With all this Banana talk I just couldn't help remembering some of the old RR
Magazine fiction..particularly E.S. Dellinger who worked for the Frisco and
perhaps the IC...Several of his stories involved "banana extras" and the need
for speed.?
The one particular tale was titled..."Wheeling the Hotshots"..RAILROAD about
1950.? I don't remember the name Dellinger gave his railroad, but the portion
over which the story took place was the "River and Hill Division"..I'm pretty
sure it was based on the Frisco route between Springfield and Memphis...I even
looked up some of the towns years ago and some match exactly.
I could locate the story in a few minutes, but I'm just going for memory
here...In the Wheeling...story he made the statement..."reefer journals were
not made to roll at 80" thus a hotbox or two was encountered...There was no
setting out of a load of bananas, so it was always necessary to rebrass the car
if installing a "Keeley" wasn't sufficient.
My only experience with banana shipments...that is before I became Freight
Claim agent for the Rock Island and saw how much money was paid out for spoiled
or missed market bananas was in the summer of 1956 and I was working the night
switch engine at Ravenna, NE...Some westbound train was in town and we were
doing something to him..In my travels up and down the yard I encountered a
somewhat disreputable looking character carrying what appeared to be a smoky
"barn lantern" trudging through the yard.
I asked one of the other crew members..."Who is that guy"...I was told that
that was a banana messenger.
Bananas were very tricky as has been brought out...They, unlike other fruits
and vegetables give off heat while ripening..Hence it is necessary to
constantly monitor the temperature...Not just the air temperature, but the
"pulp temperature" as well..That's what the messenger did.? He had a
thermometer somewhat like one would use to take the temperature of a human
being and would "stick" a representative number of specimens and make
adjustments to the ice, heater, or vents as required.
Some roads even used the designation "Banana Extra"...as in Train Order
123..."Engine 3489 run Banana Extra? Mountain Grove to Ashfield".? Some roads
used Passenger Extra as a designation which actually, in my opinion caused more
problems than it solved..An extra is an extra as far as the timetable is
concerned and has only any right given by train order and no timetable
superiority.
Pete.
-----Original Message-----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, Jul 31, 2009 1:29 pm
Subject: [CBQ] Bananas
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
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