Re: C&NW "X" cars
|
Dave Nelson
Just noticed this....
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
I rather doubt the loading point in Chicago was the Merchandise Mart. The mart was for display purposes only. The idea was that manufacturer's could send their new products to one location and buyers could send their people to the same one location to see all of the product lines. Think new cars from every manufacturer as one example. Time and money saved by everyone. More likely the car was loaded at Proviso. Freight car question: The photos of I've seen of these X cars are from the early to mid 40's. Anyone know when this special marking was dropped? Dave Nelson -----Original Message-----
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Charlie Vlk Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2022 2:52 PM To: RealSTMFC@groups.io Subject: [RealSTMFC] C&NW "X" cars 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 |
|
|