ST Obs 100 Ayer, MA 21 May 2011 D-0137

ST Obs 100 Ayer, MA 21 May 2011 D-0137, a photo by Dick Leonhardt on Flickr.

Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR), known as Guilford Rail System (GRS) before March 2006, is a holding company that owns and operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine to Rotterdam Junction, New York. The primary subsidiaries of Pan Am Railways are Boston and Maine Corporation (reporting mark BM), Maine Central Railroad Company (reporting mark MEC), Portland Terminal Company (reporting mark PTM), and Springfield Terminal Railway Company (reporting mark ST); BM and MEC are operated under lease by ST.

Pan Am Railways is headquartered in North Billerica, Massachusetts (a village within the town of Billerica).[1][2] It is a subsidiary of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI). Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways in 1998

BEING CURIOUS ABOUT PAN AMERICAN RAILWAYS instead of AIRWAYS, I researched WIKIPEDIA and found out about the name. Not being a New Yorker, I have much to learn about railroads, especially the ones that ran on Long Island.

In so many movies of the 60s, I always recall trains running from Long Island into Manhattan. It alwalys seemed to be in the introduction and not really fundamental to the plot but to let the viewer know the location and class of populace. Thanks for inspiring my interest. Robert