Introduction:
There are a couple of things I liked right away about this waybill. I have pleasant memories of some vegetation survey work we did near Libby in the early 2000's, and it is a beautiful remote place. The shipper, J. Neils Lumber Company was a really big operation, and at one time had its own logging railway. The shipment was a team track delivery, which I always like. And finally, the waybill itself has a nice little GN herald with a side facing goat (click to enlarge):
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Format:
The originating line haul carrier was the Great Northern. The GN used a full-size waybill with center-line symmetry. The symmetry is broken up in an interesting way between the FROM box and the COD box and the WEIGHT column lies to the left of the center line, which is unusual. Also the GN centered the carrier name, interline code number, and logos across the top, rather than the more usual right justification. The data fields are in the earlier format. This form probably dates to the mid-1950s and is just different enough from the industry standard to be eye catching without being gaudy or overdone. My normal procedure in developing model waybills is to use the interline code number, carrier name, and logos (if used on the prototype) as the header and footer over a slightly condensed version of the earlier data field layout, but I think I'll go to the effort to directly condense this form itself to try and capture some of its variation from the standard.
Typefaces, Preprinting, Stamps, and Handwriting:
The typeface is clean, of moderate density, and san serif. The numbers are old style with open-top 4s.
There is no preprinting on the waybill.
Most of the stamps are the typical yard arrival, interchange, and destination agent stamps. The stamp near the top center that says "GN 2 CARD MADE 1215" is similar to a stamp we saw on an NYC waybill a while back. At the time we speculated that this stamp indicated the creation of empty car cards that were attached to the waybill to facilitate the return of the car via its service route.
Handwritten notations indicate the net weight (36 tons), the car type (B for Box), the CBQ - GBW interchange location (East Winona), and the destination agent's freight bill number. All of these types of notations occurred occasionally on waybills we have looked at before.
Waybill Number and Dates:
The waybill number was 1323, which I would guess was in a sequence of numbers associated with the Libby station on the GN or the J. Neils Lumber Co. itself, because of the size of the facility. There were probably ten cars a day shipped from the mill, or several thousand each year.
The waybill was prepared on August 21, 1962. The shipment was in Minneapolis Junction on August 24, and in Green Bay on August 27. The destination agent's stamp was also dated the 27th, with the handwritten notation that the shipment was delivered on the 29th.
The Car:
The car was GN 45275, a box car. The GN listed 1710 steel-frame box cars in GN 45000 to 46999 in the January 1958 ORER (as well as 2525 cars in 47000 to 49999; 816 in 50000 to 50999; and 51000 to 52999; all of which are closely related). This group of cars was clearly a signature feature of the GN's XM fleet in the late 1950s. The dimensional data are:
IL 40' 6"
IW 9' 2"
IH 10'
OL 41' 9"
EW 10' 8"
EH 14' 9" (also top of running boards)
Door Opening 6'
Cu. Ft. 3712
Capy 100,000
These cars are the GN's box cars which had the visual appearance of a wood-sheathed 1937 A.A.R. box car. Martin Lofton's article on these cars (RMJ February 1994) is available on line: http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/471/34343/february-1994-page-29. Other references include:
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There are a couple of things I liked right away about this waybill. I have pleasant memories of some vegetation survey work we did near Libby in the early 2000's, and it is a beautiful remote place. The shipper, J. Neils Lumber Company was a really big operation, and at one time had its own logging railway. The shipment was a team track delivery, which I always like. And finally, the waybill itself has a nice little GN herald with a side facing goat (click to enlarge):
Format:
The originating line haul carrier was the Great Northern. The GN used a full-size waybill with center-line symmetry. The symmetry is broken up in an interesting way between the FROM box and the COD box and the WEIGHT column lies to the left of the center line, which is unusual. Also the GN centered the carrier name, interline code number, and logos across the top, rather than the more usual right justification. The data fields are in the earlier format. This form probably dates to the mid-1950s and is just different enough from the industry standard to be eye catching without being gaudy or overdone. My normal procedure in developing model waybills is to use the interline code number, carrier name, and logos (if used on the prototype) as the header and footer over a slightly condensed version of the earlier data field layout, but I think I'll go to the effort to directly condense this form itself to try and capture some of its variation from the standard.
Typefaces, Preprinting, Stamps, and Handwriting:
The typeface is clean, of moderate density, and san serif. The numbers are old style with open-top 4s.
There is no preprinting on the waybill.
Most of the stamps are the typical yard arrival, interchange, and destination agent stamps. The stamp near the top center that says "GN 2 CARD MADE 1215" is similar to a stamp we saw on an NYC waybill a while back. At the time we speculated that this stamp indicated the creation of empty car cards that were attached to the waybill to facilitate the return of the car via its service route.
Handwritten notations indicate the net weight (36 tons), the car type (B for Box), the CBQ - GBW interchange location (East Winona), and the destination agent's freight bill number. All of these types of notations occurred occasionally on waybills we have looked at before.
Waybill Number and Dates:
The waybill number was 1323, which I would guess was in a sequence of numbers associated with the Libby station on the GN or the J. Neils Lumber Co. itself, because of the size of the facility. There were probably ten cars a day shipped from the mill, or several thousand each year.
The waybill was prepared on August 21, 1962. The shipment was in Minneapolis Junction on August 24, and in Green Bay on August 27. The destination agent's stamp was also dated the 27th, with the handwritten notation that the shipment was delivered on the 29th.
The Car:
The car was GN 45275, a box car. The GN listed 1710 steel-frame box cars in GN 45000 to 46999 in the January 1958 ORER (as well as 2525 cars in 47000 to 49999; 816 in 50000 to 50999; and 51000 to 52999; all of which are closely related). This group of cars was clearly a signature feature of the GN's XM fleet in the late 1950s. The dimensional data are:
IL 40' 6"
IW 9' 2"
IH 10'
OL 41' 9"
EW 10' 8"
EH 14' 9" (also top of running boards)
Door Opening 6'
Cu. Ft. 3712
Capy 100,000
These cars are the GN's box cars which had the visual appearance of a wood-sheathed 1937 A.A.R. box car. Martin Lofton's article on these cars (RMJ February 1994) is available on line: http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/471/34343/february-1994-page-29. Other references include:
- an article in Ted Culotta's Essential Freight Car series (RMC May 2003)
- RP CYC Vol 23 (Mid-Century 40' 6" Composite Wood-Sheathed Box Cars (1937-'43)
- The Postwar Freight Car Fleet (page 48)
- Steam Era Freight Car Reference Manual Volume 1 (page 94)
Modeling approaches include Sunshine 18.5 (http://www.sunshinekits.com/sunimages/sun18c.pdf, which has been discontinued; and Athearn 5230. In my October 1957 modeling time frame this car (built by Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1942) was 15 years old, and probably sported the san serif "Empire Builder" lettering scheme with a 72" side-facing goat logo over vermillion or mineral red body paint (this would be for a post-February, 1956 repaint/restencil).
The Shipper:
The shipper was the J. Neils Lumber Co. in Libby, Montana. Libby lies in the narrow steep Kootenai River valley in extreme northwest Montana. It is a heavily forested area, and was a center for softwood production through the late 1800s and 1900s. The J. Neils Lumber Co. was a pretty large operation and it had its own railroad until the late 1920s. There are some photos that give a perspective on the operation in the University of Montana archives (http://dtl.lib.umt.edu/cdm/search/collection/pharchives/searchterm/Neils/field/all/mode/any/conn/and/cosuppress/). There's also a nice photo collection here with an emphasis on the geared logging locomotives (http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/2012/09/j-neilsst-regis-paper-company.html). The company was extremely active in the late 1950s, adding a stud mill and a plywood mill to the basic rough and finished lumber mill that was present at the site. This is an overview of the facility in 1963:
The connection with the GN is at the north end of the facility near the Kootenai River. There was a lot going on at this mill with three separate log ponds and four major production areas.
The Consignee:
The consignee was the Taylor Lumber and Supply Co. in Sister Bay Wisconsin. Sister Bay is about 26 miles northeast of Sturgeon Bay, which was the end of the Ahnapee & Western line. So the delivery was made to the Sturgeon Bay team track where Taylor Lumber and Supply Co. emptied the car and trucked the lumber to its final destination. In our second post in this series some wall board was delivered to Taylor Lumber & Supply Co. via the Sturgeon Bay team track and you can see an aerial photo of the area in this post (http://cnwmodeling.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-detailed-look-at-at-prototype-waybill.html) about half way down.
The Route:
The route was probably specified by the agent. It was:
LIBBY - GN - MINNEAPOLIS - CBQ - EAST WINONA - GBW - GREEN BAY - KGB - CASCO JUNCTION - AW - STURGEON BAY
I thought it was interesting that the GN routed the car via its partner, the CBQ, even though it could have maximized its own line haul by routing the car on the GN to Superior for interchange with the C&NW resulting in a more direct route into Green Bay.
Using the Official Guide, I calculated the line haul for the shipment as routed:
GN 1285
CBQ 111
GBW 212
KGB 23
AW 34
Total: 1665 miles
The Commodity:
The commodity was a carload of softwood lumber weighing about 36 tons. 200 pounds were allowed for dunnage. The weight was determined by shipper's load and count. The commodity code listed on the waybill (411, which is Lumber Shingles and Lath) is the ICC commodity code which was the system in use in the 1950s that I have been discussing extensively in these posts. Note that the use of this code on the waybill is a bit of an anachronism in 1962 because STCC codes were in use at that time. The revenue for the shipment was almost $920, which is an expensive shipment indeed. At a mill price of about $55/thousand board foot in the 1950s, the shipment couldn't have been worth more than about $2,500. This suggests that the shipping cost was a significant fraction of the total cost of the delivered shipment.
For comparison, the 1957 ICC 1% Carload Waybill survey reported 7 carloads of lumber shipped between Montana and Wisconsin, with an average weight of 31 tons, an average haul of 1470 miles, and an average revenue of $765. So our shipment from Libby to Sturgeon Bay was significantly longer and costlier than average.
Special Instructions:
There were no special instructions.
Freight Car Distribution:
This was another instance of a home road car loaded to a destination on a foreign carrier (Category 1B). At both the start and the end of the shipment the car was in its home district, so the net change was 0.
Points to Ponder:
- The slight variation in the layout of the GN waybill form makes an interesting change in visual scenery.
- Its sort of interesting too that an older style waybill form and an older style freight car were both involved in this shipment. I've read that the GN was considered a somewhat conservative organization.
- I wonder how many railroads made a practice of creating empty car cards to facilitate return via the service route. Some information provided by Jim Dick that I am reviewing suggests that the NP and GN were concerned about the supply of empty cars on their properties in the 1950s and I'm thinking that this might have been a way to help get empties back home for railroads where the box car supply was tight.
Andy Laurent and Charles Hostetler