Grain Shipment Case Study |
MAY/JUNE 2003
Over several monthly topics, we have addressed the matter of grain shipments, either directly or indirectly. This month, we are going to zero in on the Tiffin Elevator in Midland, Ontario, circa July 1943. For this month’s topic, I owe a word of thanks to Branchliner Chris Furman for supplying the paperwork, and fellow Branchliner Steve Lucas for making photocopies of it for my use.
Midland was served by four large grain elevators over the late steam era, namely the Townhouse (owned by Canada Steamship Lines, capacity 3 million bushels), the Simcoe (Midland Simcoe Elevator Co., 4.25 million bushels), the Aberdeen (Aberdeen Elevator Co., 0.9 million bushels), and the Tiffin (Canadian National Railways, 4.65 million bushels). Of these, the Simcoe was served by the CPR, the remainder by the CNR.
Let us examine the transshipment process through a case study. At 6:15 p.m. on July 2, 1943, the Capt. C. D. Secord arrived from Port Arthur on her seventh call of the year. In the holds of this 557-foot motor vessel were 281,050 bushels of No. 2 wheat owned by the Reliance Grain Co. of Winnipeg, and 80,000 bushels of the same lading from the Saskatchewan Pool at Winnipeg. Discharging of the cargo commenced forty five minutes after arrival, and concluded the next day. Five elevator bins were required for the larger consignment of wheat, while two more bins handled the remainder. Some days later, on July 16 & 17, the Saskatchewan Pool wheat was loaded into boxcars. The Reliance Grain wheat followed in two lots on July 17 & 24.
Now let’s take a look at the 212 boxcars into which the wheat from the Secord was loaded, and see if we can draw some general conclusions which may be applied to modelling transshipped grain traffic. Of the total, 173 cars, or approximately 82%, were home road CNR. This portion is close to that gleaned from a study of boxcars loaded with grain on the CNR at Owen Sound during the 1943-50 period. For simplicity sake, we can conclude that a modeller is pretty close if he represents grain shipments from Great Lakes elevators using four CN boxcars for every foreign road car.
Examining the 173 CN boxcars against the roster totals of the time period, it is interesting to note that although more than 21% of the home road fleet was comprised of relatively new steel cars, not one of them shows up carrying wheat from the Secord. Of the 173 CN boxcars, there were 94 five-foot door Fowler cars (57 expected based upon pro-rating the equipment totals). There were 23 six-foot door Fowlers, nearly matching the expected 22. Another 20 cars are the type represented in HO scale by the Accurail boxcar with wooden ends, somewhat higher than the expected 16. The four cars matching the Accurail car with steel ends coincide with the expected number. Similarly, there were 31 of the 40-foot, seven-panel steel-frame boxcar represented in HO scale by kits from Funaro & Camerlengo, Sylvan and Kaslo against 30 of that type expected. All things being equal, we expected to see 37 steel boxcars, but there were none, save a single 470,000-series rebuild (Sylvan in HO scale).
Perhaps some time in the future, if data are available, we will study a similar breakdown for a 1950s era case study. For the moment, however, I believe we may conclude that a disproportionate number of five-foot door Fowler boxcars were used in handling grain at the expense of newer 40-foot steel cars over the late steam era. All the other CN boxcar types are reasonably close to expected totals based upon numbers in the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Certainly, five-foot door cars were not preferred for general lading, so it is not surprising to see them dominating the boxcars consigned to grain transshipment.
Now, let’s take a look at the 39 foreign cars which found themselves loading wheat from the Secord at the Tiffin Elevator in July 1943. It is not surprising to see boxcars from roads which connect with the CNR in the Great Lakes area, such as C&O (one car), DL&W (one), Erie (three), GTW (three), L&NE (two), NYC (two), PRR (three), PM (one) and SOU (one). From the New England area, there was the B&M (one). A multitude of roads with Midwestern connections also weighed in, such as AT&SF, CB&Q, CSt.PM&O, M&St.L and SOO (one each), C&NW, IC and MILW (two each) and MP (three). Northwestern roads GN (four) and NP (one) were also represented, as was Southwestern road D&RGW (one). The CASO, an Eastern Canadian road with a small roster, fielded a car.
With the appearance of cars from smaller and/or distant roads such as the CASO, L&NE, PM, D&RGW, B&M and M&St.L, I think it is safe to say that any North American boxcar is fair game for grain loading. Note that not one CPR car showed up in this study.
Ian Wilson
June 4, 2003
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