--- On Mon, 4/5/10, Anthony Thompson <thompson@...> wrote:


From: Anthony Thompson <thompson@...>
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re: interchange (Meat from CGW)
To: STMFC@...
Date: Monday, April 5, 2010, 10:29 PM


 



Doug Harding wrote:

NYC served the many meat branch houses on the west side high line in
New York City. So yes the NYC handled meat, it pretty much had the
bulk of the meat traffic to Manhattan/New York City. But it could be
the NYC interchanged with NKP somewhere east of Chicago. Routing was
set by the shipper, or the shipper's agent, so they could have
selected NKP then NYC to the west side high line.

Sure, and obviously produce as well as meat often HAD to travel
on NYC or PRR just to reach its destination. My comments about
PREFERENCES only reflect relative service quality, and I certainly did
not mean to suggest that PRR or NYC or B&O or anyone else could be
avoided ENTIRELY.
Shippers had the absolute right to select routing if they
wished, and large shippers had traffic managers to do just that to the
best advantage of the shipper. But many, especially smaller shippers,
could and did call on their local agent for advice, and that advice
would usually be to maximize home-road mileage if possible--after that
it would depend on what that local agent knew about service, rates and
routing to the desired destination. Agents could not be true experts
on things like tariffs and routing, and sometimes might recommend
something less than optimum, out of ignorance, or of course to benefit
their own road if possible.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress. com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@signaturep ress.com
Publishers of books on railroad history