LCL freight (Less than Carload Lots) was a major part of railroad operations up to the mid 1960s. Unlike carload freight, LCL had to be handled at interchange points between railroads by being unloaded and reloaded at freight houses. Freight houses were also points where shippers dropped off or received loads.
We have had a few discussions on this over the last 20 years on the Classic Trains Forum. It’s time to bring the topic “up to date” as far as possible 50-60 years after the LCL operations ended.
Sounds good. How do you suggest we proceed?
Rich
There are a bunch of things to look at - I like the idea of working from maps if we can.
Freight houses varied in size from PRR’s huge Polk Street to some very small ones like the former Panhandle Morgan Street freight house on the North Joint Approach to Union Station. We can even look at special freight facilities like C&NW’s Wood Street potato yard.
At least three that I can think of were islands of their owners’ railroads reached via other railroads. Some were well marked, others nearly hidden. Some were outbound or inbound only, some both.
Transfer runs were sometimes required for interchange. Don’t forget the Chicago Tunnel Company also participated.
Happy to see where things lead.
Here in the U.K if it is less than a carload then British Railways are not interested. Companies have gone elsewhere; mainly transporting by road.
David
I believe that the OP is talking about LCL freight operations in Chicago in the mid-60s. Back then, Chicago was a hotbed for LCL freight.
For example, Dearborn Station in downtown Chicago had 13 large freight houses, serviced by Santa Fe, Erie, Wabash, GTW, C&EI and Monon. Some, but not all of the six railroads had three freight houses, an inbound, an outbound and an interchange with other railroads. A few of the railroads had a combination inbound-outbound freight house instead of two separate freight houses. One railroad, Monon, maintained only a single interchange freight house, while maintaining inbound and outbound LCL freight across the Illinois border in nearby Indiana.
Rich
Same in the US from the 1960’s onward.
Into the 21st Century the carriers don’t want single car load customers - all the team tracks and other tools to handle car loads for customers that don’t have their own sidings have been removed.
It’s those darned trucks!
Rich
Not so much trucks as the scale of all business activities. The finance required to support a nationwide business far exceeds anything that existed in the early Post War era.
Remember, after the War there were about 130 Class 1 rail carriers in the US. Now we have SIX. Even with that, some of the Short Lines of the 21st Century are larger than the criteria that created Class 1’s back in that era.
The kind of traffic LCL business did has migrated to UPS, FedEx, DHL and the LTL truck carriers.
From what I have read, the rise of the interstate road system and trucks spelled the demise of the railroads LCL freight system.
Rich
The Interstate System wasn’t authorized by Congress until 1956 - LCL business was well on its way to death by that time.
One of the themes in Stevers 1933 book Steel Trails, was that railroads were a mass transportation business, not a retail transportation business. As Greyhounds has mentioned many times, the railroads would likely have a larger share of the freight business had the ICC not gone to great lengths to discourage use of containers.
Well on its way? In 1956? Are you sure about that?
Rich
AT&SF built a new LCL sorting freight house at Argentine Yard near Kansas City as late as 1961. Other railroads, like Southern Pacific, spun off or beefed up trucking subsidiaries like SP’s Pacific Motor Trucking, often in combination with better piggyback options like PRR TrucTrains.
The largest freight house in Chicago, as well as the largest building in the U.S. at the time, was the Pennsylvania freight house. The Western Warehousing Co. was the official name of the building, and it was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Rich
Source: Industrial History: Pennsy Freight Houses and Western Warehouse
The PRR Polk St warehouse had five levels for sorting. Chicago Tunnel Company served the basement level. It was demolished in 1974.
On the other (north) side of Union Station, PRR had two small freight houses at Sangamon St and Halsted. There were team tracks at Morgan St, shared with the Milwaukee Road, which also had two small freight houses along the joint track.
Thanks, rcdrye, for that additional info. Good stuff.
Rich

The PRR Polk St warehouse had five levels for sorting. Chicago Tunnel Company served the basement level. It was demolished in 1974.
The Chicago Tunnel Company also had tunnels and tracks under the streets around Dearborn Station to service the freight houses scattered around the station.
I have some old maps showing the location of the tunnels.
Rich
For the Pennsy it was WW2. LCL went to truck and never came back to previous volume.
One of the strategic lessons learned from WW1 was that the US war industry could have moved a lot more tonnage if there were macadam roads.
From there state and federal road improvements started to eat into the LCL business line. I recall a story in one of the trade rags for a Philly-NYC LTL startup in 1919.
There’s a 500 truck carrier that operates SIT yards in several locations across the nation. In a normal year the ship approximately 2k cars a year from all locations they have 8 so were talking 5 loads 5 empties a week in amd out. They literally can’t get a customer service representative from any of the 4 class 1s they deal with on the phone. Yet all of their own customers can real time track their shipments all over the USA. See the difference between how the industries treat customers.
Some idea of how much labor LCL involved can be gained by looking at a photo I have seen in several places of IC’s South Water Street freight house. Cars are spotted on five adjacent tracks with access from the loading dock for four of the five tracks achieved via bridge plates between doors of adjacent cars. This practice worked when the vast majority of boxcars were 40-footers.