the brand name.
 #110314  by NellsChoo
 
OK, I am confused... I thought the B&M airline was declared illegal or something way back. Something to do with monopoly or something. I don't remember much about what I had read on the topic. Guilford has Pan Am, but it does have a different name. How can an airline end up on their own boxcars? What I am typing doesn't even make sence...

And since when did Pan Am become a "railway", as the boxcar markings say? Is the purpose of these new (used) boxcars different from regular Guilford ones? Why would Guilford bother to finally spend money, and why on this little project? And why do the boxcars still have MEC markings? WHY WHY WHY??

I think we all would like some official explaination. Maybe in a future issue of Guilford Express?

JD

 #110471  by b&m 1566
 
Ok... first off I wasn't around to see the Boston and Maine on its own but I never new that the Boston and Maine RR owned its own airline business, and neither did I know that Guilford was into the flying business too (it clearly shows that Guilford is getting there hands involved with real-estate though). So yeah I'm a little confused myself with this flying stuff.
Last edited by b&m 1566 on Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 #110477  by MEC407
 
b&m 1566 wrote:Ok... first off I wasn't around to see the Boston and Maine on its own but I never new that the Boston and Maine RR owned its own airline business, and neither did I know that Guilford was into the flying business too (it clearly shows that Guilford is getting there hands involved with real-estate though). So yeah I'm a little confused myself with this flying stuff.
Yes, the Boston & Maine and the Maine Central jointly owned an airline called Boston-Maine Airways. It was formed in 1931. BMA acquired Central Vermont Airways a few years later, which had been owned, of course, by Central Vermont Railway. At some point, the company was renamed Northeast Airlines (not sure exactly when). In 1972, Northeast was acquired by Delta.

Fast-forward a few decades. It's the 1990s and Pan Am is bankrupt and out of business. Guilford Transportation purchases the rights to the Pan Am name and trademark. And there you have it... a funny twist of fate, and the company that owns the MEC and B&M is once again running an airline. And just as they did with B&M's obscure Springfield Terminal subsidiary, they brought the old Boston-Maine Airways name back to life in order to take advantage of its more favorable (to management) labor rules.

 #110552  by efin98
 
According to the B&M in the 20th Century book, Pan Am was in on that deal with the B&M and MEC regarding the airline business. Amazing how history repeated itself 60 years later...
 #110590  by paulrail
 
Wow! ..... I bet Mellon and his cronies are having a good laugh at us railfans all in a tither and confused about the newly painted boxcars! I know they read the Nerail Forum and the other rail discussion forums pertaining to Guilford, B&M, etc.

Since we don't have any first-hand information from any Guilford employees, (and I'm sure the Company is NOT about to volunteer any information) we must guess or conjecture up what is really going on here.

Given Guilford's track record (ouch!....sorry;...no pun intended!) just about anything could happen. They have provided us with a few other surprises in the past and will probably continue to do so.

I guess I'd compare it to somewhat of a cat-and-mouse game!

Paul

 #110608  by johnpbarlow
 
Fast-forward a few decades. It's the 1990s and Pan Am is bankrupt and out of business. Guilford Transportation purchases the rights to the Pan Am name and trademark. And there you have it... a funny twist of fate, and the company that owns the MEC and B&M is once again running an airline. And just as they did with B&M's obscure Springfield Terminal subsidiary, they brought the old Boston-Maine Airways name back to life in order to take advantage of its more favorable (to management) labor rules.
And just like they do with with locomotives, GRS used older generation aircraft, 727s (don't these require a cockpit crew of 3?)

 #110818  by AmtrakFan
 
Does the PAN AM verison owned by Guilford still fly? With Mr. Fink I personally don't like him because of the Amtrak mess with the Downeastern.