1934 Report On Fruit Traffic-GN

     The following were found in NP General Managers File 2554-20. Letters sent in response to a query regarding plans in operation for accumulating carload of fruit and vegetables and assembling the refrigerator traffic into trains. Request from Mr. Charles Donnelly, Chairman, Pacific Northwest Division Western Railroads.

      The General Managers files surrounding this file seem to deal with the development of regional railroad routes. This file asked for responses on how fruit and vegetable traffic in the Washington, Idaho, Oregon areas were handled by each railroad. I transcribed the data because I had thought that - though the date of these studies is 1934 and traffic nationwide, is down, the data does have significance to modelers for study in helping determine traffic patterns for their own application.  

Great Northern Railway

State of Washington

Points at which fruit and vegetable loading necessitate the supplying of refrigerator cars as follows:

East and North of Spokane	SC&P Railway	Spokane to Wenatchee	Wenatchee to Tacoma
Good- Hopkins spur 4 miles north of Northport	Millwood	Stratford	Monitor
	Excelsior	Soap Lake	Cashmere
	Dalton	Ephrata	Dryden
Marble	Dishman	Quincy	Peshastin
Grand Forks, B.C.	Apple Center	Trinidad	Leavenworth
Meyers Falls	Opportunity	Ohio Colony Spur	Snohomish
Denison	Vera	Malaga	Monroe
Davies Spur	Flora	Wenatchee	Fryelands
Mead	Greenacres		Kent
Hillyard	Spokane Bridge		Auburn
Spokane	McGuires		Puyallup
	Post Falls		Sumner
	Moscow

Everett to Blaine	Wenatchee to Oroville	Mansfield Branch
Burlington	All stations	Palisades
Bellingham

    For the territory north of Spokane and on Spokane, Coeur d' Alene, & Palouse Railway,  the empty cars are conditioned , and, if the car orders call for it, are iced at Hillyard and distributed to the loading stations by local way freight trains. After loaded, the cars are picked up by local way freight trains and brought into Hillyard, from which point they are forwarded in time freight trains or added to an eastward fruit train if a fruit train happens to be fit to run.

   

    From the territory Stratford to Trinidad, dry cars are furnished from the supply at Hillyard. Iced cars, when ordered, are furnished from Appleyard and either handled on the local way freight trains or through freight trains depending on the service required. Loaded cars eastbound when ready are handled by the local way freight trains to Wilson Creek, where they are picked up by the time freights or eastward fruit trains. Loaded cars moving westward are handled to Appleyard and moved out of there on the westbound time freight trains.  

    Empty cars for the territory Ohio Colony Spur, Malaga, and Palisades are furnished from Appleyard, and when so ordered are iced at Appleyard Empty cars are distributed to the loading stations by local way freight trains and the loaded cars returned by local way freight trains to Appleyard where they are put into time freights or eastward fruit trains.

 

     For the territory Wenatchee west to Leavenworth and north to Oroville, the empty cars are furnished from the supply at Appleyard-Wenatchee Terminal and distributed by local way freight trains. The loaded cars are picked up by local way freight trains or mixed train and brought into Appleyard, from which time they are forwarded in time freight trains or eastward fruit trains. Ice houses are maintained at Wenatchee, Pateros and Oroville. Iced cars are distributed by local freight trains from Oroville south to Barker and sometimes as far south as Omak. Iced cars are distributed from Pateros to Okanogan and iced cars for the balance of the stations south of Okanogan and west to Leavenworth distributed from Appleyard-Wenatchee Terminal.

   

     A considerable portion of the soft fruits and cherries from the Wenatchee Valley district moved as passenger train freight. The empties are supplied from Appleyard-Wenatchee terminal, conditioned and iced for loading when so ordered. Empties are distributed by local way freight train and mixed trains and after loaded, brought by the same trains into Wenatchee for passenger train movement.

    For vegetable loading at Monroe, empties are furnished from Delta, where they are conditioned and initially iced and moved to Monroe by local way freight trains, or in some cases by eastward time freight trains. After loaded, cars are picked up by eastward time freight trains.

    At Fryelands, empties are supplied, after being conditioned, from either Hillyard, Appleyard, Delta, or Interbay, and moved by local way freight trains. Cars are initially iced at Fryelands. After being loaded, cars are either picked up by time freight trains at Fryelands or moved to some convenient point by local way freight trains where they are picked up by the time freight trains.

    At Burlington, empties for vegetable loading are supplied from Delta, where cars are conditioned and initially iced and moved to Burlington by local way freight trains. After being loaded, the local way freight trains move the cars back to Delta where they are put in the time freight trains.

    At Kent, Auburn, Sumner, and Puyallup, empty cars are furnished from Seattle, where they have been conditioned, and are initially iced at the loading station. Cars are moved to the loading station by way freight trains and after being loaded are moved to Interbay by way freight trains, from which point they are placed in time freight trains. Any shipments originating at these stations for California are picked up by the Interbay-Portland time freight train and are moved through to Vancouver, Wash. or Portland, Oregon, as the case may be.

    Berry shipments from Sumner and Puyallup mostly move as passenger train freight. For this movement, cars are assembled and conditioned at Seattle, and in some cases iced there and in other cases are iced at the loading station. Cars are distributed by way freight trains and after loaded are moved to Seattle in local way freight trains and placed in passenger trains there.

    For berry shipments from Snohomish, Burlington, and Bellingham, the cars are conditioned at delta. For Snohomish and Burlington, the cars are iced at Delta, and those for Bellingham are iced at Bellingham. Cars are distributed by local way freight trains and when loaded are picked up by the regular passenger trains at Bellingham and Burlington, and those loaded at Snohomish are picked up by train No.28.

The schedule for the eastward time freight train is:

Seattle to Minneapolis Junction	147' 30"
Wenatchee to Minneapolis Jct.	127' 00"
Hillyard to Minneapolis Jct.	113' 00"

Fruit Train Schedule is:

Appleyard to Minneapolis Jct.	124' 30"
Hillyard to Minneapolis Jct.	110' 30"

    There is no schedule arranged for the return from the east of empty refrigerator cars. Empty refrigerator cars are moved in westward trains as they can be handled, and in preparation for the heavy shipping period in the late fall, a supply of cars is accumulated previously so that when the heavy movement eastward is underway, the balancing movement westward takes care of the empty refrigerator car supply.

State of Idaho

    The movement of fruit and vegetables from points in this state on the Great Northern is negligible.

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