The modern history of railroading in the east has been evolving for the
 past 30 years as the Boston & Maine Railroad joined with Maine Central
 to form Guilford Transportation.   The Springfield Terminal name also
 came into use as an operating entity within Guilford as the 
New England shortline was rolled into the company and
 its name and labor rules applied to broader operations.
  
Guilford also controlled the Delaware & Hudson for several years.  The D&H ultimately became the property of the Canadian Pacific and the
 two larger companies worked together to serve the region's rail needs. Guilford Transportation was renamed Pan Am Railways.  More 
recently, Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern have become 
allies in moving freight from the northeast to all other points in 
the US.  Norfolk Southern trains and in a few cases, crews 
operate over Canadian Pacific trackage under agreements that 
allow NS access to New York's Capital District, 
Pan Am Southern and Montreal.

        Pan Am Southern (PAS), created in 2009, is owned 50-50 by Pan Am Railway and Norfolk Southern and operates a relatively short section of track in eastern New York State. Entering NYS from Vermont near North Petersburg (Rensselaer County), NY, the 
tracks  proceed thru Hoosick Falls, Eagle Bridge, Buskirk, Johnsonville, Valley Falls,  Schaghticoke, 
Mechanicville, Glenville and Rotterdam Jct.

The mainline runs from the Vermont border to Canadian Pacific's Mohawk Yard in Glenville, NY. At Mohawk Yard traffic is interchanged with Canadian Pacific. This includes traffic to be forwarded to Norfolk Southern in  Binghamton, NY. 
At CPF 477, in the Town of Clifton Park, the Rotterdam Branch comes off the 
main and heads for an interchange with the CSX Selkirk Sub at Rotterdam Jct, 
NY. A major customer, Schenectady International, is located in Rotterdam Jct. 
where there is a small yard and office along NYS Rte 5s.

System map for Pan Am Railways

Interchange is also performed with Vermont Railway at Hoosick Jct, NY and with the Batten Kill Railroad at Eagle Bridge, NY. Along with normal carload traffic, Vermont Railway interchanges a weekly slurry train from Omya with PAS at Hoosick Jct. This is limestone slurry in tank cars headed for Maine paper mills.

PAS crosses the Hudson River on an impressive deck girder bridge at Mechanicville, NY. This bridge is easily viewed from US Rte 4.  PAS is completing a brand new terminal at Mechanicville, NY for handling intermodal and automobile traffic. This terminal
 is being built on the site of the former B&M and D&H classification yards along 
NYS Rte 67.  From CPF 468 in Mechanicville to CPF 477 in Clifton Park (and on
 to Mohawk Yard), Canadian Pacific and PAS share the same track 
which is owned by Canadian Pacific.

Web:  www.panamrailways.com

Radio frequencies in area:  
Pan Am 161.520 road, 161.400 yard     CP 161.475 road, 160.530 yard

Photographs © by John Sesonske