Malcom,

Excellent comments. At the CB&Q Cicero Yard every afternoon
they would mimeograph "Night Orders". Included were where
and how many box cars were to be provided. The freight houses
would get most of their cars off the clean out track. The
trains that supplied the locals would get a certain number
for each point of supply. On some nights we may be talking
about between 100 and 150 cars. Ownership was not an issue
here, just "how many"?

Can not recall at any time there was ever an issue about
loading "On-line" or "Off-line".

Even today with all the computer controlled car ordering
the only way to be certain that a car will not be loaded
off-line is to not spot it for loading.

BNSF's normal tender for shuttle grain is 110 cars. On the
territory I Dispatch we have one spot where a supply of
cars is maintained. This would be both BNSF and Rail
Controlled Private Cars. Part of my job is to make sure no
empty shuttle train passes that point with less than the
tender. We just take them off the East end of the track.
If they were not available for any loading they would not
be there.

Russ
1c. grain box cars
Posted by: "Malcolm Laughlin" mlaughlinnyc@... mlaughlinnyc
Date: Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:10 pm (PDT)


Posted by: "Ted Larson" >>>>I have long thought that the Mid West and Prairie Granger Roads had
to own relatively more boxcars than non-Granger roads in order to meet
the seasonal demands of the Grain Rushes.<<<....From these vague memories, I wonder if these cars were olde enough to not be in interchange service, --------------------------

I'd say not very likely, for a couple of reasons.

- A grain box is a grain box is a grain box, etc.

- There would have had some very unhappy customers if you had told them they couldn't ship to any elevator at Duluth/Superior, Twin Cities or Chicago. Most, probably all, elevators in those areas were open to reciprocal switching.

- Elevators wanted to load cars in the order they stood on the siding and bill them in the sequence that the papers were stacked on the desk, and they weren't likely to have decided which shipment goes where before the cars were placed.

- You were not going to tell that local freight conductor that he couldn't just place the first n cars on his train at an elevator but would have to wait for the agent to tell him which cars to place

- The yardmaster is going to give that local a string of say 40 grain cars. You don't want him to have to switch out those that are for on-line loading only.

- I believe that was long before the 40 year rule on age of cars.



Malcolm Laughlin, Editor 617-489-4383
New England Rail Shipper Directories
19 Holden Road, Belmont, MA 02478