Hello,
While doing some other research lately, I came across a source for late 1920's "Freight Car Location Statistics" in Canadian Railway and Marine World. I have yet to return and see if they have any stats for the forties and fifties, but will do so when time allows. This is a fairly significant discovery, in my opinion, as until now, I was not aware of any source for this critical statistic. Unfortunately, the data is not reported per railway.
Anyway, these statistics are listed in a brief paragraph and use descriptions for each category that sometimes are not clear to me. I thought I'd run them by the list in case their meaning stands out more readily to someone else.
So, for April 1930 edition, p.211, it reads:
The Railway Association of Canada reports location of freight cars on March 1, based on returns from Algoma Central and Hudson Bay, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Dominion Atlantic, Kettle Valley, Northern Alberta, Quebec Central, Timiskaming and Northern Ontario, Temiscouata, and Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Rys. as follows: -
1) cars owned, 204,306;
2) home cars on Canadian lines, 9,128;
3) home cars on USA foreign lines 20,424;
4) home cars on home roads, 174,754;
5) Canadian owned foreign cars on home roads, 6,406;
6) USA owned foreign cars on home roads, 20,802;
7) total cars on lines, 201,962;
8) per cent. on lines to total owned, 98.8;
9) deficiency on lines to total owned, 2,344;
10) home cars in bad order, 12,051;
11) foreign cars in bad order, 158;
12) total cars in bad order, 12,209;
13) per cent. in bad order to cars on line, 6;
14) privately owned USA cars on line, 3,164;
15) privately owned Canadian cars on line, 1,079.
1) "Cars owned" seems straight forward. I think it means the total of cars owned by the reporting Canadian railways, where ever the cars may be, and whether in use or not.
2), "Home cars on Canadian Lines", - Home cars means Canadian owners' cars on other Canadian railways - in other words, not at "home", but also not in the USA.
3) home cars on USA Foreign Lines - would be Canadian Railway cars south of the 49th on unaffiliated railways ? In other words, it doesn't count Canadian Railway cars south of the 49th on Canadian railways trackage?
4) home cars on home roads - the number of cars of the owner presently situated on the owner's tracks, whether in Canada or across the 49th?
5) Canadian owned foreign cars on home roads - no idea
6) USA owned foreign cars on home roads - means unaffiliated USA railways cars on Canadian railway's tracks?
7) total cars on lines - includes total of all cars without distinction by owner, on lines of the listed railways, whether in the USA or Canada.
14) privately owned USA cars on line, - USA non-railway tank cars and non-railway reefers?
15) privately owned Canadian cars on line, - i.e. non-railway owned cars - like tank cars?
I have a feeling there is an inconsistency in the use of the words: "foreign", "USA", and "home", but I have not quite isolated it yet.
Comments?
Rob Kirkham
