Thought I'd add a description of the material I was working with yesterday
at Stanford:

1) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1950 - State to state distribution of Products
of Forests.
2) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1950 - State to state distribution of Products
of Agriculture.
3) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1950 - State to state distribution of Products
of Manufacturers.
4) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1950 - State to state distribution of Products
of Animals.

I copied #1 and #4 fully, got most of #2, and sampled #3 (e.g., auto
industry commodities)

The contents of these 4 follow the same pattern: state-to-state movement,
carloads, tons, revenue, ton miles, car miles, and several averages from the
above. The order is by commodity class, then originating state. All data
is based on the 1% waybill sample, so many of the numbers are small.

Fer instance, Bannanas: I had always assumed they all came thru LA. (the
port of New Orleans). Not so. Both AL. (Mobile) and MD. (Baltimore) were
likely ports as well, and some small quantities into NJ. and CA. Most LA.
originated bannanas went to IL. (no surprise), but there were no indications
of movements out of IL. to other states suggesting there was no warehousing
of this fruit for later distribution (we Illini must love our bannanas).

I wanted Forwarder and LCL traffic, but these were the last 2 pages and have
been torn off and lost.


5) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1949 - Percentage distribution of tonnage by
milage block.

This one is a simple list of all 220+ commodities citing total tons measured
by the 1% sample and calculating what percentage of those travelled in each
of the 10 mileage blocks (e.g., 0-49 miles, 50-99, 100-199, etc.).

Samples: 68% of sugar beets travelled less than 50 miles. 60% of frozen
fruit travelled 2000-2999 miles. 41% of coal went 200-399 miles. 33% of
beer went 600-999 miles. etc.


6) Carload Waybill Analysis, 1950 - Quarterly seasonal comparisons from
1947, 48, 49, 50.

Again, all 220+ commodity classes having calendar quarter data for carloads,
tonnage, average mileage and revenue, for each of the 4 years cited.

Absent exact seasonality data from an individual railroad, this will form
the basis for any seasonality adjustments that could be applied to annual
commodity reports -- the data I posted for Jeff English on the Rutland.


7) Tons of revenue freight terminated...[by state], 1st Quarter 1950.

This is the total tonnage, not the 1% sample, of each commodity, as
originated and terminated by state.

So, in 1Q1950, 27585 tons of bannanas originated in Alabama, 0 tons
originated, 21072 tons terminated in Illinois. 64891 tons originated in
Loiusiana. 23041 tons originated in Maryland. Etc.

Unfortunately I ran out of coins before I could get the other 3 quarters of
data. Some other trip no doubt. And were I to obtain a couple of years of
data, the utility of item 6, above, might diminish being replaced by
seasonal data from this source.

and lastly:


8) Tons of Revenue Freight for each class 1 railroad... 1948.

As shown in the first sheet of the file I put out on egroups. I did the
Rutland and the Sac Northern. I had intended on filling out my 1950 data (I
have all the central west roads, plus one or two others), but the book had
gone walkabout so there I with time and money and no first target and all
that other neat stuff....

-----------------------------------
Dave Nelson

Fer instance, Bannanas: some small quantities into NJ. and CA.

There were PFE cars dedicated to this service (That is, labelled "Banana
Service") between L.A. Harbor and Vernon, a tiny industrial city near the
southeast corner of central Los Angeles.

Dave Nelson writes:

Samples: 68% of sugar beets travelled less than 50 miles. 60% of frozen
fruit travelled 2000-2999 miles. 41% of coal went 200-399 miles. 33% of
beer went 600-999 miles. etc.

Dave, I'm curious. Any notion of whether the coal mileage was higher or

lower for the other 59%? I'm also curious about bauxite. There are photos of
a bauxite train...loaded in box cars no less...going west over Sherman Hill
in the 50s. Wonder what its destination was and how often this happened?

Mike Brock

I'm also curious about bauxite. There are photos of
a bauxite train...loaded in box cars no less...going west over Sherman Hill
in the 50s. Wonder what its destination was and how often this happened?

Mike Brock

Major aluminum plants were constructed on the Columbia River ( near The
Dalles for one) to support WWII aircraft production...lots of electricity
required

Mike Brock wrote:

....I'm also curious about bauxite. There are photos of
a bauxite train...loaded in box cars no less...going west over Sherman Hill
in the 50s. Wonder what its destination was and how often this happened?

Mike, in the 1950s some Bauxite was mined in the southeastern US, but the
most important source was Jamaica, with Jamaican Bauxite being transported
by ship to Gulf Coast ports. During WW II, when there was a tremendous
increase in demand for aluminum, primarily for use in aircraft
construction, several large plants were constructed in the Pacific
Northwest because ample hydroelectric power was available and the
production of aluminum requires a great deal of electricity. No doubt
bauxite trains bringing southeastern and Jamaican ore to the plants near
the Columbia River ran fairly frequently on the UP, which would have
provided the western part of the most direct route.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Ed and friends,

When I was stationed in Long Beach with the U.S. Coast Guard, I
occasionally ventured down to the harbor (rare, but then I sailed a desk
for eight years). Near the Metropolitan Terminal was a large banana
dock, probably one of the main entry points to the vast California
retail market. I doubt that it was as big as the ones in Florida or New
Orleans, but an awful lot of fruit used to go up those conveyor belts.
Unfortunately, by the late 1970s it all went into trucks.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

Ed Workman wrote:

Major aluminum plants were constructed on the Columbia River ( near The
Dalles for one) to support WWII aircraft production...lots of electricity
required

I'm surprised bauxite/alumina would travel west over Sherman, since a lot of it
came into Portland OR and was loaded onto trains for the trip up the Columbia
and into Montana. Before the war there was a very large aluminum facility right
outside Portland too.

On the other hand, wasn't there some bauxite mining in Missouri, or somewhere
in the midwest? Can you tell from the photo whose box cars are loaded with the
bauxite? That might give some clue to its origins.