Hi Leo,
I checked my detailed Dubuque track plans from 1945 and the IC's
fruit Despatch house had four tracks each 460' long under roof. That
building could cover 48 cars!!
In interviewing a Milwaukee Road conductor about 15 years ago, he
stated that when the IC brought in a banana train, the other three
Dubuque railroads (CBQ, Milw, CGW) had crews, locos and cabooses
standing by. the cars were inspected and switched to the three other
carriers, except cars bound for western Iowa that the IC kept. At
that time the Milw would run a special train for as few as 7 cars, so
important was the timely handling of bananas. A banana messenger
went with each group of cars to monitor progress of the cars and of
the ripening.
After WWII this process was transferred to East Dubuque and performed
in the open air.
In this era the furthest north a green banana out of New Orleans
could be shipped was Winnipeg Canada.
Ted
At 01:29 PM 7/31/2009, you wrote:
>Just finished an article from a 1931 Railway Age on Q warehouse for
>bananas. Q was handling 350 carloads per month into and thru
>Minneapolis ! It's
>staggering the business that's moved to other modes over the decades.
>
>Does anyone know how these would have been routed? IC(Centralia)Q, IC(East
>Dubuque)Q, IC(Mendota)Q ?
>This is back in the time when each road was trying to maximize earnings by
>miles so my guess would be East Dubuque but.........
>Rip Repetto used to tell the story of the banana mtys on the p/u out of
>Savanna coming from East Dubuque which totally confuses me. Why would the IC
>give the Q an mty IC car at East Dubuque ?
>
>Related question what about cars of bananas for Aurora. What routing
>IC(Mendota,Centralia or CHGO) Q ?
>
>Leo Phillipp
Rails Unlimited
Ted Schnepf
railsunl@sbcglobal.net
847-697-5353 or 5366
126 Will Scarlet
Elgin, Ill. 60120
http://RailsUnlimited.ribbonrail.com/
Model Railroad Sales and Service with
a personal touch.
Books new and used. HO and O scales.
DCC supplies. O scale urethane cars.
Photos and darkroom services.
Checks, cash (0%) or credit (secure server at web site 4% added).
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|