George...I did get Bedford checked out and it was a Cudahy plant there...You
asked about traffic on the Creston Division...Bedford was on the
Amazonia-Creston sub and was a part of the St. Joseph Division.
As to other traffic on the Creston Division the largest on line shipper I can
think of are the seed houses at Shenandoah Earl May, and Henry Field and a
couple of others.
Their outbound business was largely nursery stock which moved via railway
express.
This was seasonal begining in about February and extending through the
planting season.
The Red Oak-Hamburg local would take several baggage cars of this stuff to
Hamburg to move on No 26 and perhaps 27 or 23...I recall seeing 26 at Langdon
with up to 5 cars of nursery stock on the rear end through the 1950's. The
local would set the nursery stock on a track adjacent to the main line at
Hamburg and 26 would back in on the cars and carry them on the rear end...Had
to move in passenger trains because the NS had to be kept from freezing, and
was carried in baggage cars equipped with steam lines.
The northbound local would take cars to Red Oak where they were put on the
mainline trains in the same manner as at Hamburg.
I don't remember any other packing plants on the St. Joe or Creston Division
except of course at St. Joe proper where all of the major packers had
opertations
Pete
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