More about Commodities

Still digging into the 1% waybill study, this time by state. As always, we are dealing with the average number of cars between 1950 and 1954, with 1% of all waybills providing the data. 

Let's start with states that originated more than 10,000 cars to CT annually:

• Pennsylvania 53,475
• New York 33,050
• Ohio 11,850
• New Jersey 11,600

These four states account for more than 50% of all rail shipments to CT of 214,825 cars. Note that this doesn't mean that 50%+ of all loads to New Britain will match this mix. It's possible that they may be over- or under-represented in a single city, but lets dig a little deeper.

Pennsylvania Commodities shipped to CT

Starting at the highest level, here are the numbers:

• 920 Products of Mines - 27,175
• 940 Manufactures and Misc. - 25,925
• 900 Products of Agriculture - 225
• 930 Products of Forests - 125
• 910 Animals and Products of Animals - 25

So, no surprises here with 305 Bituminous Coal (15,700) and 303 Anthracite (10,900) accounting for almost all of the products of mines. The remaining 575 cars are split among 323 Clay and Bentonite (25), 327 Gravel and Sand (50), 329 Stone, Crushed (150),  339 Asphalt (75), and 399 Products of Mines NOS (275).

Manufactures and Misc, covers a wide range of commodities, including 583 Manufacturerd I and S (3,900) and 633 Cement, Portland (7,425), the two largest blocks. 

The very small quantities of Products of Agriculture, Forests, and Animals are such a small percentage of each of them, it's not likely I'll need to worry about them unless there's a specific known movement.

New York Commodities shipped to CT

• 940 Manufacturers and Misc. - 27,825
• 900 Products of Agriculture - 2,700
• 920 Products of Mines - 1,725
• 910 Animals and Products of Animals - 425
• 930 Products of Forests - 375

The largest parts of the first category is 773 Feed, Animal and Poultry, NOS (9,525), 655 Scrap Paper and Rags (2,150), 583 Manufactured Iron and Steel (1,625), 763 Food Products NOS (1,000). The largest commodity of agriculture is 015 Flour Wheat (1,350). Of the 1,725 cars of 920 Products of Mines, 1,275 of them are of 341 Salt.

Ohio Commodities shipped to CT

940 Manufactures and Misc. (10,575)

This accounts for almost 90% of the traffic from Ohio. 583 Manufactured Iron and Steel (1,975) is the only commodity from Ohio that is more than 1,000 cars annually. 

New Jersey Commodities shipped to CT

Of the 11,600 cars, 9,800 are 940 Manufactures and Misc., and 1,350 cars of 920 Products of Mines. However, none of this is coal. Instead it's 900 cars of 325 Sand, 200 cars of 327 Gravel and Sand, NOS., and 200 cars of 343 Phosphate Rock.

Of the 940 Manufactures and Misc., 1,450 cars are Food Products, NOS, and 1,275 cars of 559 Copper Ingot, Etc., with the rest made up of smaller quantities of dozens of commodities.

What about other states?

I'll dig more into the other states in a later post. But I want to look at one of the commodities here a little more. 920 Products of Mines totaled 41,350 cars, of which these four states only account for 73% of it. We've already seen that 305 Bituminous Coal is the largest commodity delivered to CT. So where is the rest of it coming from?

• Kentucky - 75
• Maryland - 150
• West Virginia - 5,875

This accounts for another 15% of the total, or nearly 90% of 920 Products of Mines.

There's also 1,025 carloads from CT, which would have come by water. Around 1950 some 60% of bituminous came via water, so it would appear the bulk of that stayed where it was delivered.

All of the anthracite comes from Pennsylvania, of course.