Greetings all:
Previously posted in re mail/express movements and war-surplus troop kitchen
cars:
"The cars were assigned based upon the contract. Was a jeep, that's Q term
for the former troop kitchen cars, adequate? A 60 foot car? As traffic
demands oscillated, so did car assignments. ..." And: "... Another nitpick:
most large printing plants had (and still have) their own rail access, often
extending right into their buildings. Wouldn't it have been more likely that
the magazine's cars were loaded right in the printing plant?"
My $.02:
Kable Printing in Mt. Morris, Illinois, had such an interior loading
arrangement and from my recollections of the late 50s to late 60s used the
converted kitchen cars to the exclusion of other cars. I do recall a
brand-new Chinese red plug-door box spotted nearby but never found out what
it was doing there. As far as the ex-kitchen cars being more suited to the
job, I wonder if it had more to do with the quality of rail on the branch
from Oregon.
As an aside, on one trip in the latter 60s the turn from Oregon managed to
damage the roll-up door protecting the track into Kable Printing. I have the
teletype ordering crewmen to the inquiry in Oregon but don't know its outcome.
Regards,
Bill Diven
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