On 7/1/2014 11:35 AM, Rick Woods rwoods613@gmail.com [CBQ] wrote:
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.
You are welcome.
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?
That is one possibility. I am working on another wheel report which
shows pulpboard going to Owens-Illinois in Streator in similar cars.
However back in that era, the distributors would collect the bottles
and then send them back to brewery for cleaning and refilling. I am
pretty positive that the St Louis Refrigerator Car Company (SLRX)
insulated boxcars in the wheel report are doing just that. So that
is another possibility.
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?
I've found sometimes the short-hand in the wheel reports is not
always complete or correct. Also different clerks seem to had their
own interpretation of the rules to punch cards. The 1970 Rock Island
Industrial Directory shows Hyman-Michaels was in Madison IL and
served by the TRRA. The main TRRA yard is at Madison. At the time
the Q had yards in both North St Louis and East St Louis. The Alton
routing could be to have the car go to East St Louis for interchange
with the TRRA, but I am just speculating. The National Association
of Timetable Collectors Issue 135 does a great job covering the Q
operations in the St. Louis area. In it is a comparison of costs of
the train going via the B&O/GM&O/Missouri Illinois Bridge
& Belt (MIB&B - fully owned by the Q) vs. the B&O/TRRA
in the early 1960s when the unit coal train to Portage Des Sioux
power plant was being planned. The MIB&B routing saved about
$2,000 per train - not insubstantial in the early 1960s. It is
apparent that the Q tried to route as much as possible via the
MIB&B to interchange with railroads in Alton rather than the
TRRA because there was a substantial cost savings on movements
around St. Louis.
Bill Hirt
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Posted by: Bill Hirt <whirt@sbcglobal.net>
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