Less than Carload Lot Shipping

Less than Carload Lot Shipping
Prepared by Steve Sandifer

LTL – Less than Truckload Lot
In the modern world, there are many options for the shipping of that new tool or wedding present from one place to another. Internet shoppers take for granted FedEx, UPS, or Priority Mail. Large shippers just call Yellow, Roadway Express, or other freight forwarding company. Just drive for a few minutes on a freeway and notice all of the trucks whose primary business is to move less than truckload freight across the country. LCL freight is defined as “freight in one car from more than one shipper or destined to more than one receiver.” It is also referred to as Merchandise service.

Old magazines contain many LCL ads, but I can’t say I have seen one for the Santa Fe.

Shipping: 1920-1950 U. S. Postal Service Railway Express
Less-than-Carload Lot (LCL) Freight Forwarders – Non RR originated LCL. There were fewer options in the first half of the 20th century, and most of those options were shipped by rail. The three primary options were the US Postal Service, Railway Express, and railway less-than-carload-lot service. REA was owned jointly by the railroads and provided premium express service on passenger trains. Parcel post went by passenger train as well, but was primarily for smaller packages. Packages were shipped from the local depot in small towns, or freight house in larger towns, to nearly anywhere in the country.

L.C.L. freight could consist of just about anything from a box of cigars to an old mule. Bicycles, stoves, farm machinery, barbed wire, canned food, and complete households could be found in the l.c.l. car. Freight came from private individuals as well as companies. It might arrive at the freight station in a car, private truck, trucking company truck, or railroad vehicle. Railroads began offering pickup in the 1930s.

National Carloadings 1921 28% 1932 32% 1940 21% 1945 13% 1950 11%
% % % % % % % In 1921, 28% of all carloadings were l.c.l. freight. That number topped out at 32% in In 1940 it was 21%, %, %, %. and 6.8% in As highways were improved, more of the l.c.l. freight moved to the roads. Most of the rail cars were 40’ box cars, though reefers were also used. Since box cars made up 40% of the national car fleet, 11% of car loadings (1950) equaled 27% of all box cars on the rails in That figure was 17% of all box cars in 1955! For a transition modeler, l.c.l. freight is a high volume item that can’t be ignored. By the late 1960s, l.c.l. ceased. Santa Fe officially removed the service in 1972.

All freight systems operated with the same general method still used today by trucking firms. Each city regardless of size would have a shipping and delivery office. Large cities like Chicago or New York would have several major freight terminals. With various railroads serving the same community, each would have its own freight terminal with the exception of some union freight houses shared by several roads. At points along each railroad there would be major hubs or transfer freight houses where shipments from across the system were broken down, reloaded, and sent on their way for delivery or interchange. In large cities it was often necessary to ferry freight from one railroad freight house to that of another carrier by rail or truck.

Larger roads would have several transload houses
Larger roads would have several transload houses. If quantities justified it, freight could bypass one transload facility as it headed for another. An example is the Santa Fe which had major transload facilities at Corwith Yard in Chicago; Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles. Corwith Yard would have several LCL cars a day that were headed for Los Angeles and did not need to stop at Kansas City or Albuquerque on the way.

Transload facilities were also where freight would be moved to another railroad. For instance, LCL moving from Los Angeles to New York might go to the Kansas City Transload and from there by MoPac to St. Louis to move on to the Pennsy for New York. Or it might move to Chicago for transfer to the New York Central.

An example was given by Tim Gilbert for a shipment from Needles, CA, to Portland, MA. From Needles (Local) the l.c.l. would travel to Flagstaff (Regional) and on to the transfer house in Albuquerque to Kansas City. From KC it could have gone to Gibson Transfer on the IHB in Chicago for a NYC car to Utica transfer. At Utica the NYC would move it to a car for Mechanicville, NY, for the B&M to take to Portland.

This photo will illustrate the scope of LCL movements
This photo will illustrate the scope of LCL movements. This is the Southern Railroads yards and shops at Spencer, NC. Part of this facility has been preserved as the North Carolina Museum of Transportation. The roundhouse and shops are at the top of this photo. The stock feeding and resting station is in the middle.

And this is the LCL transload facility.

Each evening over 200 cars would be pulled from this facility and by morning would be replaced with 200 more for transfer. Spencer is not near a major city. It is 60 miles north of Charlotte, about 120 miles from Raleigh/Durham. But it was half way between Washington and Atlanta in the middle of the Southern network, so cars from all over the system came here every night for complete unloading and reloading of LCL freight. The significance of the major hub transfer stations should not be missed. In 1951 the NYC l.c.l. schedules included 1807 routes. Utica Transfer originated 114 routes, 76 to NYC locations and 38 to off line locations. In addition, 125 routes terminated at Utica. These included 86 NYC routes and 39 from off-line roads: Routes could be annulled if insufficient freight was available, and multiple cars could be used on the same route if freight justified it. Unscheduled cars could be added as well, such as cars to assist with the Christmas rush. At Christmas, the NYC might add cars for Los Angeles out of Utica, and those cars would bypass all freight houses along the way.

A 20,000 pound minimum was required to operate a merchandise car (Office of Defense Transportation General Order No. 1, 1942). If less than 20,000 pounds were available for a car, it would be delayed up to 36 hours or combined with other shipments and sent to a “major break bulk point” such as Kansas City. This could add a further day to shipping times. Of course a car might “cube out” (i.e. get full) before it “weighed out.” In those cases a car would ship regardless of weight. A rule of thumb was that a car was not sent unless half full. Since most business was conducted during daylight hours, the freight houses would receive packages until a predetermined closing time for a given destination, usually at the end of the work day. Then the car for that location was closed, pulled, and sent on its way through the night in anticipation of a morning delivery the next day. If it was going to a hub, the contents would be worked the next day for another night train hop across the country.

An example is the NYC Pacemaker service that left New York City at 7:00p, arrived at Albany at midnight, Utica Transfer at 2:00a, and Buffalo by 7:00a. Very few lines ran dedicated merchandise trains, but merchandise cars did receive red ball priority.

At a freight house, cars were brought in from a variety of points of origin. They arrived all night and early morning and were spotted at the freight house frequently two and three or more deep with their doors linked together as a hallway between the cars. Each spot was designated for one destination, and it was always the same so that freight house crews knew exactly where to put freight for a given destination.

Once a car was spotted, its next destination was set by its spot and the cars were generally not pulled until they are ready to go out at the end of the day. An exception would be at larger terminals where cars for major destinations might be pulled at several scheduled times or at terminals that had separate inbound and outbound tracks. With all of the cars linked by bridges and being loaded at once, it was impractical to pull one or two cars from the middle of the house. Note how these are arranged. 6 covered docks, 12 tracks of cars. Cars were spotted with doors side by side. Every 8 cars they broke the string so a portable bridge could be inserted.

This photo from Spencer shows workers taking loads from one covered dock to another through those openings.

Then they would wind down their dock to the correct car for loading.

If a car arrived with its primary shipments going to a distant location, it might be spotted with that in mind so that it did not need to be completely unloaded and reloaded. This would apply for things like automobiles tractors, heavy machinery, or a large shipment of paper goods. David Karkoski did an analysis of the cars used for l.c.l. deliveries in Rochester, IN, in cars were used with 42% of them, 70 cars, coming from foreign roads. 50% were NKP and 8% WLE. The rule of sending empty cars back to the home road were often ignored in l.c.l. service. In the 1930s the railroads also got into the trucking business. This included not only picking up and delivering local loads, but, as will be seen, coordinating shipments that could be made faster and less expensively by truck than by rail.

D. K. Spencer spent time handling l. c. l
D. K. Spencer spent time handling l.c.l. during his years with the ATSF. He states that any weight from one pound to several thousand pounds were moved as l.c.l, but the rates were based on a minimum 100 pound shipment. At his Lamar, CO, depot, there was the typical dock which was the same height as the floor of box cars, 3’6” over the rail. The open space between the dock and car was bridged by large steel plates about ½” thick, 36-40” wide, with a bent lip at one end. They were extremely heavy. When freight came in reefers, the 14” height difference made loading and unloading very hard to manage. Reefer doors were not as tall (generally 6’6”), and they were only 4’ or 5’ wide. Spencer has a page on the Santa Fe Historical and Modeling Society web site that details some of his more memorable l.c.l. shipments at Lamar, CO: 600 pound barrels of molasses, bundles of green hides, 400 pound bags of wool, bundles of mail order catalogues, sheet metal, and a 2500 pound crate of plate glass.

The Missouri Pacific in 1949 developed Speedboxes, metal containers on castors for carrying smaller l.c.l. packages. These ranged from 42 to 74 cubic feet in size with up to 1200 pound capacity.

Several railroads produced merchandiser cars equipped with internal racks and restraint and painted them to advertise their service. UP had The Challenger Merchandise Service (1939)

B&O their Time-Saver Service (1951);

NYC Pacemaker Freight Service (1946);

SP the Overnights (1946),

MP Eagle Merchandise Service

and Pennsy their Merchandise Service
and Pennsy their Merchandise Service. When originally designed, these railroads wanted to keep their cars on home rails to advertise their services.

MP had clearly written on their cars: “For merchandise loading only between M.P. Lines and T.& P. Freight stations. Do not interchange with other lines.” However, keeping them at home proved too disruptive at the freight houses, so they were soon seen all over the American rail system. Most roads did not have a dedicated l.c.l. fleet. Any high grade box car, preferably 40’ box, was useable. The Santa Fe did not have merchandise cars as such.

Trap Cars Trap Cars Manufacturers who produced furniture, appliances, cloth and clothing, candy and processed food, as well as the mail order companies of Sears, Montgomery Ward or Western Auto provided large quantities of l.c.l. freight. They would load their individual shipments into trap cars which could be moved directly to a railroad’s major transfer house avoiding time consuming trips to a local freight house. For instance, the Tootsie Roll factory in Hoboken, NJ, routinely ran a “sweets car” from their factory to the NYC transfer at Utica, NY, where it was broken up into l.c.l. for further distribution. Cannon Mills, IBM, E. J. Corp. (shoes), and Ingersoll Rand are examples of firms which regularly used trap cars. Another use for trap cars was to carry freight from the transfer terminal to a steamship company pier for overseas shipment. Railroad tariffs allowed a railroad to substitute two reefers for one boxcar. L.C.L. shippers liked this for trap cars because it allowed them to be more specific in their routing bypassing intervening transfer houses.

Ferry Cars Ferry Cars Ferry cars were used to move freight from railroad’s freight house to that of another. Sometimes this was handled more effectively by truck.

Peddler Car (Waycar, Route Car)
Peddler Cars (sometimes called waycars or route cars) Peddler cars were used on the other end for branch line pick-ups and deliveries. On branch lines an l.c.l. peddler car would operate making l.c.l. deliveries, sometimes only on specific days. When arriving in a town, the peddler car could be unloaded while in the train, or it could be left at the depot while the crew switched the rest of the town. If the load was exceptionally heavy, the car might be left overnight for unloading and picked up the next day, but this was generally avoided because it delayed other shipments on the car.

On the ATSF, it was frequently an old reefer in front of the caboose or combine. Reefers were operated in peddler service to deliver perishable products to merchants along branch lines. This photo shows an old reefer in l.c.l. service on the ATSF Howard branch at Eureka, KS. A report in the The Warbonnet of the Santa Fe Society (3/01), showed a Central of New Jersey box car in front of the caboose serving as peddler car for the San Saba (TX) branch of the Santa Fe. The train was delayed for 50, 20, and 20 minutes to handle l.c.l. loads at three stations. The entire train crew might need to assist the agent in unloading the merchandise.

B&M LCL load, 1949 “A wheelbarrow going to Hillsboro. Some gallon cans of Sears Roebuck paint in transit to Antrim. We have two boxes of General Electric light bulbs, other boxes of Kleenex. A carton of crepe paper, Halloween cups from the C. A. Reed Company of Williamsport, PA, is part of our freight. Plumber’s equipment for John J. Carey is in one corner of the car. Near the door are cans of poultry feed. A box of Hallmark greeting cards is in the car. We are carrying garden hose, tools. Spiegel’s mail order house in Chicago has given us a shipment of small furniture, crated, a Montgomery Ward canoe is another of our items.” R. M. Neal R. M. Neal in his 1950 High Green and the Bark Peelers described the contents of the waycar on the B&M Hillsboro Branch in “A wheelbarrow going to Hillsboro. Some gallon cans of Sears Roebuck paint in transit to Antrim. We have two boxes of General Electric light bulbs, other boxes of Kleenex. A carton of crepe paper,, Halloween cups from the C. A. Reed Company of Williamsport, PA is part of our freight. Plumber’s equipment for John J. Carey is in one corner of the car. Near the door are cans of poultry feed. A box of Hallmark greeting cards is in the car. We are carrying garden hose, tools. Spiegel’s mail order house in Chicago has given us a shipment of small furniture, crated, a Montgomery Ward canoe is another of our items.” One would also see company stores in the waycar. Peddler stock cars were also operated on branch lines to handle small shipments of live stock from small towns to the auction houses in larger communities. Stock loaded into these cars would be partitioned or tied from one another. Partitioning was safer with bulls being tied. It was not unusual to find different kinds of stock in the same peddler stock car.

Stop-Off Cars Stop-Off Cars
L.C.L. cars are not to be confused with car load cars that might be billed to several destinations for partial unloading, sometime called stop-off cars. For instance, International might load 6 tractors on a flat car with 3 to be shipped to one dealer while the other three were to go farther down the line to another dealer. A lumber broker might do the same with a car load of lumber or an appliance manufacturer with a car load of new appliances. These would not be considered a l.c.l. shipment.

Reefers in L.C.L Reefers in L.C.L. Service.
You will see at least three reefers in this ATSF Emporia Kansas freight house scene. Reefers were commonly used in l.c.l. service with clean dead freight. Most reefers were in revenue west to east taking produce to the markets of the northeast. Railroads looked for a method to return them west in revenue as well. L.C.L. was such a use. Clean dry items such as paper products were common loads. Paper was heavy and did not require the capacity of a box car. Most l.c.l. revenue loads only weighed 5-8 tons, so again reefers would fill the need. Many railroads, like the Santa Fe, intentionally used reefers at their transfer terminals to handle westbound loads to smaller terminals where capacity was no problem. The small size of a reefer’s door (4-5’ wide) and its raised floor did present problems for some shipments. The use of reefers on western railroads increased during the grain loading season when every box car was needed for grain.

Route Cars – Meat Packers
Meat packers operated route cars over a line 1-3 days a week to deliver fresh meat to butchers along the route. An example comes from the Chicago Great Western in On Mondays both Swift and Armour cars loaded in South St. Paul worked towns south to Hayfield. On Tuesday the same cars continued to Sumner for Swift and Oelwein for Armour. On Wednesday, the Swift car served Tripoli on one branch while the Armour went to Dubuque on another branch.

GH&H, I&GN, MKT - Galveston
LCL - Ports Do you have a port? Run a trap car between the pier and the freight house for l.c.l. This is the GH&H, I&GN, MKT freight house which still stands in Galveston. There was no transfer to other railroads, rather transfer to ships. On this south side of the freight house there were 5 parallel tracks for freight cars. The other side was for trucks to take most of the freight to the ships. GH&H, I&GN, MKT - Galveston

Santa Fe Trail Transportation
Santa Fe purchased the Southern Kansas Stage Lines in 1936 moving them into the trucking (and bus) business. Headquartered in Wichita, the Santa Fe Trail Transportation company was begun. From this time on, initially in Kansas, the Santa Fe began coordinated rail-truck handling of l.c.l. freight.

By 1946, the majority of delivery schedules are noted: “coordinated rail-truck service.” This was true for virtually all small towns such as Abilene, Arkansas City, Atchison, and Wellington, KS or main line locations like Trinidad or Raton, CO. All service to Denver, El Paso, Topeka, Tulsa, and Wichita had become coordinated rail-truck by 1946.

Corwith (Chicago) In 1952, Santa Fe opened a new freight depot at Corwith yards, Chicago. The freight house featured six tracks, all inside a closed building, with a capacity of 156 cars, 26 per track. One track was constructed 7” lower than the other two to accommodate reefers. Due to their heavy insulation, reefer floors are 14” higher than the floors of a box cars, and the recessed track was a compromise to allow loading both box cars and reefers with equal inconvenience.

Corwith (Chicago) A “towveyer” system operated on an endless cable pulled 340 baggage carts around the complex to move freight from one side to another. In addition the facility had docks for 70 inbound and 50 outbound highway trucks. Add to this the fact that Santa Fe had three other freight houses in the Corwith area. House No. 1 handled Natinal Carloading traffic, House No. 2 handled Republic Carloading Company traffic with a capacity of 108 cars on 6 tracks and House 3 handled 128 cars on 8 tracks for New Kress, a division of Chicago Furniture Forwarders. 392 cars of freight in four freight houses demonstrated Santa Fe’s commitment to quality l.c.l. service.

1946 Corwith Transfer Nerska Joliet Streator (2 cars) Galesburg
Fort Madison Kansas City Transfer Kansas City proper Atchison Topeka Emporia Hutchinson Salina Dodge City Pueblo Denver Las Vegas Albuquerque Los Angeles (12 cars) San Diego Phoenix Oakland Fresno San Francisco (10 cars) Wichita Transfer Wichita proper Amarillo Clovis El Paso Chanute Tulsa Arkansas City Oklahoma City Lubbock Fort Worth Temple Dallas Houston In 1946 Corwith Transfer sent out l.c.l. cars to 66 different locations on the system. These were regional as well as local freight offices plus interchanges to other railroads. Destinations were as close as Nerska which was 2 miles. Other cars were loaded for Joliet (31 miles), Streator (2 cars), Galesburg, Fort Madison, Kansas City Transfer, Kansas City proper, Atchison, Topeka, Emporia, Hutchinson, Salina, Dodge City, Pueblo, Denver, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Los Angeles (12 cars), San Diego, Phoenix, Oakland, Fresno, San Francisco (10 cars), Wichita Transfer, Wichita proper, Amarillo, Clovis, El Paso, Chanute, Tulsa, Arkansas City, Oklahoma City, Lubbock, Fort Worth, Temple, Dallas, and Houston. A dry reefer went to Kansas City for candy during warm months and heated for glass and canned goods during the winter. A car was scheduled for company materials for Topeka Store and another reefer was scheduled for other perishable freight to Kansas City. Two trains, #37 and #39 carried the bulk of LCL cars west from Corwith. #39 ran straight to Kansas Cit with LCL for Kansas City and westward. #37 also went to Kansas City but dropped off cars at Joliet, Streater, Galesburg, and Ft. Madison on the way.

ATSF Kansas City Transfer 1959
In 1959 the Santa Fe built a new freight house and terminal office building on the north side of Argentine Yard. You will notice 7 tracks going into the buildling. This photo is from the Russell Crump collection. Bob Walz has a book in the works on Santa Fe Freight Houses to be published by Paired Rail in coming months. Bob provided this photo. Russell Crump collection

This is a side view which shows the trucking ramps along both sides and the cranes on the two stub tracks. Russell Crump collection

Inside they used the same towveyor system to circulate cars through the facility. Russell Crump collection

All cars can be loaded inside, out of any problems with the weather. Russell Crump collection

ATSF Kansas City Outbound 1920s
This was the earlier 1884 freight house. It became the Outbound Freight House when they built an inbound freight house in These were both in the bottoms. Russell Crump collection

UP CRI&P MKT CM&StP ATSF CB&Q Alton Frisco
Here is a map which shows that 8 railroads had freight houses within blocks of each other in the bottoms. Most railroads had both inbound and outbound freight houses. Like the Santa Fe, they originally had one that served all inbound and outbound, then they expanded with a second freight house allowing one to be inbound and one to be outbound. CB&Q Alton Frisco

Early ATSF Freight House, Kansas City
Here are the Santa Fe houses. Note all of the parallel tracks.

Cleveland (NKP, NYC) Detroit (NYC, MC) Fort Wayne (PRR) Galewood Transfer (CMSTP&P) Gibson Transfer (NYC, IHB) Grand Rapids (C&O, PM) Hornell Transfer NY (Erie) Indianapolis (NYC) Memphis (SLSF) Milwaukee (CMSTP&P) Minneapolis (M&STL) Peoria (M&STL) Springfield (SLSF) St. Louis (MoPac, Wabash) Utica Transfer (NYC) Santa Fe transfer houses Albuquerque Amarillo Corwith Wichita. The Kansas City Freight office loaded twice as many cars as Corwith. 1953 records show the ATSF Kansas City transfer loading cars to other railroads: for Cleveland (NKP, NYC), Detroit (NYC, MC), Fort Wayne (PRR), Galewood Transfer (CMSTP&P), Gibson Transfer (NYC, IHB), Grand Rapids (C&O, PM), Hornell Transfer NY (Erie), Indianapolis (NYC), Memphis (SLSF), Milwaukee (CMSTP&P), Minneapolis (M&STL), Peoria (M&STL),Springfield (SLSF), St. Louis (MoPac, Wabash), and Utica Transfer (NYC). In 1946, train #37 bringing LCL from Corwith continued south to Galveston. #33 Carried LCL to the southwest and west coast, and #35 west west to Denver. All three dropped off LCL at intermediate points. No. 38 went east to Corwith and intermediate locations. No. 69 took LCL to Tulsa and southern Kansas. Kansas City also originated 21 truck Santa Fe Transportation truck routes. Santa Fe had major transfer houses at Albuquerque, Amarillo, Corwith, Kansas City, and Wichita.

TOFC 1951 Experiment TOFC was not begun on the ATSF until 1951 when two flats were experimentally converted to handle trailers. It would be the mid-50s before piggyback service was a reality.

St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph’s Traffic
St. Joseph, Missouri, north of Kansas City, was the end of the line for Santa Fe. It was also a major livestock destination for the railroad. I have records prepared by the ATSF comparing March, 1939, with March, 1945, to show the benefits of combined rail-truck L. C. L. service.

St. Joseph was a minor freight house which, in 1939, shipped 7 merchandise rail cars daily directly to 7 other freight houses in Atchison, Topeka, Emporia, Hutchinson, Wichita, Arkansas City, and Kansas City. A total of 218 cars were shipped in one month, March, In March, 1945, that number had been reduced to 10 special cars due to the use of Santa Fe Trail Transportation trucks. In addition, cargo was delivered much faster.

One of the examples given was Emporia, which I am modeling
One of the examples given was Emporia, which I am modeling. In 1939, Emporia was the regional hub which provided l.c.l. forwarding for the Superior and Osborne lines, Howard branch, Little River, Galatia branch, Newton and stations up to but not including Hutchinson. Merchandise for the area serviced by Emporia would leave St. Joseph in the evening and arrive first morning in Emporia. It then had to be sorted for other points, providing 2nd day delivery to many. Since some lines only received tri-weekly service, like the Howard branch, this often meant 3rd day delivery for a distance of only 150 miles.

In 1945 nearly all traffic out of St. Joseph was handled by truck
In 1945 nearly all traffic out of St. Joseph was handled by truck. 155 of the 177 routes had a one day improvement in delivery. 15 had a two day improvement. Only 7 saw no improvement with the use of coordinate rail-truck shipments. Jared Harper models the Alma Branch. He reports: “Here's how it was done on the Alma branch in Kansas in the 1940's. The motor car or the coach, baggage, and caboose car would be spotted at the depot in the morning where the Santa Fe Trailways truck on a Topeka-Emporia route could back up to the baggage door to unload the LCL from the previous day and to load up the LCL for the branch that day. The depot agent handled the paperwork. There was also the Railway Express shipments. Railway Express was managed by the Railway Express Agency. It was an expedited service and items shipped by Railway Express came by passenger train and were dropped at the Burlingame depot. The depot agent also handled the paperwork for the REA shipments and they were loaded in the baggage compartment with the LCL. REA paid the RR to handle their shipments. US mail was also loaded in the baggage compartment and the PO paid the RR to handle this also. Large pieces of personal baggage could also go into the baggage compartment. After everything was ready to go the Alma branch mixed went up the branch dropping off and picking up LCL, express, mail, passengers and, perhaps, their personal baggage. The headend brakeman was in charge of making sure all the LCL, express, and mail was dropped off or picked up. He got a separate monthly check from the express company for his duties. When the train got back to the depot in Burlingame the express and mail were unloaded at the depot. The LCL stayed in the baggage compartment to be picked up by the Santa Fe Trailways truck the next morning which would take it to Topeka when its route was completed. The express and mail would be put out for the next passenger train going the direction the express or mail was headed.

Alma Branch local When the Alma branch train started tying up at Topeka in the late 1940s an old reefer or box car was parked by the Burlingame depot for LCL and the Santa Fe Trailways truck loaded and unloaded it on the Topeka-Emporia route. When the train came from Topeka to Burlingame it coupled up the car and took it up and back down the branch. Express and Mail came on the train from Topeka in the coach, baggage and caboose car and the train would pick up and leave off express and mail at each station. The headend brakeman filled his role as before.

Emporia Emporia Emporia’s freight house was typical of mid size houses. Emporia in the 50s had 15,000 residents – a small town. The headhouse was the office portion of the structure. Behind it was the freight platform. This was not designed to store items long term, so it was relatively narrow with large doors on both sides with the rear portion open.

Emporia On one side would be parallel tracks where the l.c.l. cars would be parked. Emporia had two tracks, an open platform, and two more tracks beyond that, all on the south side of the freight house.

Emporia The north side was paved for truck access to a loading platform. In the immediate area were other tracks and an unloading dock.

Emporia 1946 Incoming LCL - Rail
Corwith block 27 to Emporia on train 37. Kansas City block 745 to Emporia on train 35. Kansas City block 747 to Emporia Transfer on train 35. Kansas City block 749 to Emporia Transfer on train 35. Kansas City block 751 to Emporia Transfer on train 35, loads perishable Since my interest is Emporia in the early 50s, I will focus on the cars sent to this location in Remember it was a town of 15,000. 5 l.c.l cars arrived each day, one from Corwith Transfer in Chicago and four from Kansas City Transfer. One of the Kansas City cars was a reefer for perishable loads. Cargo for Emporia coming from the distant west went through Emporia to Kansas City Transfer and was brought back to Emporia from Kansas city Transfer. Closer towns had their freight sent to Wichita and delivered by truck.

Emporia 1946 Outgoing LCL - Rail
Emporia block 1 to Wiggam on train 66: local eastbound toward Kansas City, Tu., Th., Sa. Emporia block 2 to Strong City on train 75, Strong City to Osborne, Daily. Emporia block 3 on train 59, Saffordville to Osborne, Wed. Emporia block 4 on mixed train 96, Ople to Moline, Wed. and Fri. Shipments leaving Emporia by rail included: Emporia block 1 to Wiggam on train 66: local eastbound toward Kansas City, Tu., Th., Sa. Emporia block 2 to Strong City on train 75, Strong City to Osborne. Emporia block 3 on train 59 Saffordville to Osborne, Wed. Emporia block 4 on mixed train 96 Ople to Moline, Wed. and Fri. That is the Howard Branch I am modeling. The eastern lines merchandise LCL schedules for 1946 are posted on the society website.

Emporia 1946 Incoming LCL - Truck
Topeka block 97 to Emporia Wichita block 96 to Emporia Santa Fe Trail Transportation handled inbound truck shipments from Topeka and Wichita and everything else leaving Emporia.

Santa Fe Freight Depots
This was the third Freight station built in San Francisco. Cars came by barge into the city. San Francisco, built 1952 From Railway Age

It had the same towveyor system that proved successful in other Santa Fe freighthouses. San Francisco, built 1952 From Railway Age

Atchison Kansas, now a railroad museum. Atchison, KS

San Angelo is now restaurant and community meeting place. San Angelo, TX

Trinidad still stood several years ago when I was there. Used by the railroad for storage. Trinidad, CO

Brenham still stands and is a private residence. Brenham, TX

Lampasas is home to the Chamber of Commerce. Really the passenger depot an freight depot. Lampasas, TX

Fort Worth has been rebuilt into a market place and mall. Some of your visited it when the convention was in Ft. Worth. Fort Worth, TX

El Dorado Kansas is a museum wannabe. El Dorado, KS

I stole this one from the Internet. Raton, NM

Modeling L.C.L. Service Models by Bob Barnett Modeling L.C.L. Service.
As a modeler of the early 1950s, l.c.l. freight should be very significant. Major towns need to have a freight depot, preferably able to handle 6-8 cars on two parallel tracks. A third track with a ramp would be a bonus. Be sure your operators spot 40’ cars only and with the doors lined up. If you don’t have freight houses, try to rearrange your layout to add them. Be sure you assign spots at the freight house for specific destinations; this can create more switching opportunities. Here are two freight houses from the layout of Bob Barnett in Houston. Both have been kitbashed from two smaller kits. The lower one has a Santa Fe look and would be improved with a head house half the size of the one shown. Models by Bob Barnett

LCL Schedule 3:00 am Cars begin to arrive
7:00 am Most cars have arrived Unloading and reloading continues all day 4:30 pm Closed to new shipment 7:00 pm Cars pulled for shipment L.C.L. cars should begin arriving on the first trains into your yard. They need to be spotted at the freight house for unloading and delivery. These cars may trickle in as main and branchline trains arrive. The day is spent unloading and reloading the cars. Toward the end of your session the freighthouse should stop receiving shipments. Cars can now be pulled and sent on their way. They will usually be pulled together and sorted at the yard. If you have several major towns, at least one of the cars pulled at each freight house can be directed to each of the other freight houses. Some of your cars will arrive from and go to off-layout destinations.

LCL Trap Cars Furniture manufacturing Textile mill
Appliance manufacturer Candy factory Mail order warehouse If you have some major industries on your layout which would use l.c.l services, add a trap car to the outgoing loads and send it to the freight house in a major town. A furniture manufacturer, woolen mill, appliance manufacturer, candy factory, or mail order warehouse would be a good addition requiring daily l.c.l. trap transfers.

Ferry Cars From one railroad’s freight house to another railroad’s freight house. Remember that the Corwith – Nerska job only moved 2 miles. If your layout supports two railroads, have a freight house for each and operate a ferry car from one to the other each day each way through the interchange.

For your branch line operations, don’t forget to send the caboose by the depot or freight house to pick up any loads to be dropped off at a station down the line, or run a peddler car. Include instructions to the crew concerning where to stop and the time to allow for loading or unloading. As seen in the earlier photo, this may mean unloading onto a truck bed at a grade crossing. You can also include a peddler stock car or meat reefer route car on occasion. At Eureka, Ks, in this photo a Santa Fe Trail Transportation truck makes its stop while meeting the train, #95, which will soon head north to Emporia.

Santa Fe left the LCL business in 1972 and all freight houses were officially retired. Santa Fe was out of the LCL business…

Well, sorta….

Well, sorta…. The End

Less than Carload Lot Shipping

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