Analysis of a Freight Train: #76 out of Pueblo 8/9/1966

[Dennis Faircloth]

Below is an excerpt from the attached file showing the consist of Train 76, Pueblo-KC, which originated at Pueblo, CO, on 8/9/1966.

The attached file is a PDF version of an Excel spreadsheet. This attached file has much more information, including originating railroad, junction points, consignor (shipper), and consignee (receiver) information. You can therefore put together the entire route of each car from origin to destination.

Note, the consist is listed from the caboose forward as you read down.

Some statistics:
The train had 15 cars for locations on the MP system, 14 cars for interchange in Kansas City, 4 cars for Omaha interchange, 1 car for Alexandria (LA), and 1 car for Memphis interchange.

The train had 14 boxcars, 9 damage free boxcars, 4 covered hoppers, 3 bulkhead flats, 3 flatcars, 1 hopper, 1 tank car and the caboose.

Car types:
Z=caboose
B=boxcar
DF=damage-free boxcar
F=flat
T=tank
BH=bulkhead flat
CH=covered hopper

========================================

TRAIN: 76
Conductor: Ivey
Date: 8/9/1966

Departing Pueblo

Locomotives
MP 570
MP 571
MP 616

25 loads, 11 mtys, 949 tons, 1885 feet

==============================
[attachment=0:3utdgb64]Train 76 consist 1966.08.09.pdf[/attachment:3utdgb64]

[louanne.lewandowski]

These train lists are MUCH appreciated. Please post as many as you can; every one is of interest. Trains to and from Pueblo are of particular interest to me.

Mark Hemphill

[David Losleben]

I find these fascinating at times. How about car 27, A TP CH going from St. Joseph (originated by TP?) to St. Joseph with time on the DRWG (a reporting mark I can only guess at.) Car 2 appears to maybe be a “roller” since route looks roundabout?
Steve Marquess

[Dennis Faircloth]

So, the “DRWG” should be “DRGW” as in Denver, Rio Grande & Western. Me having a bout of dyslexia, probably because I have been typing “DWG” while renaming a bunch of drawing files. I will get the spreadsheet changed.

I presume you mean car 29, which is TP 719197. That is actually what the paperwork says, although I would venture a guess that it is an indentical move to Car 20, TP 719194, and both cars came from San Francisco.

I really appreciate your observation on Car 2, SP 117614. It orginated at Susanville, CA, on the Southern Pacific, and was routed SP-Salt Lake City-Pueblo-MP-Omaha-MILW with a destination of Peoria, IL via Chicago & North Western. A roller car would explain having the same consignor and consignee (I would guess one of the spellings is a typo.)

A “roller” is a car shipped with a pseudo or temporary destination, giving a freight broker time to sell the carload before it reaches that original imaginary destination. Rollers of lumber often took circuitous routes to allow time for the load to be sold.

@steve503 wrote:

I find these fascinating at times. How about car 27, A TP CH going from St. Joseph (originated by TP?) to St. Joseph with time on the DRWG (a reporting mark I can only guess at.) Car 2 appears to maybe be a “roller” since route looks roundabout?
Steve Marquess

[louanne.lewandowski]

According to D&RGW traffic people I’ve talked with, D&RGW was the lumber broker’s preferred routing through the Ogden gateway prior to 1980, more so than UP, because D&RGW gave them more routing options en route — lumber could be diverted to either Denver or Pueblo, and to five railroad connections at Denver or three at Pueblo. As long as the lumber didn’t go backward (west), the rate was identical. (WP had much smaller lumber volumes than SP; it’s lumber originations similarly tended to prefer D&RGW interchange.)

Eastward carload (i.e., non-unit train) traffic on the Royal Gorge Route through Pueblo was consistently dominated by lumber and plywood (car types XM, XML, RBL, FMS, FM) until the line’s closure, followed by canned goods (RBL), bulk tomato products (RBL), and rice (LO). MP received most of the D&RGW carloads at Pueblo.

Mark Hemphill

[princessclyne69]

Note also both of the KOG GP-28s on the head end.

Ron Merrick

[peggyrothschild]

Topeka, Kansas was a favorite spot for lumber brokers to bill to on the MP before merger. The cars would originate in Canada or the PNW and destined to Topeka as it was the end of a branchline and had a triweekly local. Lumber was given one free diversion; generally when it was sold to a lumber yard but there was always the car that ended up on demurrage at Topeka when it took a while to sell the load.

[Dennis Faircloth]

I had always heard that during the 1970s a couple of tracks in Osawatomie Yard were filled with cars with roller lumber, waiting to be sold and rebilled.

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