Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the Penn Central, up until its 1976 inclusion in Conrail. Visit the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #299698  by paulbweiss
 
I am trying to get information on PC's customer GM in Framingham for my mid-1970s layout. Any photos of the buildings and or PC operations there would be wonderful, and if anyone knows some specifics of what kind of carloadings headed there. I have photos of flatcars loaded with car chassis stacks inbound from the west, and assume there were plenty of double and triple deck autoracks arriving empty and leaving full... anything else known or hypothesized would be most welcome. Thanks!!
 #380967  by march hare
 
Not sure on the exact dates, but for a while, GM was using some of its plants as distribution centers for vehicles made elsewhere.

For example plant A that made, say, station wagons would load their production onto trilevels and ship them. But the incoming auto racks would come in loaded with, say, sedans made elsewhere, which would be off loaded and distributed to dealers nearby.

Upsohot is that it wasn't always a loads out, empties in proposition. You'd get loads going both ways.

Not sure if Fram'ham was involved in this (but I think it was--it was located near a major population center, so it makes sense). Also don't know when they started doing it and when it stopped.

 #389074  by roberttosh
 
Yes, Framingham did indeed handle all the inbound GM's for the Boston market, in fact even after the plant finally closed for good in the early 90's I believe, GM's continued to get offloaded at Framingham (along with some imports), to the tune of around 30-40 racks per day. GM's now get unloaded at the new auto facility at East Brookfield, MA, but Ford recently shifted its unloading point from Ayer on PAR to Framingham.