I know that Coors West in Redwood City, CA has a siding, but they haven’t received inbound carloads of beer in over a decade(if not longer). One of the deciding factors in how product is delivered is who is paying the freight, not all beer/wine is paid for by the shipper, sometimes the receiver/distributor(if large enough) pays the freight and decides shipping methods/routes. I can tell you that a lot of wine is still shipped via carload from the Central Valley in CA, but so is a lot shipped in intermodal service.
I remember seeing the white CORX tanks on BN and NS (the ex-NKP Fort Wayne line) as they interchanged in Chicago area back in the 80s or 90s (I forget). They were bigger than a corn syrup tanker but not a full DOT-111 in length. “Beerconcentrate” must be more dense than ethanol or crude or soybean oil.
More recently (2-3 years ago) I also recall seeing large blocks of MRS boxcar loads on northbound BNSF manifests along the river between Savanna and St Paul. Likely St. Louis A-B products heading for that Coon Rapids distributor mentioned above.
Finally, that transloader near Proviso does still get a lot of Mexican beer loads that originate on the FXE. Not just Corona but also Modelo. In fact this business is growing so fast that UPRR has invested in a car cleaning facility in Eagle Pass, TX. I’d venture Chicago isn’t the only destination.
-PB
My son worked for a distributor. They told him they went to trucks because the railroad practically destroyed the first layer of product in every car they got. Preordering and difficulty in disposing of broken lots Just made the situation worse. They have used trucks for years.
My bad - I meant Miller, not InBev. Regardless, Miller isn’t a heavy rail user. Hard to type on 4 hours of sleep.
It’s a lot easier on a keyboard… [}:)]
The brewers of Matt’s, Utica Club and others in Utica get thier grain in by rail. The track runs down the middle of a residential street like a streetcar. A beautiful old brewery and well worth touring. Also, the Lion brewery in Wilkes-Barre gets thier grain by rail. That’s an interesting one also, a 100 (or more) year old brewery still in operation on a vertical scale, malt mills on the top floor, brewing kettles on a lower floor, aging tanks (riveted!) in the basement. Not to turn the topic onto breweries themselves, mind you but old breweries are pretty neat places.
I recall years ago that eight boxcars were left for reasons unknown on a siding in the Bronx. Someone broke into one of them and found that it was full of beer. The whole neighbourhood got word and cleaned them out.
Wine is a flammable liquid, so they have to have a Class 3 placcard on the car. The Hazmat UN number for alcoholic beverages is 3065…
When we have wine in box cars listed in train consists they aren’t flagged as hazmat or alcoholic beverages. They just show the contents as wine. There is no emergency response information given.
The tank cars of whiskey when we have (or had) them were marked as hazmat. The emergency response information was given and listed under alcoholic beverages.
Jeff
and endangered creatures - Baltimore once had maybe 10 brewerys, now there is only one ‘craft’ brewer and they are located in a industrial park outside the city limits.
interesting. When Dad worked outside as yard clerk for Frisco, he had to check car seals on boxcars to see if they had been tampered with. He had copy of manifest and paid close attention to liquor and cigs cars. If he found one, he’d contact the 'bulls" with walkie talkie.He worked 3rd trick on that job, no big tower lights like later years, only a battery lantern to swing so the crews would see him. Very scary and dangerous and this was in the steam era too. Mom was happy when he got enough seniority to get inside the yard office, much safer. A lot of booze and cigs were shipped in those days, but didn’t know if they still were or not. AB here sold their Manufacturers Railway a few years ago, didn’t use it, but some small RR took it over and I do see cars in their yards, I think they do some AB shipping.
Balt, I’m a beer geek and just about every “craft” brewer is located in an industrial unit. And, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Still worth visiting for the beer, though. Historic breweries are as interesing as historic rail facilites, hotels and ball parks. Historic slaughterhouses should be avoided.
The area where this craft brewer is located is just 1/2 mile from where the former Carlings Black Lable brewery was located adjacent to the Baltimore Beltway. In the day, when Carlings was brewing, the aroma of the area left no doubt, however the Carlings plant was demolished about 30 years ago and has been replaced by a wholesale building supply outfit.
http://www.greenbushbrewing.com/index.php/taproom
Located in “downtown” Sawyer MI, with a view of CSX’s Grand Rapids sub.
The natty boh sign still blinks at you, though.
Natty Boh is a point of civic pride and was brewed by National Brewing Co. in Baltimore; now it is just one of the brands being peddled by Miller-Coors these days. Natty Boh, until this year was sold at all concession stands in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, now, because AB-Inbev got the Orioles adult beverage concession a civic fight had to take place to force the sale of Natty Boh at a single specific concession stand in the park.
I’ll admit I had to look him up. Not being a beer drinker, it looked like the Pringles guy to me at first.
“Brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay!”
And it sure is better than that Wicomico beer!
Nice photos, thanks. Judging from the cars in the last one especially the Hudson, I’d say it was about 1949.