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Re: (erielack) EL empty car waybill

pat.moore_@_att.net wrote:
> Gordon, SMT, and Brian...
>
> I really appreciate learning about how the whole waybill process worked.  And, I especially appreciate all the time it must have taken to type up your responses.  Yeah, it might sound boring to some out there, but I find it interesting how there must have been whole teams of clerks shuffling the papers and documents to make sure shipments got to where they were supposed to go and made sure the railroad got paid for it.  And all this before the real computer age.
>   
Yes, there were armies of clerks, starting with the yard clerks on the 
"front line" who walked the tracks and "grabbed the numbers" all day and 
night.
> So, let me get this straight.  As I understand it, the conductor of a train would then get a stack of documents that accompanied the train.  Presumably, a document for every car on the train.  
>
> -Loads would have waybills (maybe with home route cards included) that were issued by the originating railroad
> -Empties would be traveling back toward the home road with an empty car waybill
> -Home road cars in company service would be moving with a company use waybill
> -And maybe a few moving on a memo waybill
>   
Yes, that's about it.  A memo waybill was one with no revenue attached.  
Some empties moved under specific car service orders, and they were 
generally moved on a regular waybill form, billed specifically to 
"Agent, XYZ RR, Podunk, IA."  One good example was Buffalo Creek RR 
boxcars.  They were returned empty to the BCK under a specific car 
service order, and they moved on memo bills.
> How were piggybacks handled...a waybill for each trailer?
>   
There was a waybill for each car, and in it was folded a waybill for 
each trailer, IIRC.  That was also the case for cars of LCL freight, or 
"house cars."  The car itself moved under a memo bill which was attached 
to an envelope full of waybills for the individual shipments in each 
car.  Those were sorted and kept with the individual shipments by the 
clerks and checkers at intermediate freight houses.
> I understand that there were all sorts of complicated rules about empties returning toward their home road.  There must have been strict rules for cars in dedicated service as well, especially the private owners.
>
> And to think that a yardmaster could snitch an empty westbound to send back with a load for "free."  That makes a lot of sense.  Most of the pictures I see on the Bath & Hammondsport have western road insulated boxcars being loaded with wine.  I'll assume the EL (and later Conrail) would dump western empties on the B&H because they had loads going to points west.  
>
> Here's a question, though.  Would the EL choose to give them an EL boxcar to load and send west, or would it be better to give them a western road boxcar to send back with a load?
>   
EL wouldn't really "dump" foreign empties on the B&H.  B&H would order 
or request a certain number of "equipped" cars for wine loading from EL, 
usually including the destination with the individual car request.  EL 
would fill the request, and under the car service rules, they were 
supposed to favor loading foreign cars to or in the direction of home 
before using system (EL) cars.  That was really a much more efficient 
use of equipment that benefited everyone.  It made much more sense than 
EL owing cars to protect westbound loads while having to move perfectly 
good cars as westbound empties.
> I'll have to think about how I might want to implement something like this on my model railroad.  It will have to be simpler but interesting, nonetheless.  My layout is rather small and relatively manageable, but I don't want to spend too much time shuffling papers.  With all apologies to Tony Koester, duplicating all the work of a real railroad is not necessarily my idea of "fun."  But, that's okay.
It was fun when I did it on the NYC as a summer job while I was 18 and 
19 years old.  Even at Westchester Ave on second trick, in the heart of 
"Fort Apache." the famed 41st Precinct.  That's still another story, and 
on the whole, I would rather have been at Harmon.

GAD


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