RECENT THIRD THURSDAY PROGRAM MEETINGS

Gene Harmon’s presentation describes the history and development of the New York Central from 1826 to 1967. It covers the people who laced together the many railroads that ultimately formed the New York Central System.

Episode One describes the 19th century evolution and some of the personalities involved.  

Episode Two discusses the peak period of the NYC between 1910 and 1916. Structures, equipment, passenger trains and freight trains are reviewed with a focus on 1930 onward. There are sections that describe the financial history, management challenges, passenger train deficits, and the attempts to “right the ship” by Alfred Perlman. Maps, many photos, and a few tables help illustrate the many facets of this once-mighty railroad empire. This 1 hour, 45 minute presentation is fast moving and includes a few personal encounters with the New York Central in the 1960s.

Gene grew up in New York Central country, on a farm in western New York State. The NYC, Erie, B&O, G&W, and LV were all within 10 miles of the farm. He often rode the Phoebe Snow, many of the NYC trains, and various local freight trains on the NYC's Peanut Branch, Erie Lackawanna's Rochester Branch, and the B&O. The NYC provided passenger service to both high school (Mt. Hermon, now Northfield Mt. Hermon) and college (Lake Forest College just north of Chicago). Gene joined the Illinois Central Gulf in 1972 in sales and later market development before moving on to the Southern Pacific. As an independent consultant he worked for many clients including railroads and shippers, specializing in logistics, until his retirement in 2015.

This program was originally presented on August 20, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Retired statehouse reporter and journalism professor Tim Lewis tells the story of the Mt. Washington Cog Railway – Sylvester Marsh’s idea to run a tourist train to the top of New England, drawing on his 14 childhood summers living at the Cog (1953-1967) and his eleven years of adult research (2015 - present).

Tim’s “just the facts” presentation is buttressed by recollections of his dad, Norm “Jitney” Lewis, who ran steam engines at Mt. Washington for 18 summers, as well as the over 3,180 stories of the “Coggers” that Tim has identified so far for his Jitney Years history project. 

The Cog is a 156 year-old railroad, having had perhaps as many as 10,000 employees in those years. Jitneyears.org is a basic academic research website, not affiliated with the railroad. It is designed to collect and collate names of the women and men who worked on the Mt. Washington Railway and its companion organizations (Summit house, Base Station, Marshfield) from 1866 forward, bringing the railroad’s history into a single repository for generations of the extended “Cog family” and others to enjoy, reminisce, peruse and connect.

Visitors to the site’s online database can find out if relatives or friends worked on the Cog, get an idea of what “Jitney Jr.” will be talking about in his program, and download Lewis’ generously illustrated crowd-sourced “manuscript in progress.” 

A native of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Tim Lewis is a graduate of Newport High School and the University of Vermont. His broadcasting career began in high school and continued at UV’s campus station WRUV. After graduation, he was one of St. Johnsbury’s first disco DJs. In 1976, Tim was hired as a news reader at WDEV in Waterbury, later becoming that radio station's news director. Tim moved to television in 1981 as WCAX-TV’s statehouse correspondent. He was the producer of the “First Republic - 14th Star” Bicentennial series, and anchored the station's Saturday 6:00 newscast for six years.

He began a “reverse sabbatical” at Lyndon State College in the fall of 1999, and is now retired from his 24-year teaching career at Vermont State University. 

Tim is proud to have been one of the youngest people to fire a complete trip up Mt. Washington on a Cog Railway steam train. 

(That's Tim on the left, with his dad, "Jitney" Lewis, well before he was old enough to lift a shovel.)

 

This program was presented on July 16, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

In his Third Thursday program, Jeff Brouws discusses his various documentary projects from the last 40 years. While many weren't directly about railroads, his interests in urban studies, architecture, and photographic aesthetics have all merged with railroad content over time. As the talk's title suggests, he never fully left his first passion that made him become a photographer: trains and railroads. His talk will conclude with a discussion of his latest project, a blend of art, architecture, and railroad history – his new book, Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project, published by MIT Press.

Jeff Brouws is a self-taught photographer who has spent over thirty years exploring and documenting the American cultural landscape. He is the author of eight books including: Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project (MIT Press, 2026); Approaching Nowhere (W.W. Norton, 2006), Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts (Chronicle Books, 2003), Highway: America's Endless Dream (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1997), and Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations (Gas-N-Go Publications, 1992).

In addition to these publications, Brouws has also produced and written major monographs on railroad photographers Richard Steinheimer, Jim Shaughnessy, Victor Hand, David Kahler and others, as well as anthologized railroad photography books like Starlight On the Rails (Harry Abrams, 2000) and The Railroad and the Art of Place: An Anthology (The Center for Railroad Photography & Art, 2019).

Brouws' non-railroad photography is included in many private and public collections including: Harvard's Fogg Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. He lives in Stanfordville, New York.

This program was presented on June 18, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Dr. Northover’s program looks at metallurgical and archival studies over a 50-year span in Britain, from the first rolled wrought iron rails on the Earl of Carlisle's Railway in 1808 to components from a pair of brand new locomotives shipwrecked on the Scottish island of Islay on their delivery voyage to Canada in 1857. A similar wreck in 1865 will also be discussed.

Until the development of bulk steel by Bessemer at the beginning of the 1860s the major structural metals for railway use were wrought and cast iron; as train weights and speeds grew during this period the engineers had to take account of the limitations of their mechanical properties. From the extensive archives of the old railway companies we can learn much about how iron and copper alloys were understood, were specified, and tested, sometimes in rather alarming ways. One aspect at least would have been familiar to us in the 21st century: for a really big project, like the London and Birmingham Railway, they got the consultants in! 

Peter Northover is not entirely sure how he became a lifelong railway enthusiast. His family moved to the Isle of Wight in 1949 when the last locomotive exchanges with the mainland took place. There were 27 locomotives in service and by the time Peter was six he had seen them all. 

Peter has been involved in archaeology since he was 15 and working on excavations. He read metallurgy at Oxford University, where there was then a thriving Railway Society. After a lifetime applying metallurgy in archaeology Peter can now combine all his interests with research in the historical metallurgy of railways.

This program was presented on May 21, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

The private railcar Caritas traveled over 850,000 miles throughout North America from its rebirth in 1984 until sold in 2019. Designed to carry 8 guests and a crew of two, it sports an open platform, full kitchen, dining for eight and a lounge with oversized windows. Many of its miles were on freight trains and off scheduled passenger routes.

High Iron Travel, which owned the car, focused on “rare mileage” trips-on routes normally inaccessible. High Iron ran 17 “Explorers” trips, each extending over 7 days. In addition there were six trips to Mexico and many shorter excursions. In this presentation we will focus on some of the more exotic trips and on the nature of the “mileage collector” clan; our customers who made enormous efforts to cover the last “100 yards” and how working with the railroads to arrange these adventures has changed (not for the better). 

This program was presented on March 19, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Every railroad has two chapters. The first is about preparation – the planning, the construction, and the commitment to safety. The second begins when the first passengers step aboard and the system becomes part of daily life. MBTA COO Ryan Coholan shares the story of the Fall River/New Bedford Line: how the railroad was brought to a state of readiness, and how that readiness met reality.

Ryan Coholan was named Chief Operating Officer of the MBTA in September, 2023. Prior to that he served as the T’s Chief Rail Officer for 9½ years. Before coming to the MBTA he was General Manager of Cape Rail, Inc. He started his railroad career with the Bay Colony Railroad/Cape Cod Railroad where his roles included Engineer, Conductor, Rules Examiner, Dispatcher, Trainmaster, Track Foreman and Mechanical.

RIGHT: Shuttle train 1978 from Fall River approaches the new East Taunton station on March 24, 2025, the first day of South Coast Rail service.

This program was presented on February 19, 2026. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Historian Stewart Chute examines what happened when two trains going the same direction crashed, causing multiple deaths. Dr. Chute covers the events leading up to the tragic accident of April 1918 and places the event in the larger context of early 20th century railroad history. He recounts winner-take-all corporate rivalries, the struggles of workers to gain better working conditions, and speak of the trainmen who, through devotion to duty, made the ultimate sacrifice.

In the 1890s the Air Line Railroad the most direct route between Boston and New York, hence the name “Air Line.” It was the route of the famous “White Train” and an economic boon to the region. After its incorporation into the New Haven Railroad in 1898, it was downgraded to a secondary line, more important for freight than for passenger service.

What was once a double-tracked conduit of commerce that transformed the economy of 19th century northeastern Connecticut is now the Airline Trail, a valuable recreational resource whether one is strolling, jogging, or cycling. But it is worth stopping for a moment to consider what went over this grade in its former life.

This program was presented on January 15, 2026 You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Alan MacMillan, Jr. presents a look at the last days of the Conway Branch of the Boston & Maine, showing the last passenger train to operate on the B&M’s Portsmouth Branch, a New Hampshire PUC (Public Utilities Commission) passenger extra on July 15, 1971. The special, a 179-mile inspection tour of northern New Hampshire freight railroad assets, then continued up the Conway Branch and the Maine Central’s Mountain Division to Whitefield and then back on B&M tracks to Littleton, NH.

Also featured is local freight ID-2 South, the very last train operated by the B&M on the Conway Branch, on October 31, 1972. The section between Intervale through North Conway to Ossipee – 29.3 miles – was officially abandoned the following day.

The actual last passenger train on the Conway Branch was the RRE special “Snow Train (‘Third Annual Last Run’)” on February 26, 1972. That train, with 580 passengers on board, ran with 2 locomotives and 8 Budd RDCs.

These photos come to us courtesy of the late Jim McGill, a chief train dispatcher on the B&M, and rules examiner for the Green Mountain Railroad, who passed away 20 years ago.

This program was presented on October 16, 2025. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Train buffs often think of Colorado solely in terms of its narrow gauge lines. But the Centennial State and the western United States are also home to some of the most historic and beautiful standard gauge railways. This program offers snapshots of the standard gauge scene from 1965, when Carl Fowler moved to Denver to attend college, and forward until the 1990s.

This was the era of the decline of the great streamliners and of surprises like the Rio Grande Zephyr, which ran as a Rio Grande RR service deep into the Amtrak era from 1971-1983, and its replacement by a recreated California Zephyr run by Amtrak. Carl was (un)fortunate enough to be present for the “last runs” of such great trains as the original California Zephyr, the Texas Zephyr, the “overnight every night" Rio Grande Prospector, the unique Yampa Valley Mail pocket domeliner and the Santa Fe Chief. All are shown in this program.

Many people know that the inclusion of the New Haven in the newly-formed Penn Central Transportation Company contributed mightily to the new railroad's horrific financial losses and subsequent bankruptcy. Historian and author Albert Churella tells the story behind the story, one that includes political intrigue involving two U.S. presidents and an attorney general. 

Prof. Churella discusses the final days of a company that was simultaneously a vital transportation artery and an example of everything that was wrong with the postwar railroad industry.

This program was presented on August 21, 2025. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Flagler's Train is a one hour documentary, produced by WPBT2, which chronicles the imagination and achievements of Henry Morrison Flagler, who spearheaded the development of the over-seas railway connecting Key West to the existing Florida East Coast Railway.

The Overseas Railroad (also known as Florida Overseas Railroad, the Overseas Extension, and Flagler's Folly) was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, a city located 128 miles (206 km) beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Work on the line started in 1905 and it operated from 1912 to 1935, when it was partially destroyed by the Labor Day Hurricane. Some of the remaining infrastructure was used for the Overseas Highway.

This video originally aired on PBS stations in January, 2012 and was presented to Mass Bay RRE on July 17, 2025. You can view the program now on the PBS website.

For all that goes on with railroading here in New England, career Train Dispatcher Nathaniel Hurst understands that there is much more to the railroad industry and the American economy than just the six New England States.

Nathaniel's program takes us on a journey to see and hear about what's happening in the railroad industry outside of New England. We'll visit the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), Canadian National, Union Pacific, the Meridian Speedway and others in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

PHOTO: CPKC Train No. 181, a hotshot intermodal/auto train from San Luis Potosi Mexico to Chicago, makes its way east on CPKC's Elgin Subdivision through downtown Bensenville IL, nearing its destination of CPKC's Bensenville Yard on Oct. 14, 2024. With a couple Kansas City Southern SD70AC's with 121 Intermodal Containers and 15 loaded auto racks this day, Train 181 and its counterpart No. 180 (Chicago to San Luis Potosi) have been much of the talk since the Canadian Pacific/Kansas City Southern merger in April of 2023. (Nathaniel Hurst photo.)

This program was presented on June 19, 2025. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Our Third Thursday Zoom in March was a special edition of our popular "Members Night," in which meeting attendees provide the program material. The evening consisted of the following:

● Greg Guimond showed two short programs. The first is a Pete Lerro photo charter on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad on October 26-27, 2024, including several photo runbys and some trly spectacular photography.
The second covers a DAK photo charter on the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat on October 8-9, 2024, including a freight special behind #40, a night session at the station in Essex, and a passenger train behind #97.

● Doug Scott showed a short program titled 'East on 66: Following the Transcon November 2024.' Stops include Flagstaff, Joseph City, & Holbrook, in Arizona, plus Los Lunas and Belen in New Mexico.

This program was presented on March 20, 2025. Video of the program will be available soon on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

Ross Capon fell in love with railroading while hanging out at the B&A's Riverside station, which was an impressive railroad junction before the Highland Branch was converted to what is now the MBTA's Green Line. Working for Guy Rosmarin, a special assistant to Gov. Francis W. Sargent, and later for Secretary of Transportation Alan Altschuler, Ross played a role in saving the region's commuter rail system when powerful interests sought to kill it. His work in Washington helped Amtrak in general, and its national network in particular, survive life-threatening budget challenges.

Ross's program recounts his life and career in railroading, from those early days to his advocacy for the MBTA, Amtrak, and passenger trains in general, with an emphasis on the early days and a focus on the history of the Riverside station and Tower 15.

PHOTO: Riverside Station and Tower 15 in 1961. (Ross Capon)

This program was presented on Feb. 20, 2025. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.

From 1823-1942 the Catskill Mountains area in Greene County, New York was built by a remarkable early/original multi-modal transportation system, combing stagecoaches, steam trains (both narrow and standard gauge), a mile-long inclined railway and Hudson River steamboats to move literally tens of thousands of visitors each week to fill amazing grand hotels, boarding houses and cottag

Carl Fowler's program traces the rise and fall of the 3-foot gauge Catskill Mountain RR, the CMRR-affiliated Otis Inclined Railway, the standard-gauge Ulster and Delaware RR, the Hudson River Day and Night Lines, the West Shore RR, and the resorts they served, including the Catskill Mountain House and the amazing Hotel Kaaterskill, which with 1200 rooms was for a time the largest hotel in the world.

PHOTO: The fabled Otis Elevating Railway

The program places these carriers and landmarks in the context of the amazing natural wonders that drew them – the 3,000 foot deep Kaaterskill Clove, the towering Kaaterskill and Haines Falls and the five state views from the Hudson Escarpment. Here too was the center of the first major American movement in paintings – the grand landscapes of the "Hudson River School" painters. The program includes both contemporary and historic photos, maps, brochures and even deck-plans for the overnight river palaces of the Hudson River Night Line(s).

Carl Fowler worked full time selling passenger rail service for 34 years as General Manager, Vice President and finally President of Rail Travel Center/Rail Travel Adventures. He was able to travel over 350,000 miles by train during his life and can share perspectives both as a devoted train buff and as a rail travel professional. He is a 50-year member of the Rail Passengers Association (aka NARP) and served as a past Vice Chair of the RPA, as well as a long-term member of its Council and Board.

This program was presented on Jan. 16, 2025. You can view the program now on the Mass Bay RRE YouTube channel.