By Justin Franz
Gulf & Atlantic Railways, an independent short line operator in the southeast owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, has rebranded itself as Pinsly Railroad Company, reviving the name of the iconic short line operator.
In 2023, Gulf & Atlantic purchased Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley Railroad, the last railroad owned by Pinsley. The Florida-based short line holder also owns Florida Gulf & Atlantic, Grenada Railroad, Camp Chase Rail, Chesapeake & Indiana and Vermilion Valley Railroad Company. The transaction marked the end of an era for Pinsley, which at one time had operations up and down the East Coast. Long before Genesee & Wyoming orange and black and Watco black and yellow had become the symbol of jointly-owned short lines, there was Pinsly red and yellow.
Pinsly was founded in 1938 when Samuel M. Pinsly purchased his first railroad, the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington Railroad in western Massachusetts, nicknamed the “Hoot, Toot & Whistle.” Through the 1940s and 1950s, Pinsly’s operation would expand to include a number of notable New England short lines, including the Sanford & Eastern in Maine, the Claremont & Concord in New Hampshire, and the St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County in Vermont. In the 1980s and 1990s, it expanded south making acquisitions in Florida and Arkansas. Over the course of the decades, the company would own more than a dozen short lines. Operations would come and go and by the 2000s, it only had the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts and the operations in Arkansas and Florida. In 2015, the Arkansas Midland was sold to G&W, and in 2020, the Florida Central, Florida Midland and Florida Northern were sold to Regional Rail.
In a press release, the “new” Pinsley CEO Ryan Ratledge said, “it is under this iconic name that we are excited to run and grow our portfolio of railroad, warehousing, transloading, and trucking businesses. Our team is committed to continuing the admirable Pinsly track record for safety and service.”
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