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By John Erickson

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ST and PanAm Railways Pictures by train symbol

There is an explanation of Springfield Terminals use of symbols further down.

Symbols

PanAm used a four character symbol to refer to each train that could tell you where the train started from and where it ended up. Long distance trains got four letters, the first two for the origin, and the last two for the destination. Switchers got two letters a dash and a number. The nicknames used could confuse this though (Sappi-3 was actually SP-3, I believe). The OCS (Officer and Crew Special) was a passenger train used to reward employees for good service and give dispatchers, company officers, and prospective customers a look at the lines. It usually consisted of three former parlor service cars pulled by two FP9 locomotives built in 1954. And the Oil Extra was a train that ran as a stop-gap measure during the Lac-Mégantic accident and Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway bankruptcy and sale to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway.

I will list the symbols I know with their end point city or town.

PanAm Symbol Descriptions
Symbol Place Symbol Place Symbol Place Symbol Place
AY Ayer, MA BA Bangor, ME BF Bellows Falls, VT BK Bucksport, ME
BO Boston, MA DJ Danville Jct., Auburn, ME DO Dover, NH ED East Deerfield, MA
LO Lowell, MA MA Mattawamkeag, ME NA Nashua, NH NM Northern Maine Jct., Bangor, ME
PL Plainville, CT PH Portsmouth, NH PO Rigby, S. Portland, ME RI Riley's, Jay, ME
RJ Rotterdam Junction, Rotterdam, NY RU Rumford, ME SE Selkirk, NY SJ Saint John, NB
SP SAPPI Mill, Hinkley, ME WA Waterville, ME WJ White River Jct, VT Area Rescue AR
PanAm Southern Symbol Descriptions
Symbol Discription Symbol Discription
22K Intermodal from Chicago (47 Street Yard) to Ayer 23K Intermodal from Ayer to Chicago (47 Street Yard)
16R Manifest from Binghamton to East Deerfield 11R Manifest from East Deerfield to Binghamton