Still More Commodities

The top four states of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and New Jersey accounted for 51% of rail traffic to CT.  Looking at states that shipped 5,000 to 9,999 cars, we find six states plus Canada that total another 23%, bringing us up to 74% of all commodities shipped to CT.

• West Virginia - 8,825
• Massachusetts - 8,575
• Canada - 8,033
• Illinois - 6,700
• Vermont - 5,575
• Maine - 5,400
• Michigan - 5,275

The majority of the traffic from West Virginia is 305 Bituminous Coal (5,875).

No commodity from Massachusetts totals 1,000 or more cars. 329 Crushed Stone is 900 cars, and many of those may be from Lane's Quarry in Westfield. 

The largest blocks from Canada are 657 Newsprint Paper (2,400) and 411 Lumber, Shingles and Lath (2,400).

No commodity dominates Illinois.

In Vermont, 4,400 cars are of 773 Feed Animal and Poultry, NOS, or 79% of all of their shipments to CT.

Not surprisingly, the only commodity totaling 1,000 cars is 085 Potatoes, not sweet (1,375).

It's also not surprising to see that nearly half of Michigan's shipments (2,525) consist of 613 Automobiles, Passenger.

What this is starting to show is that once we get past the shipments of the largest states, it will probably be easier to go back to individual commodities. Looking at 613 Automobiles, Passenger we can easily determine where most of those loads will originate:

613 Automobile, Passenger (3,775)

• 2,525 - Michigan (Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, Ford, GM, Hudson, Kaiser-Frazer, Packard)
• 875 - Indiana (Crosley, in Marion and Richmond; Studebaker, in South Bend)
• 300 - Wisconsin (Nash, in Kenosha)
• 75 - Ohio (Chevrolet, in Norwood)

There is a Willys-Overland dealer in New Britain, and they would have received Jeeps, etc. from their California plant, highlighting a flaw in the 1% waybill study. However, since an operating session covers one day, it's reasonable to consider those an exception rather than a rule, and I can decide if/when to include such a shipment in a session. In fact, odds are that if automobiles are delivered during a session, it will be 1-2 carloads from Detroit, as would be expected.