I need some historical advice on Less-Than-Carload-Lot shipments. My N scale winter home Bolero Lindy & Tango RR is set in 1920, while my summer Cha-Cha Chesapeake Industrial RR models 1941. Both are primarily freight shortlines. Would an LCL load in a boxcar, for example, consist of items for several destinations, or would it be all for one recipient? Since I use a four-part waybill system would it be prototypical to route an LCL boxcar to two or three different places before returning it as an MTY?
It depends.
In a larger community the LCL cars would move to a freight house where the cars would be spotted for unloading. The freight would be moved across a dock and loaded into delivery trucks (or a team and wagon) for movement to the receivers. Outbound freight would be taken to the freight house by the trucks/wagons and consolidated into a boxcar.
Smaller communities received/shipped LCL via boxcars in the local freight. A good practice was to put the LCL car(s) at the rear of the local and stop the train so the cars could be worked (freight in and out) while the local’s engine went about servicing the carload customers in town.
Another method, which it sounds like you’re talking about, was to load a car directly at a shipper with freight for several receivers at several locations. The billing on the car would note “Stop this car for partial unloading at …” The car would be moved to the first “Stop”, be partially unloaded, then forwarded partially full. A car with “Two stops and a final” would make two stops for partial unloading before reaching the last receiver who would empty the car.
LCL had an interesting history. The railroads began to put it into intermodal containers in the early 1920’s. This was about as soon as possible. They couldn’t do intermodal before trucks that could carry a decent load were developed. The container system, riding on friction bearing cars pulled by steam locomotives, was much more efficient than the boxcar system. The container system grew rapidly. In 1931 the Federal economic regulators stopped the system cold in what I maintain was the worst regulatory decision in transportation histroy.
This inane decision diverted a lot of freight revenue to the trucking industry and greatly harmed both the railroads and the overall US economy.
By definition (LESS than carload) it isn’t all for one recipient. There are two different types of LCL and they are handled differently. There is a “network” type LCL and a “local” type LCL.
The network type is a hub and spoke system for moving LCL cross country. That involves carloads of LCL bound for a single destination, usually a sorting or distribution center. Large railroads might have huge facilities covering acres of ground with multiple tracks on both sides where dozens, maybe hundreds of boxcars a day would be spotted, unloaded, the LCL sorted, reloaded into different boxcars and sent to the next sorting facility, or delivered to the recipient by pick up, trucking or delivery service. These centers would result in cuts or even trainloads of cars between major cites.
The other side of the coin is the local LCL. That could come in a couple different versions. On is a carload of LCL that would be spotted at the freight house, unloaded or part unloaded, reloaded with outbound LCL and the agent at the station would notify the local recipients to pick up the stuff. The car would then move onto the next destination and repeat the process. Do not confuse this with “express”. There is a reason all those mail order adds said, “…allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.” The other type of local LCL is where there is a car in the train, boxcar or baggage, and they pull up to the station, the agent unloads his LCL, loads his outbound stuff, then the train goes on its way, no cars are set out or pickerd up.
but it will be your loss if you ignore express shipments.
Express shipments were normally made on passenger trains, most typically carried in baggage/express cars, but they also traveled in express boxcars and reefers which were equipped to run in passenger trains.
Express shipments needn’t be insignificant even on lighter-traveled lines. Take for instance the Coos Bay Branch (Oregon) of the Southern Pacific. The area wasn’t heavily populated (Coos Bay itself only had a population of about 6,000 in 1950), The line’s passenger train usually consisted of three or four express boxcars or reefers, three baggage cars, an RPO, one or two coaches, and after WWII, a Pullman. Back then, a lot of shopping was done using Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs.
Mark
Very interesting history and exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks!
You (and your wife?) must be ballroom dancers. I took lessons for years but never did compete as my dance partners were just “social” ballroom dancers.
You got some good replies. I too think local LCL would fit in your operation but am not in full agreement that the LCL would necessarily be reloaded into another car at the freight station. I recently cowrote with a Wabash railroader an article on a mixed train the Wabash ran that carried express and LCL. This train was a tri-weekly train btw Montpelier, Ohio (Northwest Ohio) and Gary, Indiana. The loaded LCL cars came in from other parts of the railroad like Toledo and Detroit and, according to my coauthor, were not necessarily all home road cars. These cars were put on the end of the train next to the combine and if there was enough track, unloaded along with the combine’s express at the local stations out on the line while the rest of the train was switched. However, sometimes there was not enough track length do both, so the grain elevator, coal yard, pickle plant, fuel oil dealer, factory etc., would be switched first and then the combine and LCL spotted in front of the depot for unloading. Yes, cars… sometimes there was more than one LCL boxcar. Only express was handled by the REA man in the baggage compartment though he did handle company mail. Very rarely did the train carry passengers.
The REA man had to load his express in the combine at the originating station though he would get help from the others in the crew unloading along the way out on the road. ('There was a baggage and express building east of the depot at Montpelier.) This was a six man railroad crew with a “list man” on the headend to assist the head end crew in the switching. The REA man made it seven. Interestingly, there was no LCL loaded from the freight house at Montpelier.
The crew was based out of Montpelier and slept on cots in the combine along with
Frieght houses can be an overlooked part of railroading. I never realized how busy a frieght house could be until I read an article about rail operations in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In 1934 the three railroads operating in the city conducted a study to determine the feasability of consolidating operations (the Great Depression had hit them hard). The railroads (Soo, Milwaukee, and Omaha (CNW)) didn’t end up consolidating operations but the study provided some invaluable data about rail movements. On one day in September the Omaha performed the following switching at its frieght house in Eau Claire:
-Set 13 loads/5 empties
-Set 2 loads/8 empties
-Set 1 load
-Pull 23 loads/3 empties
-Set 12 loads
Now granted this frieght house was located at a junction and near a major yard, but still, for the relatively small size of Eau Claire and the fact this activity was happening during the Great Depression says a lot about how busy a frieght house actually was.
There was a railroad that ran a dedicated southbound LCL train at passenger train speeds. It started out of St. Louis and East St. Louis in the fall of 1931. It carried LCL cars to freight houses and connected with primarily trucks and some local trains for final delivery to destination. The train was called the Blue Streak Merchandise. Northbound LCL business on the Cotton Belt was handled by REA in an express car, the primary LCL business on the Cotton Belt was southbound.
A freight handle more then LCL freight…I recall seeing UP and other Western road boxcars being unloaded at the NYC,B&O and N&W freight houses in Columbus…These was not LCL loads but full loads for off line customers…I even seen PFE reefers spotted at the NYC fright house once a week…I recall this because a worker usually toss me a orange from a broken crate…