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(erielack) Re: The EL un-merger

B&M did have significant westbound forest products business coming out of Maine, unlike the B&A which lacked direct access to northern New England; in PC and Conrail days I believe the only significant outbound carload business was vehicles from GM-Framingham. The potato business off the BAR went from 50,000 carloads per year in the 1950's to 5,000 in 1970 to zero. In the 70's there was some hope as B&M stayed out of Conrail and concentrated on the more balanced long-haul to Maine; Boston traffic was down to one train per day. However then the Mellons bought it for the valuable real estate occupied by the Boston freight yard and proceeded to trash the railroad, scaring away business and letting the physical plant deteriorate. They finally achieved their goal last year when Boston traffic went to zero and they sold the land for condos. "Pan-Am" RR, give me a break.

Paul B

From: tonyhorn1_@_comcast.net
Subject: RE: (erielack) Re: The EL un-merger

Schuyler wrote:

> The ERIE+D&H+B&M is a little different, though it would have been good to 
> accelerate the B&M's 
> too-slow divestiture of it's many too many branch lines in New Hampshire. As a 
> slimmed down trunk 
> line connecting Mechanicville, Boston, Portland, and the line up the Conn River 
> valley to connect 
> with the CV, it would be a good line to generate traffic via the seaports. But 
> again, not enough 
> westbound traffic generated. 

Was there a difference between the B&M and B&A (NYC) with regard to eb/wb traffic?  Could the B&M under merged conditions compete with the B&A/NYC?


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