Banana traffic has been discussed extensively on the Steam Era Freight Car List
(which goes to 1960) as well as the Operations Sig
list on Yahoo. Below are some excerpts related to this current CBQ discussion.
Doug Harding
www.iowacentralrr.org
The IC, in the steam and early diesel period, did a good banana interchange
business with the CB&Q at East Dubuque. Cars were
set-out on the "banana" track at that location by the westbound IC trains for
the Q to pick up and forward to the Twin Cities and
beyond. I believe the track and its name still survives today. The business
lasted about ten years beyond the period that this
group deals with (1960). I hired out as a brakeman at Freeport in 1960 and
recall coming out of Chicago on a westward trip a year
or two later with 17 cars of E Dubq bananas behind the engines.
In talking to the old heads over the years, everyone did work together in the
steam days with the head brakeman helping the
fireman take water and coal and sometimes helping clean the fire. The fireman
often lined switches when the brakeman was out of
position. Even after I went to work, when I had to drop off and make a cut
behind a set-out, the fireman would line switches ahead
of the engine if needed. The brakemen also assisted in set-out and picking up
diesel units enroute coupling the MU hoses and
cables. I also spent more time in the engineers seat than I would ever want an
official to hear about. Several times running the
engines for the entire run for a sick engineer.
Chet French (retired from the IC)
---
special issue on bananas of the ICHS "Green Diamond" magazine, issue no. 44,
-----
On pages 1932-1934 of the June 18th issue of RAILWAY, there is an article
entitled "Handling the Nation's Supply of Bananas -
Illinois Central creates highly specialized transportation organization for
this traffic." The first two paragraphs of the article
are verbatim:" The Illinois Central handles approximately 28,000 cars of
bananas out of New Orleans annually which is from 65-70%
of the total movement of this fruit through that port. During the busy season,
which lasts from April to August inclusive, nearly
3,000 cars month are handled. This traffic amounted to 27,750 cars last year
(1926), including 13,431,000bunches and 1,612,000,000
bananas, or enough to supply 14 bananas teach inhabitant of the US. New Orleans
is the principal banana port of the US and
supplies much of the country with the fruit. Bananas are shipped from New
Orleans to points as far distant as Vancouver BC, and
practically every state, except those on the Atlantic Seaboard, is supplied
through this port." (IIRC, the banana boats did not
operate in the Pacific Ocean until the1930's.) Paraphrasing the article, 1,000
of the 5,691 reefers the IC owned were dedicated to
banana service year round - these 1,000 were equipped with permanent floor
racks. During the busy season, specially equipped
Northern Refrigerator Transit reefers were rented to take care of the overflow
business. The return of empties to New Orleans was
also a problem to be monitored. During the slack season, the cars were returned
south carrying merchandise wherever possible. In
the busy season, however, solid trains of empty reefers left Chicago around
noon and handled on regular manifest freight
schedules. Empties received from points south of Chicago were also given prompt
handling for the trip south. When the empties were
delivered to the Harahan Yard in New Orleans, they were thoroughly inspected -
temporary floor racks were installed into those
reefers without permanent racks. The ideal temperature for bananas in transit
was 60 degrees - during summer, the cars were iced
while during the winter, straw was placed in the car to keep it from freezing
and the cars were made air tight by closing all ice
bunker drains and other opening with plugs and weather-stripping. After
inspection, the empties were classified into two groups: -
one, for green bananas; and the other, for ripening bananas. The Thalia Street
Dock was served by the IC while the Desire Street
and Pauline Street Docks were served by the Public Belt Railway of New Orleans.
All cars for loading for the latter two docks were
delivered to the Public Belt at the Stuyvesant Yard. At each of these docks and
the Thalia Street docks, an IC representative
superintends the loading of cars at each dock. At the Thalia Street Dock, there
were 11 loading tracks each having a 5-car
capacity. Adjacent is a small yard known as the Levee Yard. When a boat was
being unloaded, a switcher was assigned to spot and
pull the loading docks - if more than one boat was being unloaded at one time,
additional switchers would be assigned. Fruit
company representatives were present to notify the railroad as to the shipper's
needs as far in advance as possible. Each of the
three docks is equipped with several loading towers. The towers are on rails to
allow movement along side the boats. Each tower is
equipped with a conveyor consisting of a chain of canvas cradles. The chains
are lowered into the hold through an unloading well.
The capacity of each tower is 2,500 bunches per hour. Fruit coming off the ship
were inspected and graded for relative ripeness
and number of clusters or "hands" per bunch. Fruit which is ripe when unloaded
would be sold to local dealers. Fruit which was in
no immediate danger of spoiling was loaded into cars; all fruit loaded in a car
was at the same state of ripeness. In addition,
each car was tagged to the size of the bunches - i.e. all eight-handed bunches
were loaded into one car while the bunches with
nine "hands" were loaded into another. The loading tracks were pulled as fast
as the cars were loaded and taken into the Levee
Yard. When assembled into cuts of 20-30 cars, the cars were moved to Stuyvesant
Yard where the cars were weighed. The cars were
then hauled to Harahan Yard where 60 car 3,000 gross ton trains were dispatched
northward. An extra caboose was added to serve as
messenger cars of the shipper's representatives who monitored the loads en
route -another shipper did not require a messenger
caboose because that shipper had resident attendants en route. In almost every
instance, the banana cars were waybill to Mounds IL
for orders. Normally, the fruit companies send bills of lading to IC's banana
clerks in New Orleans on the day after the train
leaves the Crescent City. Shipping instructions were then wired to Jackson MS,
Memphis or Mounds depending upon the interval
before the instructions are received. The agents at those points then made
waybills exactly as if the cars had been billed from
New Orleans originally. After leaving New Orleans, the banana trains were run
through to Mounds IL. Between New Orleans & Mounds,
the fruit was monitored by the messengers who would open or close hatches and
perform other work as was necessary to keep the
bananas in good condition. The banana house was equipped to readjust the
temperature of the cars. From Mounds, bananas move to
Chicago, St. Louis or Indianapolis on the IC plus interchanging with roads such
as the PRR at Effringham, the C&EI at Ullin, the
B&O at Odin & Cleveland IL, the Big Four at Matoon, etc.. Hope this helps, Tim
Gilbert
-----
In fact, the IC built special cars to accommodate the banana messengers while
in transit. They looked like cabooses but were
longer, with no cupolas, and had four sets of paired windows per side. Some of
them were stenciled "bananamessenger" in small
letters in the center of the car body. John C. La Rue, Jr.
---
bananas always went in refrigerator cars on the Illinois Central, for as long
as they were shipped out of New Orleans (until the
mid 1960s, that is). The reefers (I remember mostly steel NRC cars with orange
sides, brown roof and ends, and green IC diamonds)
were iced at the IC's Stuyvesant Yard on the Mississippi river front, and
re-iced (as needed) at Fulton, Ken., on their way north.
At Fulton, foremen checked the temperature of bananas in each car and adjusted
the ice loading to keep the fruit within a
specified temperature range. But remember, the bananas were shipped green and
the idea was not to allow them to ripen until sold.
So long, Andy Sperandeo
---
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