Tom,
I have not seen any of these cars in actual consists that have
been posted. You might recall the recent Trains magazine article
about the BN merger. In the article, it says the BN had no online
auto plants that it served. That reduces the possibility of these
cars showing up regularly on the Q. The Q did contribute cars to
auto plant and auto part pools. The recent Operations SIG
publication Dispatchers Office had a several page article by Brian
Holtz about RBL pool cars for the Schlitz breweries. The railroads
made money on these cars because they were in constant service,
paid daily per diem, and often never saw their home rails. I've
read in books and articles about the GB&W that many auto parts
cars to the Twin Cities would take the Ann Arbor ferry across Lake
Michigan to the GB&W. It avoided the Chicago congestion and
was faster. That was the primary lifeblood of the GB&W. They
could easily turn these cars over the MILW at Winona. When
deregulation came, the railroads changed rate structures and that
was the end of the ferries and pretty much the beginning of the
end of the GB&W as then existed. There was also a C&O
ferry to Milwaukee which cars could be turned directly to the MILW
for hauling to Ford plant in the Twin Cities.
Bill Hirt
Does anyone know what routes the longer 60' and 86' auto parts
box cars might have traveled on the Q?
I cannot recall seeing photos of any of these long boxcars
running between Chicago and Mpls/StP. It got me to wondering if
there were any auto plants along the line or at either end that
would be serviced by these longer cars. That might account for
not seeing any photos or references.
Has anyone ever researched this or does anyone recall photos of
these long box cars running on the C&I in the late 1960's?
Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH
__._,_.___
Posted by: Bill Hirt <whirt@fastmail.com>
![]()
__,_._,___