Fred,
What a great amount of information here. I have a couple of
questions perhaps you can answer.
1. On the Kansas City traffic, was it mostly all GM bound for the
Fairfax plant in Kansas City KS (the old plant was on the UP as is
the new one built in 1980s). Or did the Q get some of the Leeds
plant traffic that was on the east side of Kansas City that was on
the KCS and MP?
2. In a 1965 MP Traffic Guide, it shows that GM had a Diesel
Distribution warehouse in North Kansas City on the Q. Maybe stock
diesel engines and parts? GM has a truck parts warehouse on the UP
in the Kansas City KS. Do you know if this was part of the GM
traffic?
3. The Ford Claycomo plant was served by the N&W (former
Wabash) and used trackage rights on old Q mainline from Kansas
City to Kearney to access the plant. Did the Q get to share in any
of the Ford traffic to or from Claycomo because of the trackage
rights agreement?
4. Did the Q get any of the auto parts business from Ford or GM
to the assembly plants in the St. Louis area?
5. Was the Q already handling auto parts cars to the D&RGW
when you came onboard in 1965? I have a friend who models the
D&RGW then and would find this information very useful for the
modeling.
Thanks for more information on the DT&I-AA-GBW-MILW routing.
I failed to mention in earlier message that the DT&I picked up
control of the AA when the Wabash merged with the N&W in 1964,
so this gave the DT&I a longer haul and greater cut of the
revenue.
Thanks,
Bill Hirt
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had been replaced by 60ft cars and the Q had a few assigned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
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Posted by: Bill Hirt <whirt@fastmail.com>
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