Official New England Southern Thread (NEGS)

[Ridgefielder]

Hmmm.... interesting. The name didn't even spark any confusion for me until it was mentioned. But come to think of it, it's on par with the geographically out-of-place New Hampshire Central Railroad running in the far northern reaches of the state. Perhaps they (NEGS) wanted their hands on the now-MassCentral trackage out of Palmer? That's the only one I can think of, off the top of my head. Pioneer Valley was already established by that time (early 80s), outside of that, no other lines in the western Mass area that were "up for grabs".

Wonder who they're in talks with for buying out the railroad, as the article states? Doubt Pan-Am would want to run any further north than Concord. Then again, who'd thought they'd reclaim their Manchester-Concord customers.

I wouldn't exactly put Palmer, Mass. in southern New England. To me that means CT and RI. The phone company in Connecticut used to be Southern New England Telephone, for instance.

Was there anything in RI in the early '80s, maybe? What about the Narragansett Pier RR?

[shadyjay]

Southern New England is considered to be CT, RI, and MA, while Northern New England represents VT, NH, and ME.

[GP40MC1118]

Don't forget NEGS was, at one time, the operator the Quincy Bay Terminal (aka Fore River RR) in Massachusetts.

D

[b&m 1566]

I would love to know more about the western MA operations that fell through. I always wondered why the name of New England Southern was chosen for an operation in New Hampshire and now I know.

I vaguely remember New England Southern operating in Chicopee MA in the 1980's, on the three mile "Chicopee Falls Branch" between the Conn River line and the former Uniroyal plant in Chicopee. I'd be interested to know more about that short lived operation.

Yesterday, I saw an old newspaper article that was written about NEGS taking over rail operations for customers north of Concord, NH. The article mention that NEGS was based out of Belchertown, MA.

[Safetee]

the owner of negs used to live in belchertown. negs was born out of the result of a schism at mass central about who was going to do what and to whom and ended up explosively over the holyoke easthampton cluster. law suits and other issues led to the line going to pinsly and negs went to concord but had some hopes and a loco for a few minutes in chicopee.

[Dick H]

I attended the Anniversary event at Canterbury on 10/15.
Anniversary cake. 4 speeders for rides, but room for riders
was quite limited. Some speeder trips ran all the way to
"Northfield Station". Loco #2555 was open for in cab viewing.
My guess on the crowd around 1PM would be around 60.
Thanks to the NEGS and Dearness family for hosting the event..

[MinutemanMaroon]

I would love to know more about the western MA operations that fell through. I always wondered why the name of New England Southern was chosen for an operation in New Hampshire and now I know.

An excerpt from my recent book on the subject, The New England Southern Railroad, Volume 1:

"In the early 1980s Congress mandated the Federal Railroad Administration to seek new operators for several Conrail "light density" freight lines in Conn. and Mass. Among these were two branches in Western Mass., the Holyoke & Westfield and Easthampton branch lines - what is now the Pioneer Valley Railroad. Initially, only the New England Southern and Massachusetts Central submitted competing bids, and New England Southern was awarded the bid based on its negotiated purchase price with Conrail, as well as other financial and operational considerations. However a dispute occurred between the two bidders, and the award was challenged by the Mass Central. As a result the FRA re-awarded the bid to the Pinsly group, which had submitted a later bid, and one that FRA deemed "a more sound financial package". Regardless of this loss, NES' name was never changed, even though the New England Southern would make its mark in south-central New Hampshire - and not southern New England!"

Peter also operated the Chicopee Falls line using ex-GMRC Alco S4 #303, doing about 900 carloads of plywood a year to a Georgia Pacific reload facility. Despite their New Hampshire based operations, NEGS has participated in various maintenance-of-way and operational endeavors in VT, MA, ME and of course, NH, which are all outlined in the book.
Volume 1 (1981-1995) can be found here, and I'm happy to say work on Volume 2 (1995-2017) is coming along nicely.
http://www.blurb.com/b/8141358-the-new- ... d-volume-1

I attended the Anniversary event at Canterbury on 10/15.
Anniversary cake. 4 speeders for rides, but room for riders
was quite limited. Some speeder trips ran all the way to
"Northfield Station". Loco #2555 was open for in cab viewing.
My guess on the crowd around 1PM would be around 60.
Thanks to the NEGS and Dearness family for hosting the event..

Thanks very much for coming out to the book signing and anniversary event! We had a great turnout and interest was fantastic! Pete was a very happy camper.

[BowdoinStation]

New England Southern concluded their 2017 delivery season taking a pair of clay slurry cars to the 3M plant in Tilton from Concord. They could make one more half run from Canterbury to Tilton to switch out the tank cars at 3M at the end of the year. They brought two open hoppers down from Canterbury to Concord on their final run south, along with the empty tank cars. One hopper was placed at the north end of the Merrimack River Bridge in Concord (Visible from 93), and the second will be placed on the south end of the West Street Crossing in Canterbury on the south side of NEGS's World Headquarters. A sure sign of Winter in NH

[b&m 1566]

So, slurry cars will be left at M3 or NEGS all winter? Is there a fee involved that must be paid to the owner of the rail cars, when there's an extended stay involved?

[craven]

My guess is to block snowmobiles over that line.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

The line is open to snowmobilers anyway during the NEGS/Hobo offseasons. There's posted roles about not tearing the crap out of the railbed that snowmobiles have to follow, but NHDOT has given them explicit seasonal permission to use the line for that purpose for decades now.

[NHV 669]

Enroute to a concert in Worcester last night, I noticed a stack of new ties just north of I-93 exit 16 thru the woods.

[BowdoinStation]

Those ties have been there for a while. It's not quite a "Railfan's Springtime" just yet, as the open hopper still sits, and guards the north end of the Merrimack River Bridge.. Soon though...

[backroadrails]

I have been wondering this for a while now, but why do they place the car there?

[Dick H]

The car is parked there in the winter to keep the snowmobiles off the bridge
and the line in general in that area...