I’m trying to get a better understanding of how milk trains were operated. I understand that they were outfitted with passenger trucks for faster speeds with express mail and passenger service.
Were they generally operated in large “herds” of milk cars, with a few express mail or passenger cars to the rear? And/or would they have ever operated singularly or in twos with a consist of express mail or passenger cars?
Thanks,
Tom
I am from Boston and can tell you that due to its perishable nature, milk does not like to spend a lot of time in transit. It depends on the railroad and which branch(es) of that railroad, how the milk moves. Some railroads had branches with enough milk traffic that it ran in trains of 8 to 10 milk cars and nothing else. If there were any express or other cars, they were traveling on the milk’s schedule, not the other way around. Milk trains were like glorified commuter trains, not wasting time combining at some outlying point but, rushing independently to their destination. Some milk traveled in express trains if there was not enough traffic to justify a dedicated milk train. Yes. Most cars in milk service rode on trucks suitable for passenger train speeds. Kalmbach recently published a book on milk traffic, that should still be available and, answer all of your questions.
I would like to know more about this as well.
The only milk car I have is equipped with regular freight car trucks.
I also have an Intermountain kit for a “Milk Car” similar to this one, and it came with regular trucks also.
-Kevin
The trucks under the brass models may very well be correct for that type of car and service. At one time almost every car and locomotive in passenger/express service rode on the same solid, oil reservoir bearings, as did freight cars. Envision the hundreds of Pennsy X-29 boxcars in storage mail, and express service on first class trains on railroads from coast to coast. Milk cars stayed a lot closer to home.
My understanding was that most ‘milk trains’ were local-style trains operated early enough to get milk from farms into cities early in the day. There were a few high-volume expedited trains, I’m sure.
I also thought a primary reason for the ‘passenger’ trucks was ride quality. If the train trip sloshes the milk into butter, much of the value is lost…
Plain bearings are of very little relative concern. Springing, compliance, and snubbing are. See the details of Chrysler’s development of high-speed trucks and some of the designs that evolved out of that effort.
Not all high speed trucks are that easy to identify. The ones under this re-purposed X-29 boxcar looked pretty normal to me…
…but the COO (a close friend) pointed out that the trucks were suitable for high speeds and also had locking centre pins. In addtion to that, the car is also equipped with brake gear specifically suitable to such service. It also had steam and signal lines, too.
However, the car’s BLT date seemed unsuitable to me, as its general appearance is one of a 1924-built car…
Regardless of that, I decided to make a model of the car in it’s previous (not original) service, which was as an express car. This one was made for my friend, who models the late '40s, as a retirement gift…
…and this one for another close friend who models the mid-'50s and made a contribution to the gift…
…and I, of course, made one for my late '30s layout, too…
On my next visit, with a bit of a hunch inspiring my curiosity, I took a look under that car, and finally learned the reason for that 1934 BLT. date: the original 1924 X-29 boxcars had underframes with single stringer on each side of the main underframe, while this car had double stringers.
Even though the car’s trucks and brake syst
I have a couple f milk cars and a couple of Railway Express reefers, with passenger car trucks that I run as head-end equipment on passenger trains.
I hope to run a local milk train as the first train of the day, and drop those cars for pickup, or maybe pick up another one that just came off the carfloat. It’s local traffic and that serves me well.
Sometimes what look like regular freight car trucks are actually specially designed for high speed service. Barber, Symington, ASF Ride Control all have special spring packages, possibly snubbers and bolster restraints that help prevent “hunting” and other tracking problems at high speeds.
Symington_50T_Self-aligning by Edmund, on Flickr
I installed a pair of Symington High speed trucks on this Pacemaker box car:
NYC_Pacemaker-XM by Edmund, on Flickr
Of course, most, if not all, milk cars would have a pass-through steam line, signal line and buffers if used in passenger service.
Now I need to recall where I recently came across an article about milk trains in Upstate New York that brought fresh milk daily to the large, eastern seaboard cities [D)]
I’d love to add one of these Overland MDT milk trailer flats to my roster:
This is a good read with some milk tank references:
http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/odds_ends/LIRR3000MilkCar.pdf
[edit]
I believe this
Something else I did not know. If I ever dig that brass milk car out I will take a closer look at the trucks.
Do you know what era these ran? They look a little old-time for 1954, so I have never jumped on one.
-Kevin
You are correct.
I just dug out the Intermountain Milk Car kit for a close look, and sure enough, the trucks are not a normal design. These are definitely special.
-Kevin
Built in late 1936. Bothersome to maintain and fell out of favor rather quickly. However the “turntable” design was later resurrected by Strick for the Flexi-Van container cars.
I haven’t snagged one either since they tend to run upwards of $700 USD. That’s a lot of food out of the baby’s mouth.
Regards, Ed
Those interested in milk train operations might be interested in the following website: pennyandrc.wordpress.com/milk-trains/ . There is currently a discussion about the rail diesel car (RDC) which concievably could handle milk, on the New Haven Railroad Historical Technical Association (NHRHTA) site which references this site.
Why not get one of the 2-trailer sets complete with decals for $129 – that’s the hard part to scratchbuild! – and make yourself the car?
In fact you could get all three sets for that price and still feed the baby…
The following is English translation from my dictionary. Please give me some advice. -my Model Railroad Dictionary 3
[milk train] Around 1840, milk was recognized as a nutritious drink, and luggage cars and boxcars began to be used to transport from dairy farms to factories near the eastern metropolis. It was manual loading and unloading of milk cans. In the 1880s, the pasteurization method (heated at 140°F = 60°C for 30 minutes) and the spread of cold storage reefer expanded transportation, and the term “milksheds” was coined by using the route as a river (Wikipedia-English).
Bulk transportation using large glass-lined steel tanks was tested by Harmony Creamery Company on B&O in 1921, and actual operation started in 1922 as a joint venture between General American Tank Car Company and Pfaudler Company (above photo). After that, the tanks were made of stainless steel and continued until the end. Methods that can be said to be an intermodal transportation were also used, in which the tank was transferred from the truck bed to a flat car as it was, or the tank and trailer were transported together. Milk cans were also used until later years.
Due to the nature of its production, milk had to be picked up daily, and cars were generally combined with regular passenger trains and equipped with high-speed trucks. There were also dedicated trains. The paint color is often Pullman green together with the passenger cars, and the wood side cars (above photo) overlapped with the era of Billboard Reefers and competed for various schemes. After that, the steel side cars only had letters. In the east, insulated cars without ice bunkers were used for operations of 300 miles or less, and in the Midwest and west, ice bunkers were used.
Continued in my next coment.
Your English is fine, and much better than some English-speaking modellers who frequent these forums.
However, I’m uncertain as to what advice you’re seeking, as your post seems quite complete and accurate, with enough information to model your own milk trains, if that’s of interest to you.
Wayne
I learned something today – I had never heard the term ‘milkshed’ as analogy with ‘watershed’.
I think there needs to be a little progressive story here. Prior to 1840 those who wanted milk either owned a cow or ‘made arrangements’ with someone nearby who did. Those dwelling in cities would have to pay to have milk brought in.
Now at some point the market for ‘milk delivery’ in cities, delivery made possible by railroads, permitted the development of large dairy farms. This in turn allows recognition of a ‘milkshed’ area… with the milk being delivered reasonably quickly in the early morning when other traffic on the railroad would be minimized.
Pasteur’s recognition that heating the raw milk greatly increased both its safety and the time it could be shipped ‘un-iced’ further expanded the idea of milk delivery – a service that itself requires both a critical mass of regular demand and a reliable supply chain and quality to work.
At some point, the idea of branding enters this business, with enough business to justify purpose-built equipment and then whole specialized cars. Here you go from ‘milk cans’ to larger tanks to the special-built analogues of the billboard reefer.
In the advances of refrigerated transport crossed with good-roads movement, though, started to come the demise of the rail transport. A brave attempt was the Merchants Despatch attempt to apply the benefits of ‘containerization’ to milk trailers… the problem becoming that it was often easier to take milk directly to distributors by truck than to transship it.
The decline of unsubsidized local passenger trains outside ‘commuter hours’ certainly leveraged a shift to refrigerated road transport. But I think the thing that really blew the doors off the business was the invention of practical disposable paper packaging for milk products, followed by inexpensive thin-wall blow mol
This type of milk tank car fascinates me. Gary Hoover had one on his Dearborn Station module that was part of his ATSF layout. It delivered the milk to the Beatrice Foods Meadow Gold Butter cold storage facility located just south of Dearborn Station.
My understanding is that inside that butter dish shaped cover were two smaller tanks that held milk. Were these tanks filled and emptied like other tank cars?
Rich
Rich,
I could be wrong but I believe those cars specifically came with udders so they just hooked them up to large milking machines to remove the contents. [:o)]
Tom
Tom, I already knew that, but is there any udder way?
Rich
