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(erielack) Seatrain

I think the routing of Seatrain ctrs on non-priority trains relates to
Jeff's question about handling them as TOFC or COFC (ie with or without
chassis). In the 70's the RR's were trailer-oriented. Containers (at least,
the ISO kind) were new, and while the fastest growing segment of intermodal
business was still a relatively small portion. Compared to today, the no. of
RR's and no. of terminals was much larger, and the task of keeping track of
and distributing fleets of chassis along with fleets of boxes and flatcars
would have been a logistics nightmare. In most cases this outweighed the
inefficiency of taking the wheels along. Other factors: few ports had
dockside rail intermodal, and most i/m terminals had no lift equipment.
"Most intermodal terminals hate containers" (from a 1972 CNJ-Portside
brochure). I've seen a picture of SeaLand's Port Newark terminal from around
1970; almost every container in the storage area is on a chassis, as opposed
to the stacks of boxes you see today. This anti-container bias persisted
until the 1980's when the shipping co's pressed doublestack technology on
the RR's.

Getting back to EL and Seatrain. The 99's and 100's, except for a few s/o's
and p/u's enroute, were in the interest of efficiency, ramp-to-ramp
operations and tended to avoid switching in Croxton and Chicago.
Also if Seatrain wanted them handled as COFC and they were being
interchanged with western connections, they would not be handled via the
51st ramp to avoid the chassis logistics of a rubber interchange in Chicago
(which is how almost all of it went). The containers on NY-97 may also have
been headed for an intermediate ramp like Akron.

Paul B

The EL was obviously trying to compete for Seatrain business, but NY97 and
NY98 weren't exactly the fastest trains to Chicago.  I don't recall ever
seeing Seatrain cars in the 99s and 100s.  Wonder what the EL's logic was
regarding this business?  I don't think it was too successful; by 1975 you
rarely saw any Seatrain traffic on EL trains.

Jim Gerofsky




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