Re: (erielack) Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern / Owego Wreck at The Hickories

[William Shultz <wshultz1_@_twcny.rr.com>]

Alan,

First off let's clear up the big confusion, you are talking about two
separate corporations here. The Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern being one
and the Pittsburg & Shawmut being the other. For a brief period they
were in fact one and the same but the default that sent the PS&N into
the longest railroad bankruptcy in history which culminated in the PS&N
abandonment also freed the P&S to go out on it's own in 1916. The P&S
was a product of the consolidation of lines that formed the PS&N, but
after the PS&N defaulted on it's bonds the P&S became independent. So
from Brockway, PA south is the P&S and everything north of that was the
PS&N. Now the P&S is owned by the B&P if memory serves me.

The P&S started using the "Shawmut Line" slogan in the late 1970's, so
that accounts for why you saw Shawmut Line cars in pictures and in
person in the 70's and 80's.

As for connections...the PS&N's main northern connection was the DL&W at
(generally) Wayland. Coal heading north was interchanged with the
Lackawanna there. The PS&N did interchange with the Erie at several
locations including Hornellsville and Friendship, New York as well as at
locations in Pennsylvania, the most significant being Brockway.

For more information on this intriguing little coal carrier with both
Lackawanna and Erie connections, I highly recommend Paul Pietrak's book
"Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern".

Regards,

Will Shultz

A Samostie wrote:
> 
> Dear Group,
> 
> I've been re-reading some EL history over the holidays.  I ran across a
> reference to the Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern in Sheldon King's "The
> Route of Phoebe Snow," p.113:
> 
> "The Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern Railroad made junction with the
> Lackawanna at Wayland Tank, one mile west of Wayland station.  The
> Shawmut, as it was known, brought coal from Pennsylvania to the DL&W.
> It quit April 1, 1947."
> 
> Now, this raised a couple of questions:
> 
> 1) Did the Shawmut also connect with the Erie at some point?
> 
> 2) If PS&N quit in 1947, why have I seen more modern rolling stock with
> the "Shawmut Line" slogan?  I think I've even seen a bicentennial unit
> lettered for Shawmut.
> 
> 3) I remember a wreck on the EL (Erie) at Owego adjacent to The
> Hickories park and the Hiawatha Bridge overpass over NY 17C.  It may
> have been any time from the mid-1970s to early 1980s.  It wasn't a huge
> wreck, but I clearly remember a boxcar lettered "Shawmut Line" was
> destroyed.  Does anyone know the date of this wreck?
> 
> Cheers,
> Alan <quahog_@_sprint.ca>

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End of ErieLack Digest V3 #425
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