Tim,

I don't even begin to understand freight car utilization rules, even though we discuss them here
frequently. As has often been pointed out here by those more in the know, agents frequently ... uh ...
bent those rules to simplify their work, to increase profits, or cut rival railroad's possible revenue.

Your point is well taken, and I now understand the error of my statement. That said, I am not about to
whip myself with a piece of flex track. :~)

The point I was trying to make, and probably muddied the issue with excess verbosity, was that the SP did
have a substantial fleet of mill and other long gons which were generally adequate to their needs, and
also that the SP did serve quite a number of steel mills.

Let's let it go at that.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff



tim gilbert wrote:

Garth,

You wrote:

Your idea that an SP agent would have grabbed an East Coast gon is
certainly possible, but more likely he
would have chosen a home-road car whenever possible.

To which Tim replied:

... It was the First Rule of Interchange to give precedence to loading
foreign car empties when appropriate - this reduced empty car mileage,
lessened the demand upon track and yard capacity as it reduced the
number of cars on line.

Tim Gilbert