Amazon Uses Rail

[Gilbert B Norman]

Likely Amazon has been a long time rail shipper, but now they have become visible.

This past Tuesday, I observed an Eastbound train, railroad or predecessor (take your pick: B&O, ERIE, PRR), I know not, near Ravenna, OH X-ing under I-76. In what of the consist I could safely view, there was a Baby Blue trailer and smiling for the world to see.

[John_Perkowski]

It once was the New York, Chicago, and St Louis RR.

Amazing, thing, the historical topographic map feature on the usgs.gov website.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Colonel, the NYC&STL or Nickel Plate, did NOT serve Ravenna, OH. My predecessor references were drawn from a '64 Guide. I did not observe the motive power (and wasn't about to jump off the 76 and go train chasing), but after a review of the USGS map you note, it appears to be a former PRR Cleveland-Pittsburgh (route of The Clevelander) line, or NS today.

[2nd trick op]

In the days before the mega-mergers, both eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania were blanketed with a pattern of trackage rights and paired-trackage agreements between the major trunk lines (PRR, NYC, B&O. Erie), the Pennsy/B&O joint operation between Newark and Columbus. OH probably the best-known. Sometimes a joint ETT was issued; in other cases, the crews carried separate ETTs for both roads, and consulted as needed.

In this particular instance. PRR held trackage rights over B&O between a point near Niles and Ravenna.

http://pc.smellycat.com/maps/ttmaps/map_valleydiv.pdf

I'm not sure whether the Clevelander used this trackage, or stayed on "home rails" in order to serve Alliance. A PRR branch running north from Alliance crossed the line at Newton Falls. but I saw no evidence of a physical connection when I "scouted" the Newton Falls interlocking (still manned at the time) in 1976. The office was later closed. but the building endured until it was demolished in a derailment a few years ago.

[2nd trick op]

Likely Amazon has been a long time rail shipper, but now they have become visible.

I worked in Amazon distribution centers at Hazleton and Breinigsville (Allentown), PA for nearly five years; Hazleton was an "inbound-only" center, where solid truck- and container loads were broken down into smaller shipments to be forwarded to "outbound" centers as far away as Tennessee. Very few of the trailers carried reporting marks of the major railroads. but this practice has been diminishing for years. The "smiley boxes" didn't turn up until some time after I'd been "coaxed" into not-so-voluntary retirement.

I would like to add a word or two With regard to Amazon's management policies and practices; I would describe them as uniformly and reasonably applied, but subtly discriminatory with regard to age. I was hired at the age of 61, and starting wages are pegged at the 75th percentile of the rate for warehouse labor in each metropolitan statistical area $12.50/hr when I started, and currently $15/hr). But although I held a degree in Business Logistics, I was never offered an opportunity for less-physically demanding (and better-paying) work, and terminated for failure to meet production standards at the age of 65 (a few days before the first stock-purchase rights -- I still got a few shares via my 401(k) -- would have taken effect), but re-hired as a "temp" -- same wage rate but smaller benefits, for anther eight months.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. 2nd trick, for what it be worth, I hsve NEVER done business with Amazon. It's not a boycott, it's just a "no reason". There's a Penney's still open in my neck of the woods that has what apparel I need to replace each year and I still like to go to the local hardware store and the local grocer (Jewel/Albertson's) to get what I need recurringly. The only on-line shopping I do is every two years I need blades for my safety razor that are no longer carried by Jewel.

Sorry it "didn't work out" with Jeff; you're not the first.

[ExCon90]

In the days before the mega-mergers, both eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania were blanketed with a pattern of trackage rights and paired-trackage agreements between the major trunk lines (PRR, NYC, B&O. Erie), the Pennsy/B&O joint operation between Newark and Columbus. OH probably the best-known. Sometimes a joint ETT was issued; in other cases, the crews carried separate ETTs for both roads, and consulted as needed.

In this particular instance. PRR held trackage rights over B&O between a point near Niles and Ravenna.

http://pc.smellycat.com/maps/ttmaps/map_valleydiv.pdf

I'm not sure whether the Clevelander used this trackage, or stayed on "home rails" in order to serve Alliance. A PRR branch running north from Alliance crossed the line at Newton Falls. but I saw no evidence of a physical connection when I "scouted" the Newton Falls interlocking (still manned at the time) in 1976. The office was later closed. but the building endured until it was demolished in a derailment a few years ago.

PRR's trackage rights over the B&O, extending from near Niles to Ravenna, joined the line coming north from Alliance, on its Fort Wayne main, at Ravenna. In 1958 the PRR had two trains, the Clevelander to and from New York, and the Afternoon Steeler to and from Pittsburgh; the Clevelander ran via Niles, the Steeler via Alliance.