CP-B&M Conn River Power Pools

When B&M and CP pooled power on the Conn. River, how far north did it go? Did they change power at Newport, or did the B&M units run through to St. Luc?

I haven't seen any photos of B&M freight diesels north/west of Newport, VT. Doesn't mean it never happened, but I think Newport was the normal turn point,possibly because the trains were yarded?

The B & M sub-leased the Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers, Wells River-Sherbrooke, to the CP and Quebec Central in 1926. When the B & M assumed ownership of the Conn. & Pass. in 1946, it sold that property to those roads. With a new interchange at Wells River, only 40 miles from White River Jct., B & M-CP worked out a run through arrangement to run crews and power, White River Jct.-Newport, 103 miles total, in 1926. B & M had about 40% of the miles so to make it 50-50, B & M had to contribute more power and crews. Crews and power pooled for both freight and passenger. In steam days B & M 2-8-0s and 4-6-2s used; CP assigned freight 4-6-0s, 2-8-0s and 4-6-2s. Bigger power came in diesel days. By early 1970s White River Jct. was an expensive, under utilized terminal. Passenger service, milk trains were gone. Very little piggyback business developed. Decline in small paper producers due to new regulations. Northern route of the B & M shutdown. B & M pushed to have White River Jct. reduced to a bare bones terminal. A couple of run-through trains were developed; CPSP and CVSP. The power, not crews, ran through from Newport and St. Albans to Springfield. CV and CP assigned fairly big and newer power. B & M contribution was usually 1700s. CVSP/CPSP probably date from mid-1970s.

Also a big contributor was the CP takeover of the D&H - CP no longer needed to interchange with GTI up there, it moved to NY. Most of the CP traffic down into VT was destined to the B&M. They were glad to ditch the mileage.

Guilford was also likely glad to downgrade the Conn Fiver because the CV shared the line, and was in direct competition for traffic from Canada, along with Guilford's D&H main. This happened even before CP bought the D&H, and it was still Guilford's.

The main reason was Guilford had two north-south rail routes, both of which interchanged with CPR only about 60-80 miles apart. They also carried the same type freight, forest products and paper.

Guilford tried to also downgrade the Conn River to screw the CV, so It could get a bigger piece of the pie on CN traffic via Rouses Point. It backfired because of the damage to Amtrak. This gave Amtrak able to seize the line and give it to CV.

CP did not run that large power in the CP pool jobs. I have seen pictures of GP35s, and a YouTube video with a C424 in a consist with bluebirds. It seems like the RS18s were most common, This was because the Alco/MLW fleet was based in the east. The RS18 was MLW's answer to the GP9