On Feb 13, 2022, at 4:51 PM, Charlie Vlk <cvlk@...> wrote:

All-
I know this has been discussed before but in browsing the Library of
Congress photo collection I found an intriguingly captioned photo of a C&NW
captive service package car being loaded.

The caption reads " Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad
runs a special service in these freight cars marked "X" between Chicago and
Milwaukee. The cars are loaded with goods in proper order on these hand
trucks. The cars are sent on to Milwaukee, trucks and all, are unloaded
there, trucks reloaded, and shipped in the freight cars back to specified
tracks. By setting aside special tracks at both ends, and keeping the goods
in proper order for unloading, a great deal of time is saved ".

At first I thought that the caption should read "The cars are sent on to
Proviso...." as the picture was taken of a car being loaded in Chicago
(likely in the freight terminal under the Merchandise Mart). "X" marked
cars were loaded, hand trucks and all, to be forwarded to the large covered
freight terminal LCL operation at the west end of the Proviso Yard. But note
that the car is lettered "MILWAUKEE" so there must have been a similar
operation between Chicago and Milwaukee, not just Chicago and Proviso.

Any C&NW experts can fill in details of these cars that are often mislabeled
as "explosives cars"!!

Charlie Vlk





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