The ''Gull'' was an international

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

service between Boston, United States and

Halifax, Canada Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

which operated from 1930 to 1960. Journey time was approximately 24 hours. Westbound trains left Halifax shortly after breakfast and crossed the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

in the late evening, as eastbound trains were leaving Boston's

North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtrak ...

to cross the border about dawn. Travel was over the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the end of 1970, B ...

from Boston to

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, then over the

Maine Central Railroad The Maine Central Railroad Company was a U. S. Class I railroad in central and southern Maine. It was chartered in 1856 and began operations in 1862. By 1884, Maine Central was the longest railroad in New England. Maine Central had expanded to w ...

to the border between

Vanceboro, Maine Vanceboro is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States. The town was named after landowner William Vance. The main village in town is located at the eastern terminus of Maine State Route 6. Vanceboro is across the St. Croix River from ...

, and Saint Croix, New Brunswick, then over the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

, and over the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

to Halifax.National Railway Publication Company ''Official Guide'' (July, 1954)

Equipment

Through

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. ...

s between Boston and Halifax were the core of service initiated 2 March 1930. Through

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

operated between Boston and Saint John. Canadian National operated through coaches between Saint John and Halifax with a

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that ...

between Halifax and

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. The ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, and a

buffet car A buffet car is a passenger car of a train, where food and beverages can be bought at a counter and consumed.Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

, and transferred to connecting trains over the Maine Central between Bangor and

Calais, Maine Calais is a city in Washington County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,079, making Calais the third least-populous city in Maine (after Hallowell and Eastport). The city has three Canada–US border cro ...

, and over the

Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-generation diesel locomotives op ...

between Bangor and

Van Buren, Maine Van Buren is a town on the Saint John River in Aroostook County, Maine, United States; located across from Saint-Leonard, New Brunswick, Canada. The population was 2,038 at the 2020 census. It is named after U.S. President Martin Van Buren. G ...

. Connecting Bangor & Aroostook trains carried through coaches between Boston and Van Buren and a buffet car between Bangor and Van Buren. Until 1946 the ''Gull'' made connections with Canadian National branch line service at Saint John to

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

and at Moncton to

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

via

Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...

. The ''Gull'' carried a diverse assortment of

baggage car A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passen ...

s, express cars, and mail cars from the five railroads offering through service. These were often conventional heavyweight cars, but included Bangor & Aroostook open-platform, steel-underframe wood baggage cars in the years before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

,Liljestrand & Sweetland, ''Passenger Cars of New England'' Volume 2 (2000). The Railroad Press, , pp.24-25 and Boston & Maine converted

troop sleeper In United States railroad terminology, a troop sleeper was a railroad passenger car which had been constructed to serve as something of a mobile barracks (essentially, a sleeping car) for transporting troops over distances sufficient to require ov ...

baggage cars after the war. Boston received

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

from

the Maritimes The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

in express reefers and

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

from

Newport, Maine Newport is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,133 at the 2020 census. The town's borders surround the shoreline of Sebasticook Lake. History The town was settled about 1808 as East Pond Plantation, then inco ...

, in

Pfaudler Pfaudler, Inc. is an American multinational company best known for the invention of glass-coated steel, its successful commercialization and the subsequent production of storage tanks, reactors and other vessels for the brewing and chemical pr ...

milk car Milk cars are a specialized type of railroad car intended to transport raw milk from collection points near dairy farms to a processing creamery. Some milk cars were intended for loading with multiple cans of milk, while others were designed with a ...

s leased to

HP Hood HP Hood LLC is an American dairy company based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Hood was founded in 1846 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, by Harvey Perley Hood. Recent company acquisitions by HP Hood have expanded its reach from predominantly New Eng ...

. The train often included Boston & Maine lightweight ''

American Flyer American Flyer is a brand of toy train and model railroad manufactured in the United States. The Chicago era, 1907–1938 Although best remembered for the S gauge trains of the 1950s that it made as a division of the A. C. Gilbert Compan ...

'' coaches built in the 1930s by the

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

Osgood Bradley Car Company The Osgood Bradley Car Company manufactured railway Passenger car (rail), passenger cars and streetcars in Worcester, Massachusetts. History The company was founded in 1822 to manufacture stagecoaches and sleighs. The company's first railway p ...

plant in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

Stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

coaches started appearing in the train after a joint order by Maine Central and Boston & Maine in 1947. Stainless steel sleeping cars were delivered to the Bangor & Aroostook and Boston & Maine in 1954. The train was typically pulled by

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s, although Maine Central and Boston & Maine

EMD E7 The E7 was a , A1A-A1A passenger train locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois. 428 cab versions, or E7As, were built from February 1945 to April 1949; 82 booster E7Bs were built from March 1945 to J ...

s were used in the United States after World War II.Albert & Melvin, ''New England Diesels'' (1975). Interstate Book Manufacturing, , pp. 39 & 206

Merchandise-Mail trains

The ''Gull'' was the last non- RDC train using North Station when service was discontinued 5 September 1960. Head-end cars had outnumbered cars for passengers during the final years of operation, and the Maine Central attempted to retain that traffic using their EMD E7s to pull merchandise-mail trains on the former ''Gull'' schedule. These trains resembled passenger trains with a string of baggage and express cars no longer needed for passenger service followed by a

combine car A combine car in North American parlance, most often referred to simply as a combine, is a type of railroad car which combines sections for both passengers and freight. Most often, it was used on short lines to carry passengers and their luggag ...

serving as a

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damag ...

. Lightweight baggage cars had been unusual on this route until the Bangor and Aroostook's ''American Flyer'' cars were purchased by the Maine Central in 1961. Without direct connections to Boston, the service was uncompetitive with highway trucks and was discontinued 30 September 1963.Johnson, Ron, ''The Best of Maine Railroads'' (1985). Portland Litho, p.113

References

External links

1954 schedule of the ''Gull,'' with consists, at 'Streamliner Schedules'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gull Boston and Maine Railroad Maine Central Railroad Canadian Pacific Railway passenger trains Canadian National Railway passenger trains International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of Canada Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Massachusetts Passenger rail transportation in New Hampshire Passenger rail transportation in Maine Passenger rail transport in New Brunswick Passenger rail transport in Nova Scotia Night trains of the United States Passenger trains of the Boston and Maine Railroad Railway services introduced in 1930 Railway services discontinued in 1960