When Iowa Pacific Holdings started to unravel in 2019, the Parsons Vale purchased the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad out of receivership to operate as an extension of the South Loren Railway.
When the SLR reorganized the MCR, they renamed it to the Old Colony Railway to go along with their Old Colony branch into Rhode Island; it was an almost pure-EMD road prior to the takeover, but – aside from a pair of EMD FL9s that are used in Cape Cod excursion service – those locomotives were immediately sold and replaced with a mix of class DL13 & DL16 units that had been displaced from the D&H by newer ILW power.
In 2020, the Old Colony started a project to electrify all of their SE Mass railway lines, and by 2025 the entire system – modulo the North Falmouth to Falmouth branch – had been electrified
As of 2025, the Old Colony’s roster consists of
number(s) | class | builder | notes |
---|---|---|---|
1340,1341 | DL43 | EMD | originally NYNH&H #2007,2038; painted in NYNH&H (McGinnis) colors |
1342 | DL32b | ALCO | was Cape Cod Central #1201, rebuilt to a “RS-350” in 2019 |
1362-1366,1403,1404 | JX | Portland | |
1367-1369 | M2 | Portland | |
1432,1433 | M3 | Portland | |
1566,1567 | DP5 | ILW | painted in NYNH&H (McGinnis) colors |
1667,1668 | Q | ILW | for freight service on the Middleborough Main Line |