"Be Specific - Ship Union Pacific"
"Route Superior Gateway for Superior Service"
"Money-Saver Service"
"Links East & West"
We all know the slogans seen on infinite boxcars from the old days. What's implied in the advertising is that people of the general public used to have some say in how their shipments were routed. But on the flipside, we hear about how railroads would have preferred interchange partners at different terminals - Nickle Plate and Lackawanna at Buffalo for example.
Let's say I'm Joe Blow in Minneapolis and I've got a tool factory served by CGW. I've got a buyer in Newark for a full load of hammers.
But what happens next?
I've seen pictures of old railroad waybills filled out by someone that specifies a particular routing for a boxcar, such as CGW>NKP>LV>CNJ, and that waybill instructs conductors and clerks from thereon how to route the car to its final destination. But if railroads had common interchange partners, or preferred partners at specific points, then what does the shipper have to do with it? And all those advertisements targeting me and my tool factory?
I'm still unclear on this - and the 'old heads' at work never really cared to learn either.
"Route Superior Gateway for Superior Service"
"Money-Saver Service"
"Links East & West"
We all know the slogans seen on infinite boxcars from the old days. What's implied in the advertising is that people of the general public used to have some say in how their shipments were routed. But on the flipside, we hear about how railroads would have preferred interchange partners at different terminals - Nickle Plate and Lackawanna at Buffalo for example.
Let's say I'm Joe Blow in Minneapolis and I've got a tool factory served by CGW. I've got a buyer in Newark for a full load of hammers.
But what happens next?
I've seen pictures of old railroad waybills filled out by someone that specifies a particular routing for a boxcar, such as CGW>NKP>LV>CNJ, and that waybill instructs conductors and clerks from thereon how to route the car to its final destination. But if railroads had common interchange partners, or preferred partners at specific points, then what does the shipper have to do with it? And all those advertisements targeting me and my tool factory?
I'm still unclear on this - and the 'old heads' at work never really cared to learn either.
Nickel Plate Road should have merged with ERIE.
Duh.
Duh.