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Re: (erielack) Empty milk car question
Paul Brezicki wrote:
> Punning aside, I didn't think milk traffic lasted into the EL years. I
> 've never seen a photo of milk containers behind EL power; can anybody
> post one? I presume the Steamburg containers were trucked to
> Salamanca. Around 1966, a convenience store chain opened in S Ontario;
> it was called "Beckers", but IIRC the formal name was "The Becker Milk
> Co.", and I think they still exist. Same company, I gather?
>
> Paul B
>
Paul and list,
Milk traffic on the EL did indeed last into the middle 60s. There is
detailed discussion on Steamburg in the list archives. Not sure when
milk by rail from Steamburg finally did end. It was still going in
'65. See J. Boehners' Pass. Service Vol. 1 (p.96) for a view of the two
Steamburg milk cars on the back end of #8 (4-04-65). These cars are the
Erie 40' milk cars with outside swinging doors, not containers.
Other post-merger milk traffic by rail ended as follows. As Dave Rutan
pointed out the Becker's Dairy in Straders closed on 11-30-64 ending
milk service on the Sussex Branch. (Becker's did have another plant in
Roseland which I think continued to operate and ship by truck after that
date.) Also on the Sussex Branch and closing earlier, was a Borden's
plant in Branchville which sent Pfaudler milk reefers via the E-L to
Newark. The Branchville plant suffered a boiler explosion on 7-17-62
which brought about the closing of the plant. Dave Rutan's "DL&W Sussex
Branch Memorial" site has much detail on the above as does Bob Bahrs,
"Railway Milk Cars" Volume 4.
The two Lackawanna-side New York operations are covered in "Railway Milk
Cars" Volume 3. The emphasis is pre-merger, but there is still good
post-merger information. According to that source, the Borden's plant
at Oxford on the Utica Branch shipped by rail until early 1965. (This
was again in Pfaudler milk reefers.) On the Syracuse Branch, the
Sheffield Creamery (Sealtest) in Homer ended rail shipments on 5-13-66.
Through most of the EL service, Sheffield shipped their product in
piggy-back trailers (see photos and discussion in Volume 3).
So, EL was still handling some milk traffic as late as 1966. However,
milk never moved in containers on the EL as fas as I can tell. There
were some roll-off milk containers on flat cars used in 40s, but that
was long gone by the merger.
Mike Oravec
Mike Oravec
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