Robert A. LaMay Papers

Robert Albert LaMay (Bob) was born on August 22, 1941, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Roderick A. and Francis (Farley) LaMay. He was raised in Burlington, Vermont, and Rocky Hill, Connecticut. After his father's death in 1952 he moved to Amston, Connecticut, and he graduated from RHAM High School in 1960. He graduated with an associate's degree from Burdett Business College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1962 with a major in accounting and took business classes at the University of Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut, while working at Aetna Life and Casualty as an Internal Auditor, and also lived in Hartford, Connecticut, at this time. He later earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Hartford in 1967.

Mr. LaMay worked for the CPA firm Whittlesey and Hadley in Hartford, Connecticut, and then as controller of Dufour Transportation Services. He worked at various financial analyst and accountant positions with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford and North Haven, Connecticut. Beginning in 1995 he served as a pre-audit accountant and asset manager with the City of Hartford. He retired in 2007.

In 1964 Mr. LaMay married Barbara Sebastian; they have two children, Gregory and Pamela. The family moved from Hartford to Amston in 1967 where Mr. and Mrs. LaMay currently reside.

Mr. LaMay has had a lifelong interest in railroads and began photographing trains in the 1950s. He is the co-author, with the late Joseph Snopek, of Diesels to Park Avenue, the FL9 Story, published in 1997 by New England Rails Publishing Company of Granby, Massachusetts.

Mr. LaMay is a founding member of the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic, Connecticut, serving in several positions including public relations and historical research and as editor of the museum’s monthly newsletter, The Ghost Train Journal. He also is a frequent speaker, presenting his photographs, about railroad history to historical groups throughout Connecticut.

Within this finding aid researchers will find explanations, written by Mr. LaMay, of the significance or history of some railroad lines and motive power to aid the layman in understanding their context.

From July 1-9, 1995, Connecticut hosted the 9th Annual Special Olympic Summer World games. These were held primarily in New Haven, Connecticut. However, certain venues were held at New London and Old Lyme, Connecticut. During the event more than 7,000 athletes from 143 countries gathered to compete in 21 different summer sporting events. As part of the program special trains from the Connecticut Department of Transportation operated between New Haven and New London. The trains were met at New London by school buses which transported the athletes to New London and Old Lyme.

Robert A. LaMay was given advance schedules of the trains so he could take photographs at various locations along the route. Both color photos and 35mm color slides were taken of the trains at various locations. Please check the Shore Line East color photographs and color slides in this collection for these images.

When the Connecticut Southern (CSOR) purchased the GE B23-7's from Conrail they never removed the Conrail markings. Later on in the collection you will see when the CSOR designed their own logo for use on their locomotives. This was short lived. When they purchased their larger GE units from a leasing company they simply put in large red letters 'CSOR' on both sides of the locomotives.

On January 1, 1983, Conrail exited from the commuter rail business. Metro-North Commuter Railroad (now called Metro-North Railroad) took over all of Conrail's commuter operations out of New York City to the northwest, north, and northeast. As the same time the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation set up an Office of Rail Operations located in New Haven. The State purchased four FL9 locomotives which were in pretty sad condition. As part of a special project these four FL9 locomotives were rebuilt at Silvis, Illinois, and returned in 1987 sporting the famous McGinnis New Haven Railroad paint scheme. From this point on ConnDot or CDOT (Connecticut Department of Transportation) has shown some sort of NHRR influence in the paint schemes on all CDOT locomotives. The CDOT owned locomotives were primarily purchased to cover operations within the State of Connecticut, particularly the Waterbury and Danbury branches. The problem initially faced was where were these CDOT FL9s going to be serviced? With the majority of the FL9 fleet turned over to Metro-North as part of the Conrail agreement it would make sense to have then serviced at Harmon, New York. So whenever the CDOT FL9s needed service and or repair work they would be cycled through the former New York Central Railroad shops at Harmon, New York. As a result of this the NHRR-painted FL9 CDOT-owned units could be seen anywhere on the Metro-North system. Metro-North operated and serviced the CDOT-owned FL9s; they never became part of the Metro-North fleet. A note of interest: In 1993 CDOT purchased another six FL9 locomotives from Metro-North and these were remanufactured by Boise Locomotive Works at Boise, Idaho. These too would eventually be cycled through the shops at Harmon, New York, whenever service was needed. All six of these are currently sitting near the current Shore Line East shops at New Haven, Connecticut.

SPV2000 = Self Propelled Vehicle to serve to the year 2000. They are self-propelled railroad cars that carry people over short distances where a regular train would be too expensive to operate. Today these would be called DMU's (Diesel-Multiple-Units)

The Budd Company produced a Rail Diesel Car (RDC) commonly called the Budd Car. In the period 1949-1962 the Budd Company produced just under 400 rail diesel cars. They were primarily used on lighter travelled lines and over shorter routes and were much more economical to operate.

In the late 1970s Budd wanted to bring back a newer version of the famed 'Budd' Car. A prototype was built and in 1980 this prototype toured the eastern half of the United States in hopes of garnering sales. Only four operators purchased them -- Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) for Amtrak Service purchased thirteen, Metro-North Commuter Railroad purchased ten, U.S. Department of Transportation purchased one, and Morrocco purchased three for the King. Plus there were an additional three units built in case some one else wanted to purchase them (these were later scrapped). At just over one million dollars each and with fuel prices very high the market was very tight.

Both Metro-North and the CDOT cars were proving less reliable in cold weather. The new name dubbed the SPV which now stood for 'Seldom Powered Vehicle'. The Metro-North cars were sent back to Budd and the errors were corrected. However, the CDOT cars were not sent back and as time progressed the problems worsened. The CDOT cars were eventually removed from service and stored at New Haven, Connecticut. It was finally decided to have the CDOT cars rebuilt into coaches and cab cars. The cars were rebuilt into eight modern powerless passenger cars, three cab cars, and an office/passenger cab car. This proved to be an excellent choice and the cars were used in the commuter service along the Connecticut shoreline. Even though these cars had all the power plants removed the cars did see service into the year 2000 and beyond. The cars were removed from service in 2006 and are currently stored in New Haven, Connecticut.