I think you are talking about the remnants of the Bar Harbor Express in and out of Worchester, MA to Providence and NY. B&M and MEC offered the connection to Portland and Bar Harbor. P&W was the actual RR leased by the NH, too.
At the time the remainder of the Bar Harbor express was discontiniued, the State of Maine overnight train between NYGCT and Portland, with through sleepers to Bangor and Concord NH, was still being operated over the line between Providence and Worcester, and was in operation all during all periods mentioned in my question. There is a relation to the route in my question, however, but it is not at all the service you mentioned. It was a service started by Dumaine and later terminated by McGinnis or Alpert. It served on-line communities as well as end points and provided good connections at its southern terminous.
Aside from the Warwick Railroad, a small industrial switching railroad, only the NYNH&H served Providence, no other class I in that period.
Shot in the dark wild gues . Was the other end Narragansett, RI?
I may be a little out of touch on this. I was thinking of the Narragansett Pier RR. Itâs southern connections being the various ferryâs to Block Island, Newport, & (I think) Greenport.
Iâm doing this from a memory of having read the connections there.
Thx for patience with someone who is only old enough to have read about this(born 1959)
Thx IGN
Again, the route is operated by Providence and Worcester today, which also has another route between the end-ponts, although part of that is on freight operation trackage rights.
Hint, the service inaugurated by Bucky Dumain used Budd RDC;s only, but was originally planned for Mack FDC cars which were never used in revenue service to my knowledge and were sold overseas (to Spain?) where they may still be service. But I rode an FDC over the line on a fan trip. Also rode an RDC over the line on a fan trip. And made a trip each way on the conventional steam-hauled train that plied the route without local service that came and went during the â30-year periodâ that the the line was without sevice.
If subsidozed and useful passenger service returns to the line, it might most logically be operated by Shore Line East.
I am now guessing the State of Maine as the train and New London-Willamatic-Worchester the route. unless it was east from New Haven to Willamantic. Although my OGâs show State of Maine via Providence they are not in your dating period.
You are close. The State of Maine never use RDC cars ever. This service only used RDCâs. The State of Maine always ran via Providence. But for a period its equpment did use the route in question, but not as the State of Maine, and that was the train the ran during the 30-year period that the line had no local service.
I never actually rode the service. I rode the route twice, once each way, in summer camp special cars attached to the train mentioned above when the two camps could not secure PUllman space on the State of Maine one summer. (Heavyweight 8-wheel plain Jain New Haven open window coaches with grey interiors and a thin red and thin blue stripe at the bottom edge of the clerestory interior, each side and end.) Engine change at New Haven, at Worcestor, and movement of the coaches and one PUllman to a different train to Concord, NH, at Lowell with a reverse in direction. (The same move was also routine for the State of Maine.) I also rode it again later on two fan trips, one the original FCD car, and the other a normal Budd RDC-1 fan-trip, the same kind of equpment on the normal service that Dumaine introduced.
I think the only place FCDâs were ever tried in regular passenger service was between Hyannis and Woods Hole, where they could not meet normal standards of comfort and reliability, even though fuel consumption was way below that of an RDC. They used PCC-car trucks and motors, a Mack Bus body and diesel engine, plus a dc generator.
The Roger Williams.
The Roger Williams was the name of a particular set of Budd equipment. It was specifically designed for the NY-Boston service, but ended up usually being mixed in with other Budd equipment and not run into GCT or Penn. When I rode a train of most of this equpment, it was being operated by Amtrak on the inland route, via Sprignfield, between New Haven and Boston (1972). Amtrak never used its third-rail capabilities. The train was too long to be regularly used in the service I am asking about, often one Budd car was sufficient and two cars were used often, but never more than two in regular service. Only if a tour group or other special event required more cars. It is possible that one or two of the Roger Wiliiams cars was used on this run on occasion, but it was never called the Roger Wiliiams in the timetable.
See âThe New Haven Railroad in the McGinnis Yearsâ from the New Haven Railroad historical Society
I donâ have access to the book nor timetables at the moment. However, Iâm going inland and guess the trains to Pittsfield, MA from DanburyâŚI think RDCâs were initially used on the revival of the service but FL9âs took over with American Flyer cars. I chased that train one Sunday to Pittsfield but didnât know enough to see the unit turned on the armtstrong turntable! I think service actually at one time went on to N. Adams, MA as did NYCâs Harlem Div. trains.
Passenger service on the Air Line? Rgds IGN
The Pittsfield - Danbury - Milford branch did not ever support a through train that did not serviced local statoins, and trains running through to NY had onlyv one engine change, not two. Buky did not need to restore service because it had not been discontinued before he became CEO. I rode the Pittsfield line once, from Lenox through to GCT, on a Sunday evening after a music weekend at Tenglewood, leaving my car at the Lernox station. Power was an FL-9, one unit, which ran through to GCT. One head-end car, donât remember its particulars, two 8200-series âAmerican Flyerâ coaches, with regular non-reclining but high-back seats, and a post-war parlor, already refugured to 1 and 1 seating, at the rear . I uipgraded to parlor to ride the rear platform and enjoy the fine scenery. A white- or silver-haired tall man joined me after a while, and we discusssed the line, its future, and past. Ouir conversation continiued when it became dark between Danbury and Bridgeport, and our conversation continiued as we took adjacent parlor swivaling seats. I learned to my surprise that he was Alger Hiss, aparantly having completed his jail sentence. I did not discuss politics or his former life, but did learn that he worked at the Jeffersonian book store on W. 23rd Street (still there?) which had a reputation of a far left book store.
I was on my way to my sisterâs summer cottage in the Hamptons, and an on-time arrival avoided the need to spend the night in NYC. Instead, I took the â7â to Woodside, an LIRR mu to Jamaica, and the last Montauk train of that Sunday evening. After a four or five days of vacation with my sister, I returned to Tanglewood via NYCentral to Albany and Peter Pan bus to Lenox, picked up my car, and spent the weekend again with music at Tanglewood.
Bucky did not restore passenger service on the old âWhite Trainâ route, but the Budd car service he did restore did serve somewhat or part of the same te
I am out of OGs! 6/58 is the only era piece I have for this one and anykind of service you mention is not there sans what has been mentioned and the Provincetown service from Boston.
The Providence and Worcester does not provide freight service to Provincetown. Yes, McGinnis had stopped the service by 1958. Keep trying.
One last major hint: The train that ran during the â30-year period without serviceâ was the Day Express which was the equipment of the State of Maine used to provide a second train on that route, with all connections and pick-ups and setouts with the possible exception of Bangor, since travel demand was too great for the State of Maine to handle alone during WWII and shortly thereafter. The PUllmans were used as parlor cars, which how this train got on a thread about a year or so ago. This train used the route that had the local service instituted by Bucky Dumaine, but the State of Maine itself did not use this route. And this route was the only exception for the Day Express to follow the State of Maine route.
Again, the route is intact and has Providence and Worcester freight service.
This should be a give-a-way.
Please note that the Providence and Worcester has exanded far beyond the route between Providence and Worcester. Indeed the route that had the discussed RDC passenger service could well be regarded as its main line today, rather than its original route.
It is possible that the service introduced by Dumaine was ended by hurricain damage and not restored afterward.
Don 't give me anymore hintsâŚIâve just been too busy to pay attentionâŚI will try again over the next day or soâŚI do have a 1927 OG to look over yet.
I looked at tyhe 1927 OG map and the 1958 map. The only conclusions are New Haven or New London to Worchester to FitchburgâŚbut I thought I mentioned thatâŚso maybe Providence to Fitchburg.or just to Lowell.
Providence to Lowell was in use by the State of Maine and its Concord. NH connection, but the Providence to Worcester portion was not used by the Day Express, only by the State of Maine overnighter. You did name the right route, but only between two cities. The third location had regular commuter service to the largest city in the area, and still does under the cityâs (and stateâs) large multi-mode transit system (now more frequent) and was neither part of the Bucky Dumainâs restoration nor would it probably figiure in restored service in the future on this line.
The Day Express did not serve Providence. This alllowed suficient servicing time on both ends, saving about 80 minutes, to turn as the State of Maine, which did serve Providence. Both the Day Express and the State of Maine changed engines at New Haven and Worcester and often at Portland as well.
So was there a Boston to Back Bay to Worchester to New Haven train?