Paul, All of us agents had a AAR Service Order 90 form, often under glass on the top of the desk. It showed us what cars where home in each region of the United States and Canada. It also listed the primary returning carrier for empty cars that could not be returned via reverse route to their owner. For example a B&M car is received and unloaded on the EL. The EL does not have a load for the car to its home region. SO 90 gave you the route to return the car home. These where written rules that must be followed for moving empty cars. At times an AAR inspector would come into the station and look through your waybill copies trying to find mishandled empty or loaded cars to fine you for not moving them properly. The EL auditor also went through your waybills looking for the same thing to find it before an AAR auditor so it could be corrected and the EL not fined. Bob Stafford Janet & Randy Brown <jananran_@_mymailstation.com> wrote: Paul -- Several comments: First, the ICC had nothing to do with it. It was the AAR -- the railroads themselves -- who made and enforced these rules. Secondly, I should have made clear that the return of empties by the reverse route was the accepted practice and made them available for loading. Next, you imply that the loads were in cars of the originating road when, in fact, they weren't in many, if not most, cases. The rules said to load the car toward home if possible; therefore your first example had a high chance of being owned by the RDG, LV or D&H -- or even EL, PC or B&M. And, the phrase "if possible" allowed a car distributor to send the car to a shipper to be loaded for California, if there were no other cars available. Then, even if the EL got stuck with empty miles, that was only fair because someone else was similiarly stuck with empty EL cars. Finally, just think -- if the noon deadline had gone into effect, how many more transfer runs would have been available for pictures!?! Randy Brown - -------------------------------------------------------------- Let me try to clarify this with a couple of examples of empty free-runners with no return load ca 1972-76 Example One: Car is loaded on N&W at Roanoke for Albany and is routed N&W-Hagerstown-RDG-Allentown-LV-Dupont-D&H. From Albany the closest N&W interchange is Buffalo, so according to the rules the empty move is routed D&H-Binghamton-EL-Buffalo. Thus EL is stuck with the empty move without having received revenue from the loaded move. Example Two: Car is loaded somewhere on ATSF and takes the Alphabet route to Jersey City on CNJ. CNJ has a choice of two return routes of approximately equal mileage on CNJ itself: the reverse route via Phillipsburg and the RDG or via Lake Jct and EL. Both routes get the car back to ATSF at Chicago. Where there is more than one route, did ICC rules stipulate the reverse route? . . . I also recall a proposal back in the early 70's to split per diem into 12 hour accounting periods by adding a noon deadline. It would have alleviated many of the late evening operating issues and I thought it was a good idea, but I don't think anything came of it. Many happy returns, Randy. Paul B The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2008 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.