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Springfield Terminal

Transportation Company - Springfield Terminal - Railroad
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Company NameSpringfield Terminal
CategoryRailroad
Year Founded1923
Final Year of Operation1998
TerminationAcquired
Successor/ParentPan Am Railways (Details)
CountryUnited States (Details)
Source of TextBluford Shops
Text Credit URLLink
Transportation Company - Springfield Terminal - Railroad



Company History: The ST began in 1923 from the reorganization of the Springfield Electric Railway, a sleepy interurban line from Charlestown, New Hampshire across the Connecticut River to Springfield, Vermont, a total distance of just 5 and a half miles. The line had been under control of their only connection, Boston & Maine for most of its existence. Passenger service ended in 1947 but freight service soldiered on under the trolley wire until 1956 when the line was dieselized with a single used GE 44-tonner.

In the 1980’s, everything changed for the tiny ST. The United Transportation Union had made a deal with the ST to be the sole representative of ST employees in exchange for more flexible work rules. This saved the original 5 mile line from certain abandonment. Then a few other lines operated by Maine Central and Boston & Maine that were slated for abandonment were instead transferred to the ST whose flexible work rules saved service to these routes as well. Trains were run with a single GP7 and a small fleet of Trackmobiles.

By this period, Springfield Terminal, Maine Central, Boston & Maine, and Delaware & Hudson were owned by Timothy Mellon’s Guilford Transportation. Mellon came from money (his family founded the Mellon Bank and was instrumental in putting together Alcoa and Gulf Oil) and seemed to operate under the belief that anything worth doing was worth over-doing. In 1985, the struggling Maine Central laid off 30 shop workers with no severance package. There was a strike and MEC and Guilford management were pressed into train service. Accidents soared and the strike spread to other lines (legal under the Railway Labor Act.) Congress stopped the strike and forced MEC to give in to labor demands. Mellon was furious and retaliated by leasing the Maine Central and Boston & Maine to the tiny Springfield Terminal. This put everyone under ST’s flexible work rules. Guilford management bragged that it now took just 8 crew members to get a freight train from Portland, Maine to Buffalo, New York, a job that used to take 38 crew members! A court injunction stopped Guilford’s lease of the D&H so Guilford dropped the D&H into bankruptcy instead. They assumed they could get it back when the bankruptcy was resolved but Delaware Otsego (an area shortline group) and Canadian Pacific bid against Guilford and CPR won, stripping the D&H from Guilford. The Springfield Terminal continued to run the MEC and B&M.

Mellon’s harsh treatment of the local unions is a bit ironic even though he’s the grandson of some of the original robber barons. During his years at Yale, Timothy Mellon was a flag burning leftist who famously gave money to the North Vietnamese! His second business was half ownership of a tie treatment plant where he could be found in a T-Shirt and jeans dragging pallets of lumber around and loading trucks. He even drove an old VW Beetle to work. By the late 80’s, he was one of the most hated men in New England.

In 1998, Guilford bought the Pan Am name and Pan Am Railways subsequently became the official trade name for the railroad. The Springfield Terminal became a paper railroad in most respects although it is officially still the lessor of the Maine Central and Boston & Maine.
Successor/Parent History:
The Pan Am Railways mission is to be the leading freight transportation company in our region. We will meet this expectation by combining the economies of rail transportation with the highest levels of safety and service in order to provide value to our customers and the communities through which they pass.

Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR), formerly known as Guilford Rail System (GRS) before March 2006, is an American holding company that owns and operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. The primary subsidiaries of Pan Am Railways are Boston and Maine Corporation (reporting mark BM), Maine Central Railroad Company (reporting mark MEC), Portland Terminal Company (reporting mark PTM), and Springfield Terminal Railway Company (reporting mark ST); BM and MEC are operated under lease by ST.

Pan Am Railways is headquartered in Iron Horse Park in North Billerica, Massachusetts. It is a subsidiary of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI). Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways in 1998.

From Company Website and Wikipedia
Brief History:
The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.

Item Links: We found: 1 different collections associated with Springfield Terminal - Railroad
Item created by: gdm on 2017-10-10 09:58:38. Last edited by gdm on 2022-01-15 10:12:23

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