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The invention of the steam railroad in the Nineteenth Century radically expanded human mobility and commerce. By “annihilating distance” the railroad forever changed the American landscape and patterns of business and domestic life. Originating in the construction of a continuous inland route between Boston and Portland, the Boston and Maine Railroad gradually gained control of other lines until the B&M System linked hundreds of cities, towns, and villages in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
The B&M and its predecessor companies made possible the development of New England’s principal mill towns. Shipments of grain, ice, lumber, meat, and produce over its rails contributed to the expansion of Boston as a market center and a great port city. Through its connection with other railroads, the B&M sent its passenger cars to Washington, New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Halifax.
At its peak B&M maintained over 2300 route miles of track, 1200 steam locomotives, and a force of 28,000 employees. The road’s principal shops were located at Billerica, Mass. and Concord, N.H. Major yards were found at Boston, East Deerfield, Mass., Portland, Me. and Mechanicville, N.Y.
The B&M’s greatest engineering achievement was the 5-mile-long Hoosac Tunnel. Hundreds of bridges dotted the New England landscape including many picturesque covered bridges in New Hampshire, huge steel structures that spanned the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers, the Greenville, N.H., trestle, and the Clinton, Mass., Viaduct. The B&M came under the control of J.P. Morgan and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad about 1910, but shortly thereafter anti-trust forces wrested effective control away from New Haven. The B&M's consolidation with the Eastern RR had included assumption of the Eastern's funded debt. This, combined with the debt incurred in the 1870s for construction of track to Portland, fixed lease obligations, and obligations on the debt incurred to acquire the Fitchburg RR, led the B&M into a festering financial crisis that was settled by a reorganization of the road in 1919. Several leased lines voluntarily merged with the B&M to avoid a meltdown of the B&M system.
Pressure from street railways (from c1891) was the first assault on the B&M’s passenger business, but increased use of the automobile (from about 1915) spelled doom for the B&M as a passenger carrier, beginning with the devastation of its local and commuter business. In the first quarter of the 20th Century freight business was adversely affected by the leveling off of New England manufacturing growth and short haul truck competition. Nevertheless, the B&M made valiant attempts to preserve its freight business and a considerable amount of its passenger business until after World War II through abandonment of unprofitable branches, improvement of freight handling facilities, upgraded passenger equipment, and forays into the airline, truck, and bus businesses. Expenses were reduced by dieselization, but the B&M ultimately fell victim to the ever-growing use of motor transportation and the advent of the Interstate Highway System. The B&M gave up on long distance passenger service (after 1960) and was able to continue Boston commuter service only by the aid of subsidies from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
Bankruptcy came in 1970. The sale of rights of way in the commuter zone to the MBTA (1976) provided cash to satisfy creditors and eventually led to the purchase and reorganization of the B&M by Timothy Mellon’s Guilford Transportation Industries in 1983. The B&M continued to operate freight trains in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Maine and operated Boston commuter trains under contract to the MBTA. A labor dispute prompted the lease of the B&M to its subsidiary Springfield Terminal Railway (1987)
As part of the Guilford Rail System, the B&M continues its proud tradition of over 160 years of service to New England.
Rick Nowell.
May 8, 2004
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