(erielack) Perishables in EL years

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

EL perishable traffic, which had been declining for a decade due to truck
diversion,  more or less went down the toilet in 1968 when all the NYC
produce markets were moved to the new Hunts Point terminal. It had no water
access and rail access was exclusively Penn Central (via the Hudson line),
so EL was effectively shut out except for modest volumes of trailers (mostly
PFE). Prior to that, EL (and of course Erie) handled substantial reefer
traffic into NYC, most of it floated to Duane St, which occupied piers 20
and 21 in lower Mhtn near Washington Sq. This was one of those terminals
without trackage which used those platform floats. While all the class 1's
into NYC handled perishables, several dominated in specific traffic:
NYCentral and meat, Erie and west coast produce, PRR and Florida produce.
There are several photos that illustrate substantial EL produce traffic
prior to HP. If you keep your calendars, look at the cover of 2001; it shows
train 74  in the mid-60's with at least a dozen 40-footers. "EL Story" by
Carleton on pg 414 shows the same train in 1967 with a large reefer block,
behind SD45's, no less. Erie and EL also carried New England produce via
Maybrook, but I'm sure this disappeared in 1969 with the PC takeover of NH.

Perishables traditionally departed Chicago in late evening on NY-98, but
after the general speedup of freight schedules on the western lines in the
early 60's, the traffic began arriving in Chicago in late evening, and was
interchanged to EL in time for the late-morning departure of NE-74. Those
were the good old days when RR's cared about things like transit times.

After 1968, most of what was left (a car here and there) went to the cold
storage warehouses in JC and Newark. It's my impression that the supermarket
warehouses were supplied exclusively by truck, but I may be mistaken.

The Harlem River site Jim referred to was originally the Central's
Highbridge Flexivan terminal. I think it also handled some TOFC briefly in
1971-1972 when PC (unsuccessfully) tried to revive the NY-Boston piggyback
route. It was abandoned in the mid-70's as PC began to phase out the
Flexivans.

Paul B

From: "Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_lucent.com>
Subject: (erielack) Perishables in EL years

Hi folks,

The recent discussion of cold storage warehouses in Jersey City got me
thinking... We know that perishables to the New York market were a big
business for the Erie (and to a lesser degree on the DL&W), but how did this
change in EL years? You would occasionally see some old 40' reefers on the
EL into the late 1960s (I have some video footage showing a pair of GB&W
reefers on an eastbound entering Croxton yard), and more often you'd see the
57' mechanical reefers with western roadnames.

The question is, where did those cars go? I don't remember seeing many of
the 57' cars being carfloated over to New York. I would guess those cold
storage warehouses in the Jersey City area, as well as supermarket
distribution points in the greater New Jersey area, were the primary
recipients of these cars. Is my assumption correct?

Does anyone know what percentage of EL traffic was made up of perishables in
the 1970s?  Obviously, there were no perishable hotshots anymore, so how
valuable was this traffic, really?

- - Paul



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