Railroad Carload & Commodity Reports

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Railroads have been submitting carload reports to the federal government for many decades. Is there a repository for this information in an I.C.C., STB, or FRA archive that would be accessible to the general public? I am searching for carload data (number of cars, commodities transported, etc.) for a specific railroad during the 1950s.

The Moody’s Transportation Manual has a usable general overview of carloading information, but only for railroad companies that were publicly traded/owned. Unfortunately, the Ahnapee & Western Railway (which I research) was privately owned from 1947-1971. If you are researching railroad traffic types/patterns however, I strongly recommend the Moody’s Manuals.

Do you know of a public resource that would provide access to the monthly or yearly railroad traffic reports made to the ICC, STB, FRA, or another regulatory entity? If so, could you tell me how to contact the location or gain access to the material?

Thank you,
Andy Laurent

2

The Class I railroads use to file a Quarterly Commodity Statistics (QCS)report with the ICC. These reports spelled out cl, tonnage and revenue by traffic class. However, these reports were limited to the Class I railroads. Another source of very detailed reports on every thing about a railroad are bankrupcey proceedings. I know a lot of ICC files went to the University of Denver.

I hope this helps in your search for data.