I have been following the postings to the list about the chalk marks. I don't
know if the "Q" was any different, but on the Milwaukee chalk marks were out
of use by the time I hired out in 1969. I do remember cars going throughthe
Bensenville yard with chalk marks on them, and asking some of the older heads
about them. Key punched IBM cards replaced the chalk marks, said cards
laboriously created when a train arrived at B'ville from a delivering carrier.
After a train was switched, the switch list was given to the clerks (number
dummies to the operating dept.) and the cards were "racked", theroeticllyin
car order. It wasn't uncommon when pulling a track for departure to findsome
rather intrigueing discrepancies. Garbage in, Garbage out.
A train departing B'ville for Savanna or Milwaukee or Terre Haute, to my
knowledge, did not carry IBM cars as part of the "bills", but a list was
transmitted to said destination and cards were generated automatically. I
assume (and that is a bad word) the "Q" was much the same.
Disregard the spelling errors. Spell checker didn't help much
Ron Burkhard
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