Using ICC Reports for MP Research

[Bill Pollard]

The Interstate Commerce Commission for almost a century had jurisdiction over railroad rates, mergers, abandonments, stock issuances, etc. Much of this information was published in summary form in bound volumes, ICC REPORTS, which made it to 366 volumes before the ICC was abolished in favor of the Surface Transportation Board. Many law libraries, college libraries and official government document libraries have complete sets of these bound volumes, and an on-line set can be found at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007911857. This source only allows downloads of pages, one page at a time in PDF format, so for lengthy reports, it would probably be easier to request a photocopy from a library.

Within the ICC Report series, many of the volumes deal with rate cases, tariffs, etc., and are probably of lesser interest to the rail historian. Other volumes are marked on spine as “Finance Reports” and contain finance dockets dealing with track abandonments, mergers, stock issuances, and after 1957, passenger train discontinuances. A PARTIAL list of the volumes with Finance Dockets includes: 65-67-70-71-72-76-79-82-86-90-94-99
-105-106-111-117-124-131-138-145-150-162-207-212-217-221-224-228-233-236-239-240-242-244-247-249-252-254-257-261-267-271-275-282-290-295
-307-312-317-320-324-327-328-330-331-333-334. This is NOT a complete list – please submit additions or corrections.

The ICC in about 1914 started a lengthy process of establishing the value of each railroad. This involved taking an inventory of everything on every division of the railroad. Summary text of the valuation of various carriers was first contained in the regular ICC REPORTS series, in volumes 75-84
-97-103-106-108-110-114-116-119-121-125-127-130-133-134-135-137-141-143-149. Starting with the twenty-second volume of Valuation Reports, a separate number series was initiated and volumes 22-57 are contained in that series. After Volume 48, most of the published data involves pipelines rather than railroads. The actual ICC valuation papers included maps, building sketches, detailed inventories down to the contents of depots, details of equipment acquisition, etc. The actual valuation papers are held by the National Archives in Suitland MD, and a more thorough description can be found through Google searches. An index of the railroads covered by the ICC Valuation process can be found here: http://rnetzlof.pennsyrr.com/iccindex/index.html

An incomplete list of MP, MV and KO&G finance dockets is attached – this list was prepared a number of years ago to assist with Arkansas railroad research and thus does NOT include many other dockets covering activity in other states. Beginning in the late 1940s, lesser finance dockets (as determined by the ICC) were not published, but the finance docket numbers were listed in the back pages of each volume.

Please submit additions and corrections.

Bill Pollard

[attachment=0:1d3at2x7]ICC-MP-finance dockets.docx[/attachment:1d3at2x7]

[Charles Duckworth]

Bill
Was quickly able to find the Boonville to Tipton abandonment docket. I knew what year the branch was abandoned so that narrowed it down to the volume and then I merely did a word search on ‘Boonville’ and found the pages I wanted immediately. Thanks for the links and write up.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2911113;view=1up;seq=329

[Nathan Obermeyer]

Maybe I am not understanding or missing it, but does the online resource show the actual valuation maps? I’ve been to the national archives and viewed a few of the maps plus part of the merger documents. Are the maps available online for each division or only at the archives?

I went to the valuation report index for the Mopac and it shows Docket 1006; Volume 40V; page 249, however I am not finding this exact file.

Wish I had more time at the National Archives.

Nate

[Bill Pollard]

The published information (which is on line) is only a small fraction of the entire valuation file. To my knowledge, there are no valuation maps on line, and likewise no on line listing for equipment inventory, etc. To retrieve the maps when visiting the National Archives, you need to know the valuation section itself. It would be a worthwhile project for MPHS to compile the valuation section lists for each state. The Arkansas valuation sections are listed below as an example of the numbering format.

Arkansas valuation sections for Missouri Pacific (similar numbering systems exist for each MP served state)

1AB-Arkansas Ark-Mo line (Corning) to Texarkana
2AB-Arkansas Knobel-Wynne-Helena-McGehee
3A-Arkansas Bald Knob-West Memphis
4-Arkansas West Memphis-Helena-Marianna
5AB-Arkansas Helena-Clarendon and Pine City Junction to Brinkley
6ABC-Arkansas Diaz to Cricket and Cushman branch
7ABC-Arkansas North Little Rock-Van Buren
7D-Arkansas Little Rock area ???
8AB-Arkansas Fort Smith-Greenwood
8C-Arkansas Fort Smith-Paris (Arkansas Central)
9AB-Arkansas Little Rock-Pine Bluff-McGehee-Wilmot
10ABC-Arkansas Arkla-Eudora; Trippe Jct.-Arkansas City
11-Arkansas Baxter-Colliers
12-Arkansas Thebes-Montrose-Hamburg-Snyder-Crossett
13ABC-Arkansas Hardin-Prague-Benton-Hot Springs
14ABC-Arkansas Gurdon-Burtsell-Okolona-Caddo Gap-Womble
15ABC-Arkansas Gurdon-Reader-El Dorado-Felsenthal-Huttig
16-Arkansas Hope-Nashville
20A-Arkansas Barham-Military Junction
20B-Arkansas Camp Pike (North Little Rock)
24-Arkansas Hot Springs (former MD&G trackage, structures purchased 1928)

The published text of the MP valuation was indeed Valuation Docket 1006, Volume 40V page 249. This was after the Valuation Dockets began to be published in a separate valuation series, rather than in the ICC Reports number series. Valuation volumes starting with the 22nd one were split out into this separate series. The Valuation series, including volume 40, can be found at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003919131?type%5B%5D=subject&lookfor%5B%5D=%22%20Railroads%20Valuation%22&ft=

Bill Pollard

[Author]

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