Listers,
Mike Spoor's Volume 1 of the All-Color series mentions that the New
York Central (Peoria & Eastern) was a major Q connection at the
Peoria Gateway. A good deal of the traffic interchanged to them
likely included cattle bound for eastern slaughterhouses. I know
that the P&E's night freight out of East Peoria to Indianapolis
(#90?) was handling 5-6 stock cars each weekday as late as the Fall
of 1963.
It has come to my attention that the Peoria & Eastern handed off,
possibly to the Q at Peoria, as many as 6-7 gondolas at time loaded
with auto frames (two rows stacked vertically but leaning forward on
a U-shaped brace at the front end of each car). Here's some
additional info about this traffic:
- Hauled in 600000-series NYC 45-ft(?) gondolas.
- Shipments probably originated at a Fisher Body (GM) plant in
Indiana, Michigan or Ohio.
- Most cars consigned to GM assembly plant in South Gate, California
(served by Southern Pacific).
- Shipments were probably handled in the late 1940's, 1950's and
into the 1960's before dedicated California-bound auto parts trains
became the norm.
I was wondering if anyone on this list remembered seeing these
shipments on the Q somewhere between Peoria, Kansas City or Omaha
and Denver, etc. I have confirmation that the Chicago & Northwestern
did not handle this business and a post to the Rock Island list
resulted in no responses.
Any comments, corrections and additions desired.
Thanks in advance,
David P. Jordan
Peoria, Illinois
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