Re: [CBQ] Empty GN/NP Box Car Extras

["William Hirt" <whirt@fastmail.com>]

Chris,

I recall seeing a picture of a train rollers on one of the Burlington branch lines. It was the Cheyenne WY - Sterling CO branch. Normally a train of a SW-1, 2-3 cars, and a waycar. The photo had double headed SW-1s pulling 40 boxcars of roller lumber plus a waycar. The explanation was that caused an extra day for the lumber to be moved east and another day to try and sell it.

The C&NW Modeler had an issue about modeling lumber yards. As part of that issue, there was discussion of roller lumber cars and some of the odd routings the cars would take moving east all to delay arriving at a final destination without being sold.

For many years one of those Morrison lessors sat next to a grain elevator in Rushville MO. The top coat paint had worn enough that the Lackawanna lettering was showing through on the car.

Bill Hirt

On 4/12/2021 1:03 AM, leakinmywaders via groups.io wrote:

Bill: Interesting stuff, thanks!  That’s the first I’ve heard of a ban on roller loads, and guys working for the NP in the late 60s have reported being quite familiar with the practice, so I wonder if that ban was temporary, and/or ineffective.  

Your comments on the spreading of EB traffic among multiple interchange roads got me thinking about a sales agent spreading rollers around the country, so at any given time he’d have a load within a day or 2 of most any buyer that rang him up. 

The east-west disparity in boxcars was so bad that the NP and GN both worked deals with lessor AA Morrison to buy older boxcars by the hundreds off the NE railroads’  bad order lines, refurbish them with double doors, and lease them for lumber service. So they were cheap rolling stock that saw high utilization and big net profit for the NP, and presumably GN. 

Chris Frissell
Polson, MT 

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