One aspect sometimes missed was use of older cars for the "back side" of food processing.... 40' Milwaukee Road Rib Side box cars lasted into the late 80's (maybe beyond?) hauling spent grains from breweries and processing plants in the upper Midwest. Milwaukee Road's "Beer Line" in their home city was trafficked predominantly by ancient 40' box cars with Kraft paper grain doors hauling spent malt, corn and other grains from the Schlitz and Pabst breweries to a location about 90 miles west for blending into animal feed.
Those cars were about ready to fall apart but the bankrupt railroad kept squeezing the miles out of them. Since the route did not require interchange many were well beyond the interchange age limit. Another bankrupt railroad trick was to "create" larger cars without buying them. The Milwaukee Road split some of the 40 rib side cars in the middle and added a 10' section with a larger door. Presto a 50' box car! See the last page of the article in the link below... Now there is a modeler's project!! Jim Kindraka P.S. Jace - I think guys would appreciate if you deleted the long string of posts leading up to yours. I know some have requested that courtesy in the past. http://www.riverraisinmodels.com/libraryData/milwhrbox.pdf --- In [email protected], JGG KahnSr <jacekahn@...> wrote: > > > I assume you are talking about the grain doors? <snip> The Kalmbach series > of books on Industries along the Tracks also has a discussion > of which cars were used and how in one of the volumes on grain and milling. > In one of those articles, I think, there was a mention that especially in > Canada in the prairie provinces the 6' door boxcars > lasted quite a bit longer than elsewhere, as they were saved just for the > fall wheat runs, larger door boxcars being used > elsewhere for general lading. > > Jace Kahn > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
