Shipping a carload in '35?

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Shipping a carload from the west coast to the east coast in '35, which route would have been fastest? How long would it have taken and what would the cost have been you think?

 

[Cjcrescent]

I believe that's a too open ended question. Where is the point of origin, and what's the destination? Just as important, what's the cargo? The cargo can determine how fast it's moved as well.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Let's say San Francisco to New York and.....I have no idea....strawberries?

 

[logandsawman]

Not an exact answer, but here is the record breaking New York to L.A., 56 hours 55 minutes, in 1934, still working on the freight question, however;

http://www.up.com/timeline/index.cfm#index.cfm/city-of-portland?&_suid=945

 

[MRLdave]

Strawberries would have been considered a perishable, high dollar load, and would most likely have been in an express reefer attached to one of the premier passenger trains.

 

[logandsawman]

With the strawberries, would the re-icing have been an issue?

 

[AyTrane]

There were dedicated fruit trains for SP, UP and WP (I'm sure others too) that would have at least gotten the fruit from SF to the Midwest. The PFE ran to Chicago, from there I'm sure one the Eastern railroads would have picked it up. Perishable trains got higher priority, and were a bit faster than general freight.

 

[CN2117]

According to this site, in the 50s it was 6 days from Bakersfield to Chicago for a reefer of produce.

http://www.atsfrr.net/resources/Sandifer/Clinics/SFRD/5.htm

 

[logandsawman]

CN 2117, very interesting resource, did not know that 85% of produce was shipped unsold and was diverted and sold in transit!

Thanks for the link--

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

I didn't know that PFE had their own locomotives!

 

[logandsawman]

PFE locomotives? I missed that in the story, although found these pics:



The top photo was shot April 10, 1974, in Tuscon, AZ

 

[Bruette]

Very interesting and informative thread, I learned something from nearly every post. Thank you 113 for your question and thank you everyone for your responses, keep them coming please.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Thanks for the link indeed....tempted to get that Pacific Fruit Express, PFE by Church and Jones from Signature Press....

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Like my scale modelling, who says that scale and modellrailroading isn't educational!
Great replies indeed....thanks a bunch!

 

[AyTrane]

Thanks for the link indeed....tempted to get that Pacific Fruit Express, PFE by Church and Jones from Signature Press....

It is a good book. You may be a little overwhelmed in the detail of the cars and operations. Lots and lots of photos!

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Cheers a bunch Adam, I'll definitely put it on the list then....much obliged!

 

[JWhite]

Strawberry Shipments

I can't shed much light on shipments of strawberries from California to the East Coast in the 30s. I suspect that due to the limited time that strawberries would be at their best after being picked and the distances involved, that there wasn't much shipment of a highly perishable cargo like that that across the country. Most of the strawberries consumed East of the Mississippi were grown in the South with huge growing operations in Louisiana.

The Illinois Central ran special trains composed entirely of express reefers that followed the harvest North. The railroad started routing express reefers to Hammond, LA in the weeks immediately before the harvest started. There the reefers were cleaned and pre-cooled. When the harvest started the reefers were loaded and sent North at passenger train speeds. Often the fruit had not been sold yet and the fruit companies sent special "messengers" with the shipment. The railroad provided a drovers type or a banana messenger caboose or more often then not hung the markers on an old coach because they were worried about a derailment of a light caboose at the speed the trains operated.

Wholesalers would bid on the cars while the rain was moving and the strawberry messengers would be notified by wire what cars had been sold and where they would be dropped off. These weren't "milk train" stop at every station trips, the sold carloads were dropped off at major interchanges in Memphis, TN and Carbondale and Mattoon, IL. From there they made connections running East and West.

As the harvest moved North along with the weather, the starting point of the trains moved North. The IC called these trains "The Crimson Flyer and they ran from the 1930s thru the 50s. They were first class trains and given priority over just about everything else on the mainline. One article I read even stated that the premier train on the line, The Panama Limited, waited in the hole for the Flyer to pass.

The IC did a lot to support this traffic including hiring experts from the University of Illinois to work with farmers on the line to help them produce the crop.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Great info there mate, cheers!
Some hotshot then, if they let one of their premier trains step aside...
Talking about milk.....was there such a thing as milk trains, or was it just an occasional milk car in a freight or passenger train?

 

[logandsawman]

Milk--now they can "grow" that just about anywhere. And back in the 30's there weren't much for factory farms. May I suggest some corporate farms and large cooperatives shipping in to big cities via rail but a lot of areas lived off the local grocer and dairy.

In fact, my great grandfather had one of those dairies where they milked the cows and delivered out about a 5 mile radius, captured two small towns. Called the "Banta Brothers Dairy". They started in the 20's using horse wagons and eventually mechanized to Model A trucks.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Found these when looking for milk cars....

Weren't these called 'whale backs' or something, somewhere?