Wow, lot's of great info in these wheel reports! A big thank you to those who did the work to transcribe them to Excel and do the research on the ORER car types.
Some questions I would like to pose to the group:
1. There are some really interesting loads in this consist including a box car of explosives for the DoD, but one load really caught my eye -- a load of "blood" in a CB&Q 50' SD boxcar bound for Moorman Milling in Quincy. I'm guessing the blood was used to make blood meal, but how was blood package for transport? Dried, powdered and bagged? Liquid in drums?
2. There are few loads of bottles in the consist bound for Anheuser-Busch in St Louis. I'm guessing the bottles may have come from one of the bottle factories in Streator. In the report there is no interchange railroad listed, suggesting the loads were handled all the way by the Q to A-B. Was this really the case, and if so, under what agreement?
3. In the consist, there is a SOO gon with a scrap load that is getting handed off to the TRRA at Alton. I don't recall the TRRA having a direct line to Alton, so how did they get there? Trackage rights on the Q from St Louis and over the Q swing bridge to Alton?
Rick Woods
Rockton, IL