JULY 1999

    There was a time when merchandise or package freight, today consigned to highway trucks and couriers, was hauled by the railways.  Local freight trains serving each line, typically six days a week, were known as "way freights".  Any shipments in these trains not requiring a full car, or "less-than-carload", were handled in boxcars designated by the railways as merchandise cars. These cars worked among the freight sheds and transfer platforms in a pool.  In any way freight, there would have been one to half a dozen or more merchandise cars. 

    Unless the way freight was hauling livestock, the merchandise cars were spotted immediately behind the locomotive to facilitate removal from a train.   Railways were mindful of the need to expedite the lucrative package freight, and these cars would be the first ones removed from a local or manifest train upon arriving at a yard.  A list of the merchandise cars on a train would be wired ahead in advance of the train's arrival, so the yard crews could switch out the "shed cars" before the time-consuming inspection of the train and preparation of a switch list.

    Merchandise cars in a way freight were organized at the originating freight shed.  "Straight cars", destined for stations along the line commanding enough business in a day to warrant a separate car, would be left at the designated freight sheds.  One or more boxcars were "way cars", to be worked en route.  At the various stations on the way freight's run, the "tail end crew", consisting of two brakemen and the conductor, handled any package freight in the way car, loading and unloading shipments.  In later years, local contract delivery trucks met the way freights at the stations to bypass the freight shed altogether.

    Package freight business on North America's railways reached a peak in the 1920s, after which a long and gradual decline ensued.  By the mid-1960s, highways and line abandonments had eroded the vast rail infrastructure to the point where less-than-carload business was an impracticable and losing proposition.  One by one, the freight sheds and transfer platforms fell into ruin, and the fleets of merchandise cars were dissolved.

    Happily, the merchandise car circuit and its associated operations can be replicated in miniature on our time machines known as model railways.  With the movement in recent years toward prototype modelling and realistic operation (embodied by time table and train orders), it is time to give the less-than-carload system a fresh look.  Typical car forwarding systems or card operation for carload traffic must be modified somewhat for the movement of merchandise cars, which should be treated separately.  A designated pool of boxcars should be established, which would include about 25% foreign car content.

    Not only should merchandise cars be cycled among the freight sheds and transfer platforms in a realistic manner, but they should also be handled in the same preferential way as they were on the prototype railways.  In addition, when a way freight arrives at a station on a model railway, the way car should be "worked" at the freight shed.  Where the shed is accessible from the main line, the car should be spotted at the freight door without uncoupling from the train; in other cases the locomotive should take the way car into the appropriate siding or "shed track".   Sufficient time for the miniature tail end crew to perform this activity should be allowed by operators on a model railway.

    For a more in-depth discussion of the operation of way cars and merchandise service, please refer to "Palmerston--Lcl Hub for the Bruce" in CN LINES Volume 7 Number 2, or "Palmerston, lcl and the CNR" in the July 1997 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

Ian Wilson
June 30, 1999

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