Milk Traffic; was: (erielack) More EL in Massachusetts!

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

Brad, there were several reasons for the demise of RR milk traffic. It was 
perishable, labor-intensive, short-haul and uni-directional. In the 1960's, 
RR's were emphasizing high-volume, bulk commodity long-haul traffic that 
required minimal labor. Proliferation of good highways allowed trucks to 
largely take over the under-500 mile market for high-rated commodities. 
Plus, the secondary passenger and M&E trains that handled this traffic (the 
proverbial "milk run") disappeared.

Fresh milk traffic lasted on the EL until around 1966, the final shipper 
being the Queensboro Dairy in Steamburg, NY. It probably survived that long 
because at approx 400 miles, it was unusually long-haul for milk. There was 
another move out of western upstate NY that has been discussed here: canned 
evaporated milk from the Carnation plant at Dayton moved as COFC to Port 
Seatrain in Weehawken enroute to Puerto Rico in 1973-74. I believe this was 
a special situation because the containers exceeded highway weight limits.

Paul B

From: "Bradley Butcher" <llyengalyn_@_hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Re:RE: RE: (erielack) More EL in Massachusetts!

Can anyone give me a generall rundown of what happened with milk traffic? 
They just decided it was not a sanitary way to transport milk or what?
I'll say it's list content since the Erie did haul a lot of milk in it's 
time
 


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