Shipping a carload in '35?

[RBMNfan]

I know here in PA most produce and fruit was grown locally and my great grandfather trucked it into Reading and Philadelphia. Most perishable long distance shipments were exotic fruits. Oranges, bananas, limes and such can't be cultivated in a moderate climate.

Note the high speed trucks on the Milk car above. Passenger speed express trains required them to operate at up to 79 mph. Otherwise your 'express' is stuck at the max freight train speed 59 mph.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Rutland Ten Wheeler #70 gingerly escorts Train #7, the westbound "Milk", over the
Lake Champlain trestle approaching Rouses Point, N.Y. on July 29, 1950.
Photo by Preston S. Johnson. Original negative in the collection of Wayne D. Hills

Rutland Ten Wheeler #72 gets the second section of train #88, the southbound
"Milk," underway from Burlington, Vt. on a cold February 18, 1947.
This equipment originated in Ogdensburg, N.Y.
Photo by H. N. Proctor - Collection of James R. Dufour





Source: http://users.rcn.com/jimdu4/milktrains.htm

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

Rutland Ten Wheeler #77 is seen arriving at Norwood, NY with train
#7 the westbound "Milk." This scene has it all: classic Rutland steam,
a milk platform loaded with milk cans, a pickup truck, a country station.
If ever you wished to step into a scene, this would be it.
The date is September 2, 1949 and things will soon change forever here
and all along the Rutland.
--Collection of Wayne D. Hills--

Northbound train #87 is shown arriving at Burlington, Vermont with class K-1 Pacific
#80 leading empty milk cars for the dairy plants of northern Vermont and New York state.
The photo is dated is September 2, 1949, which means that this is essentially the same
train as in the above photograph, but earlier in the day.
The locomotive will be changed at Alburgh.
--Collection of Wayne D. Hills--




Source: Same as above..

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

...with empty milk cars for the Rutland.

The quiet of a lazy summer afternoon is shattered by a P-2 Pacific leading a westbound Fitchburg
Division passenger train as it hammers the New Haven Railroad diamond at West Concord, Massachusetts.
The station agent has company today on the platform as he looks 'em over: a local boy who is undoubtedly
glad to be out of school and therefore able to bear witness to the sight (if not the sound - he is covering
his ears!) of the passing spectacle.​

At South Ashburham this train, probably B&M train #5507, will enter the Chesire Branch
for the remaining fifty-four miles to Bellows Falls, Vermont. On the head pin are three milk
cars: a B&M wood four-door car, a wood car, perhaps an ex-freight reefer, of unknown
ownership and what may be a Rutland wood car judging by the horizontal molding.
West Concord today is a popular stop on the MBTA's Fitchburg Line.
The signal tower and the freight house behind it are long gone as is the New Haven crossing.
The station itself is a coffee shop.

This photograph from the front cover of the March 1951 edition of the Boston & Maine Railroad Magazine shows P-4 Pacific 3712 about to get underway with train No. 5507
from Boston's North Station with a string of empty milk cars for the Rutland at Bellows Falls, Vermont. Behind the locomotive are a National Car center-fishbelly style
container flat car with two tanks, a Rutland side-fishbelly wood car, at least two (and probably three) B&M 1700-series four-door wooden cars, and, lost in the shadows,
the remainder of the passenger cars that make up the train.





Source: Same as above...

 

[RBMNfan]

Nice pictures. There was a milk train on the narrow gauge LOS. It was such a small affair that I don't think anyone bothered to take pictures. I think it was a combined passenger/ milk train. The thing about milk trains is they were a desperate attempt to keep the railroad profitable. The trolley line around here operated its own milk train to Hershey chocolate factory. I might run a milk train on my layout if I can find appropriate cars that I can afford.

 

[photoman475]

The Leigh Valley also ran milk trains into New York City into the 1930s IIRC.

 

[Milwaukee Road 113]

What about this Railway Express Agency, how good were they in shipping stuff, would they operate as head and cars with other freight or mail cars?
Doesn't seem to be much about it, was kinda hoping to find a book or something, maybe not as big as the PFE book, which is on my shopping list, but still...