• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

(1) (At bottom of page) At Portland Terminal Wharf One, left to right, D. P. Felt, assistant gen• BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD eral freight agent, B&M; Everett M. Thompson, HISTORICAL SOCIETY general perishable agent, Traffic Men Meet Boston; Gilbert W. Mil• ARCHIVES ler, general freight agent, Portland; Raymond M. Young, B&M division freight agent, Troy N. Y.; and H. M. MacAnanny, traffic representative, Pittsburgh, Pa. (2) Visit• Better Sales Job Needed ing the Maine State Pier our off-line agents from the farthest points pose for a picture. Left to right, Frank A. Murphy, (More Pictures on Pages 12-13) assistant to vice presi• dent — traffic; G. E. The Maine Central Railroad's sales• with successful development of the Gustafson, western traffic men throughout the Nation—off-line port and offered the Port Authority's manager, Chicago, III.; Tracy Cummings, general and on-line traffic representatives— cooperation and information sources west coast agent, San came home to Portland last month to for export-import business. Francisco, Cal.; Nelle M. view our facilities and inspect the The group also visited Portland Orr, commercial agent, Memphis, Tenn.; James Port of Portland served by the Port• Terminal Wharf Three where As• B. Sweeney, managing di• land Terminal Company. sistant to Vice President — Traffic, rector, Port of Portland; Their visit was the wind-up of an Frank A. Murphy described the site P. J. Mullaney, general traffic manager, Boston; important three-day conference, May of a new china clay storage shed the G. C. Aldrich, general 2, 3 and 4 at Boston, devoted to an Terminal Company will erect. agent, St. Louis, Mo. exchange of ideas and problems that (3) Taking a break are, Theme of the Boston conference was left to right, Harold A. will better enable them and our rail• the knowledge that decreasing reve• Krumsieck, B&M traffic road to meet the serious competitive nues make it necessary for the traffic representative, Springfield, situation confronting us. Mass.; Murphy, R. C. representatives and every railroad em• Chambon, general agent, Extending the greetings of the ploye to buckle down and really "sell" Pittsburgh, Pa.; G. W. Executive Department to "you the our services better than they are cur• Miller. (4) Maine Cen• rently being sold if our railroad is to tral traffic men attending people that make the money for us to the conference include Rex carry on," First Vice President E. survive against present competition. Miller, general agent, Spencer Miller struck at the heart of Emphasizing this message with Presque Isle; Harold W. the competitive transportation prob• Foster, general passenger speeches that punctuated the three- agent; R. E. Graham, lem with the warning, "We are living day meeting was the top management traffic representative, in a new era and cannot go on doing of both roads. They included Execu• Bangor; T. E. Grover and business the way our fathers did be• tive Vice President Timothy G. fore us, or even as we did before the Sughrue, Vice Presidents John W. E. J. Mclnnis, district war." Rimmer, Traffic; F. W. Rourke, Oper• freight agents, Portland "We can't afford to wait for fair ating; George F. Glacy, Accounting; legislation," Miller continued, "we A. W. Munster, Purchasing and must give whatever service or rate is Stores; W. S. Trowbridge, Finance; necessary to get the tonnage." Robert M. Edgar, assistant to Presi• Terming the Maine Central a "pro• dent French; Stanley G. Phillips, chief gressive" railroad, the first vice engineer. president pointed out that neverthe• Patrick J. Mullaney, recently pro• less, it, like other roads, "has a fixed moted to general traffic manager of plant with our costs always going on both roads, presided over the sessions and the only way to meet it is to have in the Hotel Manger, Boston. He de• tonnage going over the rails." fined the meetings as "intended to . The more than 40 joint agents in benefit you and to benefit the com• the group toured the Portland port pany," in taking up more than 60 facilities in a Maine Central Transpor• specific traffic matters most of which tation Company bus and at the Maine were put on the agenda by the repre• State Pier heard James B. Sweeney, sentatives themselves. managing port director, plead for Executive Vice President Sughrue, recognition of Portland with Boston keynoting the conference's opening, as a non-competitive, joint, ."New declared that "our revenues are drop• England" port. ping rapidly due, to some extent, to Sweeney credited the importance of business conditions, but also to compe• "you men and women in the field," tition from other forms of transporta- Representing marine traffic was Judge J. R. Nolen, chairman of the Port of Boston Authority, and Richard Parkhurst, president of the Mystic Terminal Company, a B. & M. sub• sidiary. Parkhurst optimistically expressed belief that Boston and Portland too, "have an increased opportunity to go places in competition," and asserted that "what benefits either port will benefit New England as a whole." Edgar, assistant to the president, sounded a true note of optimism in anotherwise somber picture with a denunciation of talk heard in other sections of the Country that "New England is withering on the vine." "Despite reports to the contrary," TALKING IT OVER as our off-line and on-line traffic he declared, "New England's popula• representatives visited Portland last month are, left to tion is growing steadily and so are right, Assistant General Traffic Manager Carlton F. her industries. Some industries such Heard, General Traffic Manager Patrick J. Mullaney, as textiles, lumber and shoes have First Vice President E. Spencer Miller passed with changing conditions and changing times, but new industries tion. We are faced with the task of have taken their places." doing a better sales job than we ever "Just three new lines of industry have before if we are going to hold alone," he pointed out, "have more our place in the growing competition than offset these losses from the SITE of a new $100,000 china clay storage building to be built by the Portland Terminal Company at the easterly we face. This means that not only standpoint of industrial employment. end of Wharf Three at Portland you people, but all of us have got to These three are electrical machinery do a better job in producing and in manufacturing, printing and publish• selling." ing, and wearing apparel." The department vice presidents in On the afternoon of the second day, turn pledged the cooperation and ser• Maine Central traffic men joined with vices of their organizations in the ef• the other off-line agents in a tour of New Facility For Import Revenue ficient handling of any problems or the Boston passenger and freight new business obtained as a result of yards, hump facilities and Mystic and An important step forward to se• Assistant to the Vice President, the revitalized sales program. Hoosac Piers aboard a passenger cure new business for our railroad Traffic, Frank A. Murphy estimated Featured luncheon speakers at the coach hauled by a diesel switcher. will be undertaken by the Portland that the number of china clay ships conference included William H. Day, Terminal Company this Summer with yearly would increase from five to 12 manager of the transportation depart• construction of $100,000 steel build• and imports total more than 35,000 ment of the Boston Chamber of Com• ing to store china clay on Terminal tons of cargo. merce and Edward N. Mayer, former DO YOU REMEMBER? Wharf Three, Portland. Governor Frederick G. Payne de• general freight agent for the B. and —When there were five railroad-owned Imported from Fowy, England, clared, "It is pleasing to me to learn M. and now general traffic manager of steamboats in Frenchman's Bay? china clay has become an increasingly of the Terminal Company's interest to the Plymouth Cordage Company. —When four-wheeled flat cars were used important post-war revenue commod• the extent of investing in the port's Day warned of the growing trend in puffing trains on the ferry boat at ity for our railroad. Classified in more future. It is another step forward. toward nationalization that put rail• Bath and Woolwich? than 20 different grades, the clay is "I hope that it may be the start of roads in the most vulnerable position —When the passenger station in Port• used in the manufacture of high-gloss awakening of other interests to realize of any transportation agency, "be• land was on Commercial street at the printing papers, oilcloth, and enameled what the possibilities hold in the way cause their small ratio of earnings foot of State? hardware items. of commerce and trade." make it difficult for them to expand Erection of the modern structure The new storage building, 460 feet and improve their services." Mayer —When horse cars met all the trains at will permit storage of 4,000 tons of long and 50 feet wide, will in reality pointed out that the comparatively Portland Union Station? clay and is the first major waterfront serve a dual role in obtaining new flexible position of the truckers to the You do? Then you're an Old Timer, development at Portland in the last business for us. The current practice railroad's closely regulated situation too! aflriM. 20 years. A valuable boost to the of storing upward of 1,500 tons of makes the salesman's job "an exceed• —WILLIAM A. WHEHT.ER port's business, the Company's an• clay in the easterly end of Portland ingly difficult one." Associate Editor Emtriru* nouncement was immediately hailed Terminal Wharf 1 will be ended, free• by state and local officials.

Load more

  13

Copy Link