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Tom: Bill is correct on the auto parts traffic moving to the Ford St. Paul Assembly plant. It was routed via Chicago-MILW on traffic coming off the NYC/PRR/B&O/GTW etc. Ford originated a lot of parts traffic on the DT&I at Dearborn, MI and much of it was routed DTI-AA-GBW-Winona-MILW. The Q did not handle any of this traffic. Traffic from the C&O/PM lines in Michigan could also move via GBW but I think most of it moved via Chicago-MILW. There were some replacement part moves that originated in the Detroit area to warehouses the Q did handle via the C&I. The biggest moves were for GM locations in the Pacific Northwest and if memory serves these moved off of C&O points via Chicago CB&Q-GN. By the late 1960s GM had consolidated their replacement part origin operation at Waterford, MI. By this time most of 50ft cars had been replaced by 60ft cars and the Q had a few assigned there. Ford consolidated their replacement parts at Brownstown MI but this did not occur until the BN merger. BN had about 15 or so 86ft single door cars which were ordered by the Q and GN but when built had BN paint and numbers in this pool as well. Seattle was a destination for this traffic and moved over the C&I. The Q did not handle any parts for Chrysler on a regular basis. The Q did handle large volumes of assembly parts traffic over Chicago for both Ford and GM but they were destined to West Coast and KC area assembly plants mostly via DGRW and UP. How do I know this? I worked for the Q/BN in Detroit from 1964-1977 and watching this traffic was one of my duties. And I realized a year or so ago I was only one from the Q era in Detroit still alive. Better start asking your questions now. Fred Crissey On Saturday, August 6, 2016 10:58 AM, "Bill Hirt whirt@fastmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote: 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
On 8/5/2016 5:00 PM, thommack@yahoo.com
[CBQ] wrote:
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