Re: (erielack) EL empty car waybill

[Gordon Davids <g.davids_@_verizon.net>]

Pat -

A loaded car moved on just one waybill from origin to destination over all of the railroads involved in the movement.  The originating carrier issued the waybill, which was a standard form adopted by all of the railroads.  The waybill was actually one part of a four-page form that was typed with carbons.

The shipper signed the Shipping Order, which was the authorization for the originating carrier to take charge of the shipment and move it, and to bill either the shipper or the consignee for the transportation.

The railroad then gave the shipper the Bill of Lading, which was the acknowledgment of receipt of the shipment, and which in some cases was mailed by the shipper to the consignee who had to surrender it to the delivering carrier to prove ownership of the shipment.

The Waybill moved with the shipment, and served as the direction to the various carriers to perform the transportation, as well as a record of the actual movement (with yard and junction stamps on the reverse side) for apportionment of payment.

The Freight Bill was sent by either the originating carrier to the shipper, or by the delivering carrier to the consignee, as the invoice and demand for payment of transportation charges.

That whole thing was called a "Standard Four-Part Bill of Lading and Waybill."

Now, the empty car movement was a whole 'nother story.  The empty car moved under ICC car service rules which had many combinations and permutations.  The simplest case was a "free-running box car."    It was to be returned empty to the owning railroad via the reverse route, or preferably loaded and moved to or in the direction of the owning road.

Suppose we have a load of lumber in an SP ordinary box car, originating on the SP in Oregon, routed SP Ogden UP Council Bluffs CRI&P Chicago Erie Paterson delivery.  SP prepares the Waybill, which moves with the car to final destination (Paterson) and shows the shippers designated routing.  SP also places in the Waybill, which is folded double down the middle, an SP Empty Car Waybill/Home Route Card.

When the car arrives at Ogden, SP pulls its Home Route Card and files it.  UP receives the car in interchange at Ogden and stamps the Waybill with the location, date and time of the interchange.  UP prepares its own Home Route Card, which stays with the Waybill to Council Bluffs, where CRI&P does the same, and the same thing happens at Chicago between the CRI&P and Erie, probably via the Belt Railway of Chicago which only handles the interchange and does not participate in the rates and divisions.

When the car is made empty at Paterson, the agent takes the Erie Home Route Card, which shows that the Erie received the car under load from CRI&P at Chicago, and enters that information back into the Empty Car Waybill, showing the car's destination as Chicago BRC CRI&P.  When the empty arrives at Clearing Yard, the BRC has the CRI&P Home Route Card from the loaded movement, which establishes the cars "record rights" to return via the reverse route to the owning road and shows that the car had been received under load via UP Council Bluffs.  That Home Route Card then becomes the Empty Car Waybill for that leg of the return trip, and so on until it arrives on the SP at Ogden, which can do whatever they please with their own car.

An empty car is a "Hot Potato," because the handling road is obligated to pay per diem charges, and to move the car free of charge on the reverse route.  That's why the process of "record rights" is used, because the C&NW is thereby not obligated to take the car at Chicago and move it free to Council Bluffs.  But a Hot Potato can be good if you want to eat a potato, so any one of those handling lines is free (and encouraged) to load that car westward to or in the direction of the home road.  Also, because the CRI&P has a direct connection to the SP at Tucamcari, NM, they could have returned the car that way, but that would be unlikely because of the added mileage and per diem charges.

An example of handling of Home Route Cards in my experience was on the New York Central at Westcheste Avenue, New York, which handled the New Haven interchange at Port Morris - Oak Point.  We had a box with one hundred compartments (10 X 10) that held the NYC home route cards for loads delivered to the New Haven.  They were filed by the last two digits of the car number.

When we received an empty back from the New Haven, we pulled out the Home Route Card that had been filed when the load was delivered, and used that as the Empty Car Waybill to return the car to the road that had delivered it to the NYC.  That is how it worked in theory.  In practice it was not all that clean and simple, but let's not go there tonight :o)

In Pat's example of a car of produce, empty reefers usually moved under special car service orders under the direction of the refrigerator car line, like Pacific Fruit Express, and they were covered by specific agreements between PFE and the handling roads.

Again, ask a simple question and . . . . :-)  Thanks for another chance to unload.

Gordon Davids


>> So, does anyone know if every freight car travelling on an EL train had to have an EL-issued waybill?  For example, if a load of produce from California was routed off the ATSF through Chicago and consigned to someone in NJ, would it have an ATSF-issued waybill or an EL waybill?  I'm trying to understand how this worked.

- - -pat moore



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