Just a quick note of explanation. I found the date tonight of the distribution
warehouse expansion at Generals Mills in West Chicago as 1973 not the earlier
dates I posted.
Leo Phillipp
> On Jun 8, 2021, at 3:48 PM, Leo Phillipp via groups.io
> <qutlx1=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
>
> Well, looks like I have to correct myself. There are BN cars on the switch
> list. So it is a BN form.
> But you get the idea of what I and my coworkers called a switch list. Maybe
> it comes down to what was handy. When you think about it a blank piece of
> paper could be used to write car numbers, etc onto.
>
> Leo Phillipp
>
>> On Jun 8, 2021, at 12:58 PM, Leo Phillipp via groups.io
>> <qutlx1=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
>>
>> While I haven’t dug deep enough to find my blank Q switch list here is a
>> photo of one from an article I wrote in 2016 for Friends of the BNSF’s
>> Expeditor. This is exactly what I was trying to describe in words. As always
>> a picture is worth a thousand words.
>> This example is from switching operations at West Chicago,Illinois by one of
>> the “mail” road switchers for staging tracks for input into General Mills
>> from the yard adjacent. Barely visible at the top is the notation cars are
>> in denoted as being on yard one and listed east to west. Unfortunately the
>> bottom and top are cutoff so we still don’t have a form number. Since the
>> destinations of the cars are listed as “E” and “W” I can verify this is Q
>> activity because by sometime around 1964 or 1967 General Mills added to the
>> warehouse and then building tracks were numbered one through four. I can’t
>> say for sure but I would bet the writing is by Russ”Rip” Repetto of story
>> telling fame.
>>
>> Oh and as further info. We were still using switch lists at West Chicago
>> into the late 1970s. It’s the last location I remember them being used.
>> Every where else Compass, the computer car inventory system would provide a
>> pre-printed form with a list of the track and cars in it. All one did from
>> there is write where you wanted the car to go to. The agent or operator
>> would have written the destination of each car in the column. But there were
>> very few numbered tracks at Rochelle. Every one had a name. As the new man
>> in the job I had to quickly learn what CN,115,199,Swift,new city, standard
>> and many more meant.
>> When I worked the Rochelle night job in the 1970’s it was routine to be
>> handed 6-8 pages when we went to work and then 4 or 5 more as we progressed
>> through the 12 hours of just about non stop movement. That entire story will
>> be a future article.
>>
>> As an aside if you are interested in knowing what really went on behind the
>> scenes in working the suburban trains(dinkies). I just turned in a lengthy
>> article to Friends of the BN. At first cut it looks to be a two issue
>> article next year.
>>
>> Leo Phillipp
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <IMG_0231.jpg>
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