Pete, Leo et al: I see a good topical article for the Zephyr: couple pics of
grain boxes &/or a local trailing same, coopering a door plus these stories!
Gerald
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 20:45:39 -0400
Subject: Re: [CBQ] empty cars
Leo
You got it just right......In the early days of the "Ingram era" on the RI they
came up with a brilliant idea...Let the local conductor be a "manager" of his
branch line..Anyone who has been around in the "old days" would know that that
was the way it had always been...especially on branches where there were
elevators loading boxcars...There were indeed certain "gratuities"
involved....I've even heard a conductor say..."that elevator man offered me $10
for an mty...upon being turned down..."have you got an mty for $20??"...I never
personally saw any money change hands, but I'm sure that sometimes it did.
My last summer on the Q (1958) I worked the Fairmont (NE) Hildreth local. We
ran Fairmont-Hildreth Monday Wednesday Friday peddling mtys..returning on
Tuesday Thursday Saturday. Our conductor was an old head (hired out in 1928 at
age 18)...We were bulletined to leave Fairmont (60 miles west of Lincoln) at
3:00pm). The actual call time was "right problematical"..dependent on the
arrival of the Lincolnj-Hastings local with whom we traded engines at Fairmont.
The conductor-engineer and I lived in Lincoln..We took turns driving to
Fairmont leaving at 1:30pm...When we picked up the conductor he would say
something like.."Well I went down and talked to the car distributor this
morning and he told me we would have 55 (or whatever the number was) leaving
Fairmont and then he would know how many for each elevator at each town...I was
"in awe" of our very own conductor being able to go right down to division HQ
and talk with a high official like the car distributor and get all that
informtion ahead of time.
We would occasionally have a merchandise car or other commercial load going to
one of the stations..Our conductor would say.."well that mty will make a good
grain box for Campbell when we pick it up tomorrow going back...He kept track
of all of that kind of stuff and that was the way it was done..
Mtys for grain loading were handled by "grain box drags" out of Lincoln with
100-125 mty boxcars to be set out along the way at mainlline elevators and at
stations like Fairmont where branch line locals worked from. The loads would be
picked up by extras operated as need as the eastbound locals brought them into
branch line terminals.
Threre were always bulletins put out at the begining of the wheat harvest
season reading something like ......When pickiing up grain loads trains will
not exceed 25 MPH for the first 10 miles. This was to allow journal boxes to
warm up and, hopefully, minimize the number of hotboxes devleoped...It was
pretty much unnecessary since grain drags making a pickup at every station were
normally powered by not more that two units and it was virtually impossible for
such a train to even get up to 25 mph much less exceed that velocity.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: qutlx1 <qutlx1@aol.com>
To: cbq <cbq@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Oct 7, 2010 2:41 pm
Subject: [CBQ] empty cars
I'll try and provide some of the answers on mty cars you are asking . Keep
in mind that this applies only to "free runners" not cars assigned to
pools, in dedicated service or private marked cars.
>From my days in the "White House or G.O." in Chicago the ultimate
distribution of mtys was under the control of car distributors at the G.O.
Customers contacted agents who contacted the car distibutor. The car
distributor
then did his best to fill the car order based on priority,profitablility,
etc.
Yes an agent can tell the local crew or engine to pull an mty from one
industry and set it at another for loading. Of course the car distributor may
have had another request for the car.
The clearest example I was involved in was while working the Earlville
Turn. We spotted a new combine at Earlville for the implement company. A
couple days later the flat car was mty and we pulled it and took it directly to
Cat in Montgomery and placed it on the loading dock that night. Next night
we pulled it as a load of Cat wheel loaders. Hows that for utilization?
At this time of year,back in the day, the Condr on locals was also his own
car distributor . Each elevator would be screaming for cars,each agent of
course sent the cries to the car distributors who had as many mtys as
possible shifted and stationed for grain loading. The classification yards
would
fill each local w/grain mtys and the Condr would be the ultimate judge of
how many cars each elevator received.
How you ask? It has to do a little bit with the payoffs left on the back
step of the w/c before the wayfreight left town. The currency was
cigarettes,booze,etc. The better the gratuity the more cars delivered.
I'm sure there's much more detail involved but thats about the extent of
my exposure on mty car allocations.
Leo Phillipp
Gentlemen,
I have learned a lot from this group so let me pose a question on the
handling of empty freight cars. I know that when shipper needs a car, he orders
it from the nearest agent and a car is delivered, per specifications for
loading. I know that when a loaded car is deivered, there is a time limit
for the shipper to empty the car ane return it to the railroad before a late
fee is charged. I think it is our days. My questions are who directs the
pick up of the emtpy car, where is is sent and how is is accounted for by the
railroad and who actually orders an emtpy car to be delivered.
Further, can an station agent, who had a need for an empty car, simply
take one just released, inform the Traffic Deptratment (?) that he has done so
and take place said car at another local shipper?
This seems like and area many modelers overlook or do not handle properly
in our quest for realistic operations. Thank you for your assistance.
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