In the 1860's businessmen from Boston bought some land in the coal-rich area of northwestern Pennsylvania. A mining town popped up and was named Shawmut as was a small railroad from the mines near Ridgeway to around Drummond. The tiny Shawmut Railroad didn't last ling, but the name did stick.
At the time, many small railroads were in operation in the region, but mostly floundering around 1899 when several of them merged into the Pittsburg, Shawmut, and Northern. Although it seemed like a plan, the PS&N never did well and ended up looking for a buyer to operate the line and stayed that way until its end in 1947.
Just after the turn of the century it was decided to continue building south so the Shawmut Line could link the Pittsburg area wiht the rest of the northeast. The new section of the PS&N was originally named the Brookville & Mahoning and ran from Brockway to Freeport, 88 miles. Some say it was renamed Pittsburg & Shawmut because of confusion with the Boston & Maine. Others say it was named the P&S so it appeared to be the PS&N.
The P&S RR did better than its ailing parent PS&N and in 1916 the P&S broke away and became its own railroad. The line moved lots of coal and passengers with various steam engines until 1953 when they started receiving the first of nine EMD SW9 switching engines. These same nine switchers then in bright red and yellow until the nid 1970's when they were repainted red, white, and blue remained the mainstay of power for the line until April 1996 when the Shawmut was purchased by G&W.
Over the years the Shawmut also ended up with three GP7's to suppliment the SW9 power for increased demands. In the early 1990's the company acquired from Conrail the shortline from Silgo to Lawsonham (Red Bank RR) then the low grade secondary from Lawsonham to Driftwood, which became the Mountain Laurel. Six former Illinois Central Gulf GP9's rebuilt into GP10's were purchased and lettered for the Mountain Laurel painted in red, black, and silver.
Lots of things have changed on the Shawmut over the years and the past ten years or so has not been kind. Trains haven't run over the heart of the line from Brookville to Mahoning Yard (actually Reesedale and the larger power plant) for the past few years. The far north and south end of the Shawmut continues to move freight and coal, but these days it it Buffalo & Pittsburgh trains that do so.