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Leo and Doug...I think Doug's comments are "right on" re the difference between the two "classes of service. Just as an "anecdotal" reference..My grandfather was a Traveling Salesman for the Lincoln Drug Company wit;h headquarters at Alliance, NE from 1908 - 1917...
He made his "rounds" before he acquired a 1908 Ford "Touring Car" via the local freight trains...He told me many stories of how he would ride the "locals" from town to town and while the crew was doing their station switching and handling the LCL he would make his calls on the local drug store...If he wasn"t back the engineer would whistle for him and wait till he got back.
Many years later on a "journey to yesterday" back in the 60's...my dad encountered one of the old time conductors at Alliance who had known my GF in his "traveling days"...he commented that he had "smoked many of his (GF"s) cigars when he was on one of the locals. This was "payment" for the accommodations furnished...it may or may not have been in lieu of payment of cash fare....but certainly as a tip for "over and above service"
Just as a liltle supplemental info here for your reading enjoyment. On one of his trips to Chicago after taking over the management of the Rock Port Langdon and Northern RR in 1917 one of the Q officials asked him..." Pete, where did you get the experience to run a railroad...
My GF's answer...typical of him...."When I was a traveling salesman years ago I spent a lot of time riding Burlington trains......I saw all the mistakes the Burlington made....AND I JUST DIDN'T MAKE 'EM.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: 'Douglas Harding' doug.harding@iowacentralrr.org [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wed, Apr 29, 2015 11:18 am Subject: [CBQ] Re: What's the difference between a mixed and a w/f that carries passengers ? Leo, I can only speculate. But I would guess the mixed offered better accommodations, a better schedule and regularly carried passengers, plus the baggage car probably carried mail and express that helped pay the cost of the train. Whereas the way freight offered only the caboose, probably seldom carried passengers and had a schedule that discouraged passengers. In addition the way freight may have stopped at every spur and siding, sometimes taking hours, whereas the mixed may have stopped only at the depots and may not have switched every spur, in addition it may adhered to the timetable schedule better.
Doug Harding
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