Armand,

You wrote:

How would this refect CN control of the GT (New England) and the
CV as
well as CP activity in Vermont.AP
----- Original Message -----
From: "tim gilbert" <tgilbert@...>

Subject: [STMFC] Re: [FC] December 1930 Railroad Freight Car Fleet

Just four examples of the pitfall of relying on car fleet

statistics
alone:

1% Box Car Fleet
CN 71457 7.36%
CP 65878 6.79%

The overwhelming majority of these cars were used in domestic
Canadian service. In this case the numbers are sufficiently large

to

seriously skew the percentages.

As David Thompson replied to Stafford Swain, Canadian cars were
restricted from all-American routings - the US Customs Service

wanted

their piece of the pie. Likewise, American owned cars with

all-Canadian

routing incurred the wrath of Canadian Customs. Accordingly, I agree
with you that CN and CP cars should be removed from the denominator

if

you use the denominator in distribution of owner statistics

particularly

on segment of US lines - such as Sherman Hill.

All of the Northern New England Roads had a much greater percentage of
CN and CP boxcars on line than roads in the rest of the country - the
reason being proximity to the border and receipt of goods from Canada.

There was some "cheating." The Suncook Valley received an inordinate
amount of Canadian boxcars for them (37 out of a total of 88) in their
last two months of existence in 1951. Seven of the 37 were loaded by HK
Wirth, a Feed Mill in Richford VT and four by the Merrimack Farmers
Exchange in Concord NH. The SunVal returned as empties to the B&M in
Concord 33 of the 37 Canadian cars, but two was loaded with LCL for
Concord, and two with wood chips for a plant in Stockport NY on the
ERIE.

The CN used CV and GTW boxcars as their contributions to the national
pool in the US - after WW II until 1949, maybe a maximum of 10% of the
boxcars which New England roads owned were on home rails. In 1949, that
percentage grew because of the Recession in 1949, but when the economy
picked up, the percentage plummeted. The New England roads, like most of
the rest of the nation, relied upon the reloading of foreign car empties
to supply cars to shippers.

In the ICC "Blue Books," the CP Lines in Maine were credited as owning
1,001 Boxcars - these were the International Railroad of Maine PS-1
boxcars which Kadee lettered a few years ago. I have yet to find these
cars in the CP section of the ORER - instead they are probably included
on a line which also has Canadian Cars. Like the CN's use of the CV &
GTW cars, they were essentially the CP's contribution to the US national
pool.

Hope this helps, Tim Gilbert