I received an email stating a certain car was a PS1 with 7’ door. That’s the type of correction I was hoping for! The more info I add the more chances for mistakes. This is the best place I could think of to get them corrected.

My wife has been transcribing CGW train list for Jason Klocke. Thousands of entries! More super good stuff, but there’s an overload point me thinks…

Clark

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Todd also asked: “It also raises lots of questions about where cars came from and where the loads out were going.  E.g., where did all that sugar in NP boxcars come from?  I don't suppose the seal books have origin or destination information?”

Some of the seals did have the RR of origin. Others may have the place, but I have no way of knowing what That may have been. I may go back and add a column for seal origins?

I have to assume that “Groceries out” were to satellite warehouses or team tracks in towns with more than one store?

I’m thinking of using this info in a “Hindsight 20/20” clinic down the road. I think a grocery warehouse would work well on the small shelf layouts that car in vogue now. We all have lots of box cars  ;  ))

Clark

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Todd wrote: “I did find one set of questionable initials = SLRX (St Louis Refrigerator Line - beer), which I think should be SRLX (Swift Refrigerator Line - meat).”

The data was written with ‘old style’ cursive letters. When I added the ORER info I found I’d made several mistakes. I went back and worth between SRLX and SLRX. I found that my lettering was correct and the numbers matched the ORER. Strange I know.

Clark

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Doug Harding wrote: “From a Sanborn Map it looks like the warehouse was served by the GN, with the MSTL tracks across the street. The MILW would have been near by.” https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4144mm.g04339195006A/?sp=45&r=-0.005,0.919,0.835,0.53,0

Interesting. A question for Vern Wigman. Jason Klocke has an M&StL annual report talking about a produce addition in the late 50s they erected the Red Owl water tower at that time.

Clark

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Bob,

Your work is top drawer as always.  Your jig for making the end bulkheads is interesting.  Can you share from what the job is constructed?  We all know that assembling styrene components in a styrene jig usually doesn’t go well.

Mont

Todd the sugar is interesting. Sugar beets were a common crop in Northern Iowa and Minnesota in 1949, with several sugar beet processing plants in the region. The NP could also have been hauling Hawaiian cane sugar from the PNW ports.

I also question the SLRX cars, whose reporting marks are often confused with Swift SRLX marks. But the numbers do match SLRX cars. Could the loads have been mis-labeled to reduce pilferage?

Doug Harding

www.iowacentralrr.org

Fantastic job Clark. Lots of great information for the grocery business. Interesting that they only got nine loads of meat during this time period. And even more interesting three of those meat loads arrived in SLRX cars, ie Anheuser Busch beer cars. I’m going to assume most meat arrived via truck as did all dairy products.

From a Sanborn Map it looks like the warehouse was served by the GN, with the MSTL tracks across the street. The MILW would have been near by. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4144mm.g04339195006A/?sp=45&r=-0.005,0.919,0.835,0.53,0

Red Owl was started in 1922 in Rochester MN, and opened their store in Hopkins in 1948, just the year before your report. This is soon after Western Grocer, a large grocery distributor based in Marshalltown IA was sold to an eastern conglomerate, who was consolidating the grocery industry.

Here is a photo of the plant in Hopkins https://hclib.tumblr.com/post/55193243271/new-red-owl-plant-in-hopkins-once-a-common-sight

Supervalu still has a large distribution center at this location.

Doug Harding

www.iowacentralrr.org