More Routing

Other than the historical interest, how can the routing information be used on a model railroad?

If you are using more prototypical waybills, then the routing information is included on those. But I also think it's useful for building trains that will be running on the layout, as I've noted before.

This is a Freight Interchange Report for the New Haven, 1929. I don't recall where I got this, but it's interesting in that it shows how many cars were received at each interchange over the course of a year.

The map includes the traffic from 1918 through 1929, here's the list for 1929, arranged by road and interchange since it's the closest to my era.

B&A Framingham    47,742

B&A Milford    1,270

B&A Pittsfield    13,497

B&A State Line    39,029

B&A Westfield    11,536

B&A, B&M Boston    109,447

B&A, B&M Springfield    156,235

B&A/B&M Worcester    260,873

B&M Ashland    123

B&M Clinton    931

B&M Concord    2,768

B&M Easthampton    750

B&M Fitchburg    19.082

B&M Holyoke    5,078

B&M Lowell    56,357

B&M Northampton    3,651

B&M So. Sudsbury    1,738

B&M Turners Falls    1,866

CV New London    57,878

CV Norwich    792

CV Willimantic    58,670

LIRR Fresh Pond    29,650

LV, CNJ Harlem River    265,104

Maybrook     553,029 (ERIE, L&H, LNE, O&W, NYC)

NYC Beacon    9,148

NYC Boston Corners    224

NYC Brewster    790

NYC Millerton    359

NYC Port Morris    12,023

NYC Poughkeepsie    5,653

NYC Rhinecliff    677

PRR Bay Ridge    430,803

The top 5 Interchange Points account for 77% of the traffic on the NH:

Maybrook - 26%

Bay Ridge - 20%

Harlem River - 12%

Worcester - 12%

Springfield - 7%

Add in two other roads that aren't represented yet, the CV at Willimantic and New London (3% each); and the LIRR at Fresh Pond (1%) and you have 84% of the traffic, covering all of the Class I roads that interchange directly with the NH.

What about the other 16%? We know that many interchanges were used for local traffic only. For example the B&M at Northampton, or B&A at Westfield, generally handled traffic for the Canal Line north of Plainville. This is true of almost all of the other interchanges. 

Looking at New Britain

As we've learned, the Interchange Points that handle traffic bound for New Britain are all of the top 5, plus Willimantic and New London. Obviously not all traffic that came through these points are bound for New Britain. But the percentages can help set a baseline for determining how much traffic is on each train. 

If we only consider interchange points that have published routes to New Britain, the percentages are:

• Maybrook - 31%
• Bay Ridge - 24%
• Harlem River - 15%
• Worcester - 14%
• Springfield - 9%
• Willimantic - 3%
• New London - 3%
• Fresh Pond - 1%

We could adjust the numbers for Bay Ridge and Harlem River by attempting to remove coal. It's my understanding that only coal for destinations along the west end of the Shoreline and NYC came by car float, and the rest was routed via Maybrook. Based on the 1950-54 numbers, coal accounted for about 15% of all traffic. Remove 15% of the cars from Bay Ridge and Harlem River and the numbers change slightly.

• Maybrook - 33%
• Bay Ridge - 21%
• Harlem River - 13%
• Worcester - 15%
• Springfield - 10%
• Willimantic - 3%
• New London - 3%
• Fresh Pond - 2%

We also have to consider routing within the New Haven, because many of these are consolidated at Cedar Hill or Hartford.

• Cedar Hill (Bay Ridge, Fresh Pond, Harlem River, New London, Worcester) - 54%
• Hartford (Springfield, Willimantic) - 13%
• Maybrook - 33%

Note that Maybrook traffic was run via Cedar Hill in 1949, 1950 and 1954 in my era, so that mix is:

• Cedar Hill - 87%
• Hartford - 13%

Building Trains

So how do we assign this to trains?

To make the math simple, we'll say 100 cars will move through these interchanges.

• 54 from Cedar Hill
• 13 from Hartford
• 33 from Maybrook.

In 1948 there are the following in-bound trains that will be staged:

• OA-4 (Maybrook) - 16 cars
• OA-6 (Maybrook) - 17
• NY-2 (Cedar Hill) - 27
• EA-2 (Bridgeport) - ??
• NY-4 (Cedar Hill) - 27
• HDX-5 (Hartford) - 13

EA-2 is an unusual case, handling traffic for Waterbury, New Britain and Hartford from Bay Ridge, Harlem River, and Maybrook via Bridgeport. It connects from primarily from GN-4, plus OE-2 and NO-21 and I believe is largely LCL traffic since it's the reverse move of ANE-1, part of the Speed Witch. So we can shift cuts to that train as well (this it the last year it ran). 

These are blocks bound for New Britain, though, which means the trains will have cars bound for other destinations too. Those are some long trains in HO scale. I think for my prior ops sessions we moved about half that. so:

• AO-4 - 8
• OA-6 - 9
• NY-2 - 13
• EA-2 - ??
• NY-4 -14
• HDX-5 - 7

That looks more manageable, although the NY/YN freights will still be large. But we can move a portion of that to EA-2, or three 9-car blocks.

• NY-2 - 9
• EA-2 - 9
• NY-4 - 9

In my case, though, we're modeling the day job. So all of these trains, except NY-4 and HDX-5 run overnight. They are staged as cuts left for the crew to work.

• NY-2 - 11
• EA-2 - 11
• NY-4 - 5

NY-4 is a maximum 14 car train due to my staging, but it was also the Canal Line (North) local, so I expect that more traffic for New Britain would be on NY-2, so we can shift 4 cars back to that.

So there would be two Maybrook cuts on Track 5 in New Britain (8 and 9 cars), plus EA-2, another 11 cars also on track 5, for a total of 28 cars.

A Cedar Hill cut of 11 cars will be waiting on Track 6 at Whiting Street Yard. 

During the session, 5 cars will be dropped at Whiting St by NY-4, and 7 cars from Hartford on HDX-5 on Track No. 5 in New Britain Yard.

In '49. '50 or '54 where there are no Maybrook freights, the traffic is quite different, since it moves an additional 28 cars to NY-2 and NY-4. Since I have limits on the length of NY-4, most of these would be left as a cut overnight from NY-2. However, the Maybrook freights were dropped because of a decrease in traffic, so it would be reasonable to reduce the overall session to, say, 30 cars.

• NY-2 - 19
• NY-4 - 6
• HDX-5 - 5

In this case, the session starts with the majority of inbound cars, two-thirds of them. None of these are up at New Britain Yard until HDX-5 comes through. So the feel of ops sessions in these years will be distinctly different.

What About Another Location?

We could use this to look at another location, such as Chris' Valley Line. The Valley Local originates in Hartford, the Air Line Local in Cedar Hill, and then there are the two Shoreline Locals, one from Cedar Hill and one from New London.

• Valley Local - Maybrook and Springfield
• Air Line Local - Bay Ridge, Fresh Pond, Harlem River, Maybrook, Springfield, Worcester
• Cedar Hill-New London Local - Bay Ridge, Fresh Pond, Harlem River, Maybrook, Springfield, Worcester
• New London-Cedar Hill Local - New London (Central Vermont) and potentially Boston.

The most interesting thing here is that all of the cars that route through Cedar Hill bound for the Valley Line north of Middletown will come from the Air Line Local. In addition, since Saybrook is between New London and Cedar Hill, cars hauled by the CV would not go through Cedar Hill like they would in New Britain.

One can also see that for years where there is no Maybrook-Hartford freight (1949, 1950, 1954+) that the Valley Local would likely be shorter leaving Hartford, and receive more cars from the Air Line local.

Understanding the 1% Waybill Analyses

 I've been working through compiling more data from the 1% Waybill Analyses from my era. I find this sort of thing quite interesting. I've posted links in the right column for several of them hosted at Hathitrust. If you are using the mobile version of the site, click 'view web version' at the bottom of the page to see that column.

I think it's important to understand what this data is, and what it isn't.

First off, there are a lot of books/documents that were generated from this data. The links I provided include the state to state traffic of carloads for each commodity class. These are the classes from the AAR Freight Commodity Classification book I mentioned in a prior post.

There are territorial studies along with others, but my interest is in the origin of traffic to CT, and the destination of traffic from CT.

• The data is for carload traffic only. It doesn't include L.C.L traffic. I do not know if this also excludes cars loaded for multiple destinations, but I suspect it does (I'll get to that in a moment).
• It's 1% of the waybills for a given period. Class I railroads provided data for any waybill numbered "1" or ending in "01" starting in late 1946. They also weighted the numbers to account for differences in waybill practices among roads. So the data has been massaged.
• It also indicates that they did not report data from states where there are 3 or fewer industries shipping a given commodity. These carloads are included in the totals for the major categories. I have noticed these discrepancies when comparing the totals, and have opted to ignore these extra carloads because I don't have any way of knowing in which subcategory they belong.
• They state the margin of error varies depending on the number of loads. For example, if there are 100 carloads reported, there's an expectation of about 10% deviation, but with 400 loads the data is more accurate, with an expected deviation of 5%. 

To put it a different way, the fewer loads of a commodity, the less accurate the data is. The number of carloads reported in the CT data is frequently less than 5. Since this is 1%, it represents less than 500 carloads. However, it's quite possible that an unusual shipment was made, and that happened to be the one waybill recorded. That one load would now be considered 100 loads.

Less frequent loads may have been missed entirely as well. Despite these potential issues, the data itself is quite useful. 

To give you an idea of the sort of thing that I think you can derive from the data, here's an interesting example.

This is the entire list of car movements for 739 Luggage and handbags, NOS (not otherwise specified)

Roughly 100 carloads a year are shipped from CT to GA, NY, TN, TX, and VA, and also from VA to CA, NY, TN, and VA.

How can we make sense of this?

I checked the Industrial Directory of CT, 1947, and I didn't find any luggage manufacturers. But I did find that there is a large number of handbag manufacturers in the S. Norwalk, Norwalk, and Stamford region. There are 18 companies with 1-50 employees and 5 with 51-200 employees manufacturing handbags. I had no idea.

What about Virginia, then? Here's an interesting blurb about the Virginia Trunk & Bag Co. Apparently Petersburg, VA was a center for manufacture of trunks and valises(?). According to Dictionary.com it's a small traveling bag or suitcase. Here's info on the Seward Trunk & Bag Co. So that confirms that VA was a source for luggage of various types.

But that still only accounts for about 400 carloads in 1949, to only four states. Looking from a different perspective, where were major luggage manufacturers? Samsonite was based in Denver, and had a plant in PA. Shouldn't they be represented too?

Hmm, let's look for other clues. Looking at another commodity, 200 Hardware NOS, I thought the number of carloads (700) and number of destinations from CT, just five states (AZ, CA, IL, NY, and OH) unexpected, considering that New Britain produces as much as 20%+ of the world's hardware in this era. Shouldn't there be more cars, or at least more destinations? Not all of the hardware would ship from New Britain, of course, but that's only around 2 cars/daily and I suspect Stanley Works alone was much higher than that.

What have we learned?

1. Samsonite, a major manufacturer of luggage, doesn't seem to originate any rail traffic from Denver or PA.
2. For the luggage/handbag commodity it appears CT and VA dominate the market. But all I can find are a couple of dozen small handbag companies in CT, and in both cases they are averaging around 2 cars/week for the entire group of commodities, not just a single company.
3. Hardware shipments from CT are lower than expected, and to fewer destinations than expected.

What could explain this? Is the 1% waybill analysis wrong? No, I don't think it is. Here's what I think we're seeing:

• These commodities ship in less-than-carload more than I expected.
• The carload shipments are going to distribution centers or major wholesalers, who then ship primarily in less-than-carload lots.

Can we confirm this suspicion?

In the Along the Line article about Landers, Frary & Clark, they highlight their postwar line of washing machines and ranges. Like hardware, the 711 Stoves and Ranges category shows relatively few shipments/destinations from CT to GA (200), IL (100), and TN (100). (Washing machines are part of a very large category). The article also mentions that they have 8 distribution centers around the country. I haven't been able to identify where those were, but based on the waybill data I'm guessing three are in GA, IL, and TN. 

A major clue comes from another source. Some time ago I acquired a book of shipping orders from Norwich, NY on the O&W. This is all of the traffic handled by the freight agent in July, 1952. This book is string-bound, with paper glued over the binding so I can't remove the pages from the book. At least I haven't yet.

Of particular interest are the orders for several companies, who ship nearly daily. For example, the Norwich Pharmacal Co. On a given day, there is a stack of shipping orders to multiple destinations. For example, the NPCo shipments for July 1 were 43 pages. But these are small shipments, several boxes of drugs for each. Clearly this isn't 43 carloads.

The orders for Craine, Inc., for hardware, however provided clarity. Because these shipping orders include the car number.

Looking at July 10, there's a complete picture of how the railroad handles shipments from an industry like Craine, Inc. 

This is an empty car request form. I have not located one for the New Haven yet. There are several in this book. We can see that two cars were ordered by Craine, Inc by phone on 7/10/52 at 9:30 A.M. and two cars, ERIE 76199 and SOU 26266, were furnished at 1:00 P.M.

Since they ordered empties, I believe they had their own industry track. Bordens also had empty car orders. 

Note what it says in the Destination field - var - as in "various." Each of these cars has 8 orders (and would have matching waybills), because each had 7-8 destinations. Even better, it shows the route:

ERIE 76199

• Warsaw, NY (via O&W  NYC Can LV)
• Charlton Depot, MA (NYC (B))
• Batavia, NY (NYC)
• Churchville, NY (NYC)
• Gasport, NY (NYC)
• Gasport again
• Medina, NY (NYC)
• Huntington, NY (LI)

I find all of these in the Official List of Prepay and Open Stations except Warsaw, which is listed on the B&O and ERIE, not LV. I'm sure all of these are freight house stops, especially Gasport since there are two different people listed in the Notify field.

Here's a map. Of course, it's following roads instead of the railroad, but it gives you an idea of how widely this car traveled.

SOU 26266

• Waterville, ME (Sid D&H Mcv B&M Portland MEC)
• Dover, NH (Sid D&H Mcv B&M)
• Barre, VT (Sid D&H RPT CVT)
• St Albans, VT (Sid D&H RPT CVT)
• Bellows Falls, VT (Sid D&H Mcv B&M)
• South Vernon, MA (Sid D&H Mcv B&M)
• Owego, NY (Sid D&H Bing ERIE)
• Lebanon, NH (Sid D&H Mcv B&M)

The full routing is noted, including junctions:

Sid = Sidney, NY

Mcv = Mechanicsville, NY

RPT = Rouses Point, NY

Bing = Binghamton, NY

This car traveled over an even wider area:

Also note that the Agent did not follow the car loading rules when furnishing the Southern car to be routed to the northeast. I also find it interesting that there isn't a linear route among these locations.

Since the 1% Waybill Analyses only cover carloads, these sort of shipments are excluded. It's very useful in identifying the movement of commodities, but it's only part of the picture. I think it's safe to say that Stanley and/or American Hardware Corp (Russwin, Corbin Screw) had distribution centers in AZ, CA, IL, NY, and OH. But I also suspect that a large number of the cars were for multiple destinations just like what we see with Craine, Norwich Pharmacal, and several smaller shippers in the O&W book.

We have to remember that these studies were published for the government, railroads, and companies who had many other resources on hand, and were also actively involved in their industry. Each would have been utilizing the data for their own business purposes, rather than trying to backwards engineer the movement of freight by rail like we are, some 70 years after the fact. So it takes a little detective work and guesses.

But the goal isn't necessarily a full understanding of these movements either. As I've noted before, most of this information is relevant for use on model waybills, and the primary purpose of those is as "scenery" to enhance the immersion in the operating experience. All of the data I've been working through, commodity information, routing guides, etc., will help build trains that look different depending on the interchange of their origin, allows the agent/conductors to know which train is appropriate for an outbound car, and enhance the illusion that we are operating a real railroad. 

Here are the shipping orders for the two cars above in the order they appear in the book. Enjoy!

Commodities - Products of Agriculture and Animals

 There are a lot of smaller commodities, along with specialized commodities that won't come to New Britain. Livestock is one I covered earlier. Let's see if there's anything left worth looking at by category:

900 Products of Agriculture

• 001 Wheat - 133 (NY 50, PA 50, Canada 33)
• 003 Corn - 983 (IL 275, IN 50, IA 25, KY 25, MI 25, MN 25, NY 75, OH 425, PA 25, Canada 33)
• 007 Oats - 708 (ME 25, NY, 50Canada 633)
• 009 Barley and Rye - 75 (MN 25, NY 25, OH 25)
• 015 Flour, Wheat - 3,150 (IN 50, IA 150, KS, 275, MI 25, MN 625, MO 450, NE 100, NY 1350, WI 25)
• 017 Meal, Corn - 25 (NY)
• 019 Flour, Edible, NOS - 275 (IL 25, IN 25, MN 25, NY 150, TN 25, WI 25)
• 021 Cereal, Food Prep - 383 (MA 100, MI 50, NY 25, OH 25, PA 25, Canada 33)
• 023 Mill Products, NOS - 708 (IL 75, IA 50, LA 25, MA 100, MI 50, NY 25, OH 25, PA 25, Canada 333)
• 025 Hay - 483 (MI 100, NY 250, Canada 133)
• 027 Straw - 50 (NY)
• 031 Tobacco Waste - 75 (PA)
• 033 Cotton in Bales - 450 (AZ 25, AK 100, CA 25, GA 50, LA 50, MS 75, SC 25, TX 100)
• 035 Cotton Linters - 275 (MA 50, NJ 50, NY 25, NC 100SC 25, VA 25)
• 039 Cottonseed Cake Meal - 350 (AK 25, GA 50, IL 125, MS 25, SC 50, TN 75)
• 045 Soybean Oil Cake - 250 (IL 75, IN 75, OH 75, PA 25)
• 047 Vegetable Oil Cake - 100 (GA 25, IL 25, NJ 50)
• 199 Products of Agriculture NOS - 900 (CA 25, FL 125, IL 75, IN 50, LA 400, MA 25, NY 125, OR 25, VT 50)

There are feed dealers in New Britain. C.W. Lines on Chestnut St. Here are two views. It's on the right in the first picture, this side of the railroad tracks, and on the left in the second, on the opposite side.

This also gives us a nice view of both sides of the crossing shanty here. Unfortunately, Chestnut St didn't make the layout, the Berlin Line crosses through the helix at this point.

Reynolds Hugh Grain and Feed Co is on Commercial St, right next to New Britain Yard.

They may have received bulk grain and feed, or in bags. There's a loading door facing the tracks.

Miner, Reed and Tullock is listed as a wholesale flour dealer/broker. The building still stands, and I'm in the process of determining whether I'll build it to scale, or compress it.

There have clearly been additions, but the bulk of the building is the original one. Because these products are produced by so many producers, I'll just need to find some in each region for waybills. I probably won't need to research the remaining products of Agriculture for my layout.

910 Animals and Products of Animals

• 215 Meats, Fresh NOS - 7,392
• 219 Packinghouse Products, Edible - 200
• 221 Margarine, NOS - 50
• 225 Poultry, Dressed - 75
• 235 Wool in Grease - 325
• 239 Hides, Skins, Pelts - 75
• 241 Leather, NOS - 25
• 299 Animals and Products, NOS - 125

Of course, the most common shipments here are from the meatpacking plants. In New Britain there's the Armour and Swift plants. Of course, others may be seen too, such as this Morrell reefer:

For through freights, there are Armour, Cudahy, and Swift distribution plants in Hartford. Armour, Cudahy, and Swift are also in Holyoke. I know Wilson was in New Haven and New London, possibly others. Hormel, Rath, and Tobin all had a presence in CT, although I haven't identified towns. But they might be seen on the Maybrook freights to Hartford.

Of course, as the picture above shows, other brands may be seen regardless of whether a distribution center is present. 'Generic' meat reefers, such as Mather,  or NX, would also be appropriate.

For example, in New Britain there is also AYO Packing Co, M Krawczyk and Sons, Martin Rosol's, and Vitamin Sausage Products, all companies that make sausages and other processed meats, and would likely receive them via rail. In Hartford is Grote & Weigel, Kaufman Bros, Morris Packing, Mucke, Rex Provision, Sparvery Bros, and Stanley Provision. These would also receive reefers, even if it's at a bulk track.

The other products of animals are in such small annual quantities that I won't need to concern myself with them. For example, the 25 annual carloads of leather may be to a single industry somewhere in CT.

--

Combined with what I've covered in prior posts, those are all of the commodities for those categories that show up in the 1% waybill study.

Commodities and Routing - ERIE, B&M, BAR. MEC. PM

Commodities are interesting, but don't necessarily have a direct impact on the operation of the railroad. Indeed, in real railroading, unless a specific car is requested by a customer, or special handling is required, the crews probably don't care what's in them. 

Routing, on the other hand, can have an impact on operations. Particularly when considering the mix of cars for a train.

For example, Erie has a direct interchange to the New Haven in Maybrook NY.  So one would expect that cars loaded on the Erie would come via Maybrook. Would they come via other interchange points too?

Routing wasn't as complex a process as it might seem, but it did involve more work pre-computer era. While shippers could specify the route they wanted, I think that most of the time the Agent selected the route. To do that, they used Routing Guides. I have several of these guides, but far from a complete collection. Of course, an Agent only needed the guide that applied to shipments from their station. I want them to determine routes for inbound and outbound cars, so I've been trying to dig them up for as many roads as I can.

The basic process for the Agent is to look up the destination in the Routing Guide, and it would list one or more routes to that destination. The Agent would select one, and notate the entire route on the waybill. This would serve as the routing instructions for conductors and yardmasters along the way.

This was sparked in part to some recent questions in multiple forums online asking about smaller interchanges on the New Haven. The routing of cars was very well considered when developing these routes, and for this example I'll look at shipments from the Erie to four locations on the NH::

• Holyoke 960
• New Britain 3910
• Plainville 860
• Simsbury 920

Each station is assigned a number. Various publications by each railroad, along with national publications, use these numbers. 

For example, the New Haven Official List of Stations:

A national periodical, published annually with periodic supplements, is the Official Open and Prepay Station List, which covers all of North America:

The same station numbers are used in the Routing Guides, like the Erie, C&O (PM) and B&M ones I'm referencing today. Here's the Erie one:

--

I've chosen the stations above because there are several interchange points north of Plainville on the Canal Line, and I also want to narrow down what won't come through New Britain to those destinations.

• B&M at Northampton, Easthampton and Holyoke
• B&A at Westfield

According to a NH Freight Interchange Map from 1929, the annual volume at these points in 1928 were:

• Easthampton: 750
• Holyoke: 6,078
• Northampton: 3,651
• Westfield: 11,536

For comparison, in 1928 Maybrook handled 553,029 cars.

It appears that in 1925 and 1926 a significant amount of the traffic was shifted from Northampton to Springfield.

• In 1924 Northampton handled 65,999 cars and Springfield 99,569.
• In 1925 Northampton handled 36,079 cars, and Springfield 119,421.
• In 1926, Northampton handled 3,065 and Springfield 132,911.

This corresponds to changes in the freight schedules as well. In 1925 NS-4/SN-1 was a through freight that connected at Northampton and Springfield. What's not clear is how it worked both, but here's a note from SN-1:

"...Fills out at Springfield with freight for New Haven and beyond..."

By 1927 this is no longer the case, with those trains only running to/from Springfield. It would have to go down the Canal Line, over the Highland from Plainville to Newington, then take the Springfield Line through Hartford north to Springfield, unless they had trackage rights over the B&M from Northampton to Springfield. Neither as simple or efficient as moving the bulk of the interchange traffic to Springfield.

--

I'll start with the Erie. This is about an 800-page book from 1944 with routes from Lines West (Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania). It also covers some originating points on the Indiana Harbor Belt, Pennsy, and Winona Railroads. Lots of destinations are included, I just make sure Connecticut is included before I buy one of these Routing Guides.

Because we know the four station numbers, we can just go to the pages that specify destinations on the New Haven. 

Let's look at the ones they all have in common first:

1. Erie, Maybrook, NY, NH

Simple, and expected. Anything loaded on the Erie can be routed over the Erie to Maybrook, NY to be interchanged with the NH.

8. Erie, Carbondale, PA, D&H, Scranton, PA, Erie, Maybrook, NY, NH.

From certain originating points, the Erie interchanges with the D&H at Carbondale, PA, and then the car will come back to the Erie in Scranton, PA before reaching the New Haven at Maybrook.

So where do they differ? These are routes that go to Plainville or New Britain, but not Simsbury or Holyoke.

3. Erie, Binghamton, NY, D&H, Mechanicsville, NY, B&M, Springfield, MA, NY.

14. Erie, West Middlesex, PA, NYC (W), Gardenville, NY, NYC (E), Selkirk Junction, NY or Rensselaer, NY, NYC (B), Springfield MA, NH.

This is interesting because it notes the different districts or divisions it will run on the NYC, the Eastern, Western, and then NYC (B), which is the B&A District. 

18. Erie, Marion, OH, NYC (C), Cleveland OH, NYC (W), Gargenville, NY, NYC (E), Selkirk Junction, NY or Rensselaer, NY, NYC (B), Springfield MA, NH.

All of these go through Springfield, MA on either the B&A or B&M. Why wouldn't these be used for cars to Holyoke?

Because both the B&A and B&M have interchanges with the NH that are closer to Holyoke. These are their alternate routes:

2. Erie, Binghamton, NY, D&H, Mechanicsville, NY, B&M, Northampton, MA, NY.

19. Erie, Marion OH, NYC (C), Cleveland OH, NYC (W), Gardenville, NY, NYC (E), Selkirk Junction, NY or Rensselaer, NY, NYC (B), Westfield MA, NH.

Route number 2 is interesting because it goes to Northampton instead of directly to Holyoke. We'll see this is consistent with a B&M Routing Guide in a moment. This would lead one to believe that at least by 1944, interchange with the NH in Holyoke had been reduced to nearly nothing.

So routes to Holyoke and any of the towns on the Canal Line north of Plainville could come via Maybrook via the Erie, Northampton via B&M, or Westfield via B&A.

There are also some interesting routes possible:

7. Erie, Binghamton, NY, D&H, Sidney, NY, O&W, Campbell Hall, NY, NH (applicable only to shipments of Grain and Grain Products).

As you can see, this specifies that the route is used only for specific commodities.

9. Erie, New Castle, PA, B&O, Locust Point (Baltimore), MD, M&M T Co., Providence RI, and NH (Carloads only).

10. Erie, New Castle, PA, B&O, Locust Point (Baltimore), MD, M&M T Co., Providence RI, and NH (Carloads only)

11. Erie, Youngstown, OH, P&LE, Connellsville, PA, WM, Baltimore MD, M&M T Co., Providence RI, NH 

These three route are quite interesting indeed. It appears that this is routing cars to Baltimore where they will be transloaded into M&M Trucking Company trailers, and then routed on flat cars from the B&O to Providence on the NH. 

Update: I was incorrect in this theory, see Jeff Ward's comment below.

Mike Clements had sent me the following info as well and I hadn't updated the page yet:

... a couple of points about your post:

1. MM&T was a steamship company – Merchants & Miners Transportation Co. – not M&M Trucking. They participated in joint rail-water through tariffs via breakbulk. Their hub was at Baltimore and they served the Northeast. These routings got suspended during or before WWII and were never resumed. Same thing with the RUT routes with the Great Lakes steamers via Ogdensburg.
2. I think the routes correspond to published through tariffs. Shippers could pick another route, but I think that opened them up to being billed rule 11 (each carrier issues a separate bill) at local and proportional rates.
3. The first route on the list appears to be the preferred route of the carrier publishing the guide – makes it easy for agents to advise the line that is going to make the company the most money.

This is all great stuff guys, keep it coming!

But for my purposes, routing via the Erie consists of:

• Erie > Maybrook > NH > NY/YN or OA/AO
• Erie > D&H > Erie > Maybrook > NH > NY/YN or OA/AO
• Erie > D&H > B&M> Springfield > NH > HDX-5
• Erie > NYC > B&A > Springfield > NH > HDX-5

The Northampton and Westfield routes are interesting, but not terribly useful for my layout. 

So the answer is that yes, most Erie cars will probably come through Maybrook as expected.

But cars loaded on the Erie and bound for New Britain, Plainville, or the New Hartford Line can also come via Springfield. But we probably wouldn't see Erie loaded cars for points north of Plainville coming on HDX-5 to be dropped in Plainville for the NY/YN freights.

The different routes apply depending on the location loaded. So as I identify off-line industries, 

If we know the originating station, then we can go a step further which may narrow down the route even more. For now, though, we'll just stick with all possible routes.

--

Boston & Maine

The B&M book is from 1955, and includes loads originating on quite a few lines besides the B&M, including BAR, Bar&C, B&ML, MEC, PF&N, and StJ&LC. 

The B&M routings are much simpler:

• For Simsbury/Holyoke: Via Northampton
• For New Britain/Plainville: Via Springfield

Bangor and Aroostook

The B&M book also includes traffic from BAR, and it's different:

• Simsbury/Holyoke: Via Northampton
• Plainville: Via Springfield
• New Britain: Via Worcester

Loads to New Britain are routed via Worcester, indicating that they would take a route from Worcester > Providence > Cedar Hill to NY freights to New Britain. 

Maine Central

The B&M book also includes traffic from MEC, and it's different again:

• Simsbury/Holyoke: Via Northampton
• Plainville: Via Springfield
• New Britain: Via Springfield or Worcester, depending on originating point.

Again, interesting information. Loads from BAR and some of the MEC loads will be coming up the NY freights instead of via Hartford. I believe the differences in these routes were (at least in part) for balancing traffic. 

St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County

A Vermont shortline that highlights some of the other connections the B&M has:

For all four destinations:

13. StJ&LC, Sheldon Jct, VT, CVt,, New London, CT, NH

For New Britain/Plainville

1. StJ&LC, St. Johnsbury, VT, CP-E, Welles River VT, B&M, Springfield, MA, NH

9. StJ&LC, Sheldon Jct, VT, CVt, Windsor, VT, B&M, Springfield, MA, NH

For Simsbury/Holyoke:

3. StJ&LC, St Johnsbury, VT, CP-E, Welles River VT, B&M, Northampton, MA, NH

11. StJ&LC, Sheldon Jct, VT, CVt, Windsor, VT, B&M, Northampton, MA, NH

Barre & Chelsea

This is another shortline in Vermont. All routes go through Wells River, VT (spelled differently than the SJ&LC page...) to the B&M and then either Northampton or Springfield as expected.

Other Short Lines

The Belfast & Moosehead Lake, Passamaquoddy Ferry and Navigation, and Seaport Navigation are listed as notes that all route through the MEC at:

• B&ML - Burnham Jct, ME
• PF&N and SNCo - Eastport, ME

--

Pere Marquette

What about roads without direct connections? As the B&M book shows, distant roads will have routings to indirect connections as well.

I have a 1944 Routing Guide from the Pere Marquette as an example. As one might expect, there are more potential routes to get to the New Haven.

1. PM, East Buffalo or Black Rock, NY, DL&W, Port Morris, NJ, L&HR, Maybrook, NY, NH

2. PM, East Buffalo or Black Rock, NY, DL&W, Norwich, NY, or Scranton, PA, O&W, Campbell Hall, NY, NH

3. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, Erie, Maybrook, NY, NH

4. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, Erie, Binghamton, NY, D&H, Mechanicsville, NY, B&M (See Note 1), NH

5. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, LV, Easton, PA, L&HR, Maybrook NY, NH

6. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, LV, Jersey City Term, NJ, Harlem River, NY, NH

7. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, LV, Sibley Jct, PA, O&W, Campbell Hall, NY, NH

9. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, NYC (E), Rensselaer or Selkirk Jct, NY, NYC (B), (Note 2), and NH

10. PM, Suspension Bridge or East Buffalo, NY, LV, NYC (E), Rotterdam Jct, NY, B&M (Note 1), NH

11. PM, Toledo, OH, PRR, Greenville Piers or Jersey City, NJ, Float, and NH (Note 4)

12. PM, Detroit, MI, CP-E, Wells River, VT, B&M (Note 3), NH

13. PM, Chatham, ONT, CP-E, Wells River, VT, B&M (Note 3), NH

14. PM, Toledo, OH, W&LE, Bellevue, OH, NYC&StL, Buffalo Jct, NY, DL&W, Port Morris, NJ, L&HR, Maybrook, NY, NH

15. PM, Toledo, OH, W&LE, Bellevue, OH, NYC&StL, Buffalo Jct, NY, LV, Jersey City Term, NJ, Harlem River NY, NH

These routes are valid for all four destinations, except #13 which is not listed for any location except New Britain. There are also several notations for clarification:

1. Route 11 does not apply from Chicago (PM No. 5)

2. Routes 14 and 15 applies only from Manitowac, Milwaukee and Kewaunee, WI (PM Nos 3190, 3195, and 3200)

12. Route 12 is not applicable from Detroit, MI (PM No 1475)

14. Route 13 is not applicable from Chatham, ONT (PM No 3605)

16. Route 11 is not applicable from Kulmbach (PM No 2825) or Port Austin, MI (PM No 3160), nor from Aurthur (PM N 3240) to Grassmere, MI (PM No 3315) 

There are also 4 Notes:

Note 1 - Via Rotterdam Jct, or Mechanicville, NY, B&M and Northampton (north of Plainville) or Springfield (New Britain/Plainville)

Note 2 - Via NYC (B) and Springfield (New Britain) or Westfield (Plainville and north)

Note 3 - Via Wells River, VT, B&M and Northampton (north of Plainville) or Springfield (New Britain/Plainville)

Note 4 - When on account of clearances, shipments cannot be handled via Greenville Piers or Jersey City, NJ routes, such shipments may be routed via PRR, Belvidiere, NJ, L&H, Maybrook NY, NH.

--

Do you need the Routing Guides? Not necessarily. With the freight schedules, we know that traffic to New Britain comes from certain trains, from Maybrook, Cedar Hill, or Hartford.

We know that traffic via Hartford will come via Springfield or Maybrook (for the New Hartford local, but not New Britain). We know which roads interchange at Maybrook, and Cedar Hill rounds up the traffic from Greenville, Fresh Pond, Harlem River, and New London (and Maybrook when the OA/AO trains aren't running).

But the routes clarify that traffic to the Springfield Line west is unlikely to come via a Boston>Cedar Hill train. We can also see that traffic to the Canal Line north of Plainville will receive cars from NYC (B&A) and B&M via Northampton and won't be part of the NY/YN traffic.

Some routes seem obvious - traffic from the northeast is coming through Springfield or Northampton, and occasionally via New London. But I didn't expect the routing via Worcester, for example. It makes sense, though, because it reduces the volume of traffic through Boston.

Coming from the West it's little surprise that a road with a direct connection like the Erie will handle most of the traffic to that interchange. But traffic from farther north can flow via other roads to Springfield and Northampton.

It's also not surprising that once you get to an indirect connection that there are more potential routes via a carrier that interchanges with the NH. Remember that a few routes will go via Canada. One example, loads of automobiles may be coming through Springfield on the B&M instead of via Maybrook carriers. It's easy to think that Maybrook or the Greenville/Jersey City floats are only routes from out west, and that's not the case.

I find the routings interesting by themselves. But they are also useful in building train consists, leading to a visible difference in the mix of freight cars on the different trains. This will be particularly evident in the through cars to the Canal Line north of Plainville on the NY/YN trains, since they will contain fewer cars from New England roads.

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.

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.

Commodities

When going through the 1% Waybill study (average 1950-54) for commodities shipped to CT, I decided to look at the most common commodities to research for waybills. The top four items were pretty predictable:

• 305 Bituminous Coal (21,800)
• 411 Lumber, Shingles, and Lath (12,650)
• 633 Cement Porland (12,200)
• 301 Anthracite Coal (10,900)

Of those, I wanted to get a better understanding of 411 Lumber Shingles Lath, but where do you find such information?

The AAR Freight Commodity Classification book, of course. I have one from 1947.

I don't know how often they were updated/reissued. It turns out that the category is rather large:

411. Lumber Shingles, and Lath

• Billets, wooden
• Blanks, handle, wooden
• Blocks, bowling pin, wooden
• Blocks, hub, wooden
• Blocks, last, wooden
• Blocks, match, wooden
• Blocks or blocking, wooden, noibn (not otherwise indexed by name)
• Blocks, paving, wooden
• Blocks, spool, wooden
• Casket or coffin stock, wooden, noibn
• Cross arms, wooden
• Dimension stick, wooden, noibn
• Dowels, wooden, rough or rough turned
• Flooring, parquet, wooden
• Flooring squares, wooden
• Flooring, wooden, noibn
• Insulator pins, wooden
• Lath, wooden
• Lumber, native wood, Canadian wood, or Mexican pine, noibn
• Pickets, fence, wooden
• Planks, wooden
• Shingles, wooden
• Staves, flume, wooden
• Staves, pipe, wooden
• Staves, silo, wooden
• Staves, tank, wooden
• Timber noibn

Obviously shipments to the lumber yards will consist of a lot of these, but I also note the Blanks, handle, wooden entry, as that's probably a pretty common load to the Stanley plants.

The rest of the top 19 commodities shipped to CT by rail (all average 2,000 or more carloads/year):

• 583 Manufactured I and S (Iron and Steel) (10,425)
• 215 Meats, Fresh, NOS (not otherwise specified) (7,392)
• 773 Feed A and P, NOS (Animal and Poultry) (6,150)
• 763 Food Products, NOS (6,150)
• 655 Scrap Paper and Rags (4,192)
• 507 Refined Petroleum, NOS (4,150)
• 613 Automobiles, Passenger (3,775)
• 015 Flour, Wheat (3,150)
• 527 Chemicals, NOS (3,050)
• 657 Newsprint Paper (3,025)
• 697 Glass Bottles and Jars (2,800)
• 797 Waste Materials, NOS (2,408)
• 213 Swine, DD (Double Deck) (2,300)
• 559 Copper Ingot, Etc. (2,250)
• 563 Lead, Zinc Bar, Etc. (2,058)

There were a couple of surprises there. 655 Scrap Paper and Rags? What's that? Apparently it's rag pulp, scrap or waste paper, pulpboard, fibreboard, scrap or waste rags. So I'm wondering where all of that is going in the state to rank ninth with an average of over 4,000 cars annually.

It also surprised me that the 17th most common commodity on the New Haven was swine. In a discussion on the NHRHTA forum about stock car traffic on the NH, the general opinion is that such traffic was quite low. But several destinations were noted as the discussion continued. In my case, stock cars would probably only be on the OA trains (Maybrook to Hartford) destined for Copaco in Bloomfield, Hartford, or the slaughterhouse in Middletown.

797 Waste Materials, NOS is a long list of commodities, broken abrasive wheels, alundum refuse, apple waste, to glue scraps, haircloth clippings, jute refuse, non-edible meat refuse, rubber shavings. Just about anything. Once again, where was this being delivered in CT to warrant nearly 2,500 cars?

Operations - Produce Reefer Traffic

With the Swift and Armour distribution plants in the center of town I know I need meat reefers. But do I need produce reefers? Especially since most sessions won't have Maybrook-Hartford freights where they would be on through trains. And if so, which ones?

I suspect that a lot of the region received produce by truck, serviced by the large Produce Terminal in Hartford. Since refrigerated trucks aren't common in this era, the range of service is probably somewhat limited though. Today that's about 10 miles and a 20-minute drive to East Main St, New Britain where Miner, Read & Tullock and Cohen William, two grocery wholesalers, are located. Both are served by the railroad, though. Would they receive reefers?

I have plenty of evidence that a box car could be loaded for multiple destinations, but I think that's also unlikely in regards to reefers because they would need to be sent to Hartford for re-icing. Since reefers were frequently pre-cooled before icing, opening a car for even an hour for a partial unload is probably not practical. Which means I need to determine whether full reefers would be received in New Britain.

With a population of ~75,000 in my era, combined with the fact that these two industries could also serve neighboring towns, I think the answer is yes. They would receive full carloads of produce reefers. 

Which Reefers?

The reason is that the railroads were very selective in loading reefers. While the car service rules prevented roads from loading home road cars in preference to foreign cars, reefers were generally owned by subsidiaries. The New Haven was part owner of FGEX and companies, and their loading rules specified:

"FGE controlled cars (FGEX, BREX, FWDX, WFEX, CX, FHIX, WHIX, BHIX, FOBX) must be used for all refrigerator car loading. Loading of all other private line cars of any type is prohibited except as authorized by car owner, lessee, or this office."

From NYNH&H Transportation Department Form TD-12-G: General Car Order And Home Route Instructions ... Issued December 15, 1956.

The SP and UP had a similar rule for PFE cars, as did ATSF for SFRD cars. 

Since there are no industries in New Britain loading reefers, the cars I'll need will be dependent upon what is being received. My modeling month is November, I can further narrow down the options by looking at commodities are shipping in November.

Will I need that many FGEX cars, or will it lean toward the massive PFE and SFRD fleets?

PFE and SFRD

Looking at the Pacific Fruit Express book, combined with the 1% waybill study, I can identify commodities that would be shipping in November, and whether those were part of the 1% waybill study from AZ, CA, OR, or TX, the states that PFE served.

Another great resource is www.pickyourown.org which has harvest calendars for every State in addition to Canadian Provinces, such as this one for California.

These specific commodities match both those criteria:

• Cabbage (AZ)
• Celery (CA) - more celery comes to CT from Florida, but the season doesn't start until December
• Citrus Fruits NOS (CA lemons)
• Grapefruit (AZ)
• Grapes (CA)
• Lettuce (CA)
• Oranges (AZ, CA)
• Pears (CA, OR)
• Potatoes, not Sweet (CA) - the majority come from ME, but not in November
• Tomatoes (TX)

In addition, there is a category of Fresh Vegetables for many commodities not called out individually. These could include:

• Anise (CA)
• Artichokes (CA)
• Asparagus (CA)
• Beets (AZ, CA, TX)
• Broccoli (AZ, CA, TX)
• Brussels Sprouts (CA)
• Carrots (AZ, CA)
• Cauliflower (CA)
• Cucumbers (CA)
• Eggplant (AZ)
• Garlic (CA)
• Leeks (CA)
• Onions (OR)
• Peas, Green (CA)
• Peppers (CA)
• Pumpkins (AZ, TX)
• Radishes (CA)
• Shallots (AZ)
• Spinach (AZ, CA, TX)
• Squash, Winter (AZ)
• Turnips (CA)

These could all be in PFE reefers, and some may be appropriate for SFRD as well. I'll need to do some more research regarding producers and the towns served by SFRD.

That covers PFE and to some degree SFRD, but what about other produce reefers?

ART, FGEX, MDT, etc.

We can look at the other states that shipped enough produce to CT to be captured in the 1% Waybill Study:

• Apples, Fresh (WA)
• Bananas, Fresh (FL, NY, Canada)
• Oranges, Grapefruit (FL)
• Peaches, Fresh (GA, SC, VA)
• Cabbage (FL, NY)
• Vegetables, Fresh (FL, MS, NM, TN, Canada)
• Beets (NM)
• Broccoli (FL, MS, NM)
• Brussels Sprouts (TN, Canada)
• Carrots (MS, TN, Canada)
• Cauliflower (MS)
• Pumpkins (NM)
• Spinach (MS, NM)
• Turnips (MS) 

New Mexico would be SFRD territory.

The FGEX consortium serves Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington among other States. So these cars are probably less common than PFE, but about the same, or perhaps a bit more common than SFRD.

New York is served by MDT,  as well as Alabama, Mississipi, and Tennessee via the GM&O. 

Canada is served by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. 

The Missouri Pacific and Wabash owned ART, and according to an article by Ed Hawkins they served Southern Texas like the Rio Grande Valley and Uvalde among other areas. So some of the Texas traffic could be in ART reefers.

Obviously, loading isn't 100% to the rules, and even though the 1% waybill study shows what were the most common originating points for such loads, there were undoubtedly there were others. 

Roster

It appears that PFE, FGEX and SFRD should be the most common produce reefers in New Britain in November, in that order.

I currently have 10 PFE cars (in several paint schemes since they were changing during the years I'm modeling), all Intermountain.

I have an Intermountain and Athearn SFRD reefer, but the Athearn is a 50-footer. Resin Car Works released a resin kit of other SFRD classes, which replaces the need for earlier versions released by Sunshine, although the RCW cars are currently out of production too.

I also have an NWX (Branchline, now Atlas), and two ART (Intermountain), which should be sufficient, plus the CP 8-hatch reefer that we released at True Line Trains.

But it appears I will need a decent number of FGEX consortium cars, so I'll continue with my plans as detailed in my earlier posts here and here.

Accurate MDT reefers are also hard to find, although I have a Sunshine kit or two to build.

This doesn't cover use of such reefers in ventilation service, or service other than produce, but it forms the foundation of a roster of produce reefers.

Operations - Commodities - Newsprint

The June 1945 Along the Line has an article called "We play a part in FREEDOM OF THE PRESS"  which largely covers the movement of newsprint on the New Haven. It's an interesting read, and you can find it in the UCONN collection of Along the Line.

It reports that in 1944 the NH received 8.501 cars of newsprint, with 4,796 of those delivered online.

The newsprint "came from 11 different places in Maine, two in New Hampshire, one in Vermont, one in New Brunswick, and six in Quebec. They were delivered to practically every city in our territory."

In my case, the New Britain Herald is a daily newspaper that would receive newsprint via the bulk tracks, or possibly the freight house, since they aren't served directly by rail. I'm always looking to identify loads to deliver to the bulk tracks, so this is a great place to start.

So poking around online I found a 1950 Congressional Hearing regarding antitrust investigations into the newsprint and paper industries. The copy at Hathitrust.org is more complete, with the appendices. Of course, this is fascinating, but a very long read, and it's tough to find the sort of information I'm looking for. But there was some testimony from John A. Guthrie who apparently wrote a book on the subject prior to being called for this hearing. It's a little pricy on Amazon for my purposes...

His testimony indicated that by 1949 the number of mills in North America are:

Canada

Quebec - 19

Ontario - 10

Newfoundland  - 2

British Columbia - 2

Manitoba - 1

Nova Scotia - 1

New Brunswick - 1

United States

Alabama - 1

Indiana - 1

Maine - 4

Oregon - 2

Texas - 1

Washington - 3

He also describes the general movement of newsprint:

61% of Canadian newsprint moved by rail, 37% by water, 2% by rail and water, although water traffic is only during summer (Great Lakes and ocean).

The largest shipments by water from American mills is Oregon and Washington.

Newsprint from Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Maine is shipped to New England and Middle and South Atlantic States, and some to the Southern States.

Newsprint from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia is shipped to Mountain and Pacific States.

Newsprint from Alabama and Texas is shipped to Southern States and Mexico.

Some of the most interesting information is that many of the mills are majority owned by certain publishers.

• Spruce Falls Paper Co in Kapuskasing Ontario is owned by the New York Times
• Ontario Paper Co and Quebec North Short Paper Co in Baie Comeau Quebec is owned by Tribune Co, publishers of the Chicago Tribune, and also for the New York Daily News.
• Pejepscot Paper Co in Brunswick Maine is owned by Hearst Publications
• St. Croix Paper Co. in Maine is owned by the New York Daily News

Most of the US mills are majority owned by a publisher or group of publishers and provides some very useful information for populating waybills.

This inquiry may have been brought about in part due to a newsprint shortage following WWII as described in this paper and it goes into more detail about some of the arrangements with various mills and publishers.

--

Looking at the average number of cars to CT from the 1% waybill study shows that an average of just a bit more than 3,000 cars were delivered annually 1950-54. 80% of those from Canada, and 20% from Maine.

--

I found another book of House Records, that includes a great table of newsprint production in 1950, though, and combined with John's testimony, can narrow down the options a bit more.

By my era, starting only two years after the Along the Line article, there are no mills in New Hampshire or Vermont.

The largest, and only mill in Maine not owned by a publishing company, is the Great Northern Paper Co, with mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket, both served by the Bangor & Aroostook. 

For Canadian mills, the Canadian International Paper Co in Quebec is the largest, shipping out of six mills

• Cap Madeleine (CP)
• Gatinean (CP)
• Grand Mere (CN, CP?)
• Port Alfred (CN)
• Shawinigan Falls (CN)
• Three Rivers (CN, GT?)

The second largest is the New Brunswick International Paper Co, in Dalhousie New Brunswick on the CN.

From the largest to smallest producers, the others that are not are not affiliated with a publisher are:

• Price Bros (Kenogami and Riverbend) (RS)
• Anglo-Canadian Pulp & Paper Co (Quebec)(CN, CP, GT?)
• St Lawrence Paper Mills Co (Three Rivers)(CP)
• James Maclaren Co (Buckingham)(CP)
• Abitibi Power & Paper Co (Beaupre)(QRL&P)
• Lake St John Power & Paper Co (Dolbeau)(CN)
• Donnacona Paper Co (Donnacona)(CN)
• Donohue Bros (Clermont) (CN)
• Eddy Paper Co (Hull)(CP)
• Richmond Pulp & Paper Co (Bromptville)(CN)
• St Raymond Paper (St Raymond)(CN)

RS - Roberville Saguenay Railway, a short line owned at this time by Alcan, an aluminum manufacturing company. It served local industries, including the Price Bros mills, and had a connection with the CN.

QRL&P - Quebec Railway Light & Power, a short line east of Quebec, taken over by CN in 1951.

It's unclear what railroad(s) serve some of the mills based on what little information I have.

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This gives me all I'll need to generate waybills for carloads of newsprint and I learned a lot in the process too! Time to get back to some modeling - I have been working on a number of projects and just need to make some time to write the posts. More soon!