Here is an aerial photo of the Spencer Transfer, which is mentioned prominently in the document that Ike posted. This is just south of the shops, adjacent to what is now called "Old Spencer Yard". The photo is from the archives of the NC DOT and was taken in November of 1959. From other photos I've seen, this facility was gone by 1965.

Tim Rumph
Lancaster, SC.

On Oct 16, 2018, at 11:57 AM, C J Wyatt <cjwyatt@...> wrote:

<<

Here are two items that will be included in a package car article being researched for TIES. We have two complete package car schedules in the SRHA archives, if anyone can copy or donate anything on the subject they may have, we'll use it in the article.

>>

Ike,

The Southern Railway directory of Industries which was printed around 1938 has ten pages of the package car routes for the various freight houses on the system.

One fascinating aspect was the textiles package business going from mills in the Carolina's to Pinners Point for both coastal steamship connections and international. Obviously that would have been a significant part of the business at Spencer Transfer, but many mills loaded package cars themselves. If I recall, the main time freight of the era from Spencer NC to Pinners Point VA was named the "Spinning Wheel".

Other important package commodities from the Carolina's were tobacco and furniture. R. J. Reynolds loaded a lot of cars at its plant in Winston-Salem. Some of those routes were destined for off-line freight houses.

Jack 

Jack and Dick:

Great information!….

Dick: Do you remember if your shipments went out on the PRR or B&O?

I have always known about package cars but did not realize how significant the business was. I am not clear on the distinction between “package cars” and “LCL” traffic. Package cars originated and terminated at company freight houses, where LCL could (Pls correct me somebody if I’m wrong) be loaded at more than one location for shippers and receivers that had less than carload shipments.

Package cars could make intermediate stops. It was apparently up to the train crew to load and unload shipments along line of road. Some of the local locations were not much more than bus stop (“wait shed”) with a closet. Gurnee Jct, AL (attached) was basically just the “closet”. (I was “working” (as much as a forth grader could) on the Baltimore and Annapolis one day about 1955 when we stopped at the depot in Glen Burnie. The crew opened the door on a B&O box car, the freight room depot door, set a bridge plate between the doors and unloaded a new refrigerator for a local store….”LCL” B&A style.)

Another thing I do not really understand (there are many) is the relationship between package cars and REA. I realize they were separate operations, REA being passenger train oriented but I have seen minor references to shipments being transferred between the two.

Ike

With SEARS bankruptcy in the news, it may be interesting to mention how "big" they were in the Southern's LCL business. SEARS had a distribution facility on the Southern belt line in Atlanta. The (large) building still exists and I expect the ROW of the tracks into it off the Southern are still visible. In addition to the Southern's own freight houses in Atlanta, plus Inman Transfer, (a FedEx like hub at Inman Yard) package cars were loaded by SEARS at their facility and left on scheduled freight trains every week day.

If you look at many photos of SR steam era freights, you may notice a group, of Southern 40' box cars directly behind the engine. While SR freights had a high percentage of home road cars, seeing six, eight or a dozen together on the front of a train defied what would be expected out of a classification yard such as Inman. A reason was that scheduled afternoon departures from Atlanta (and Knoxville and Spencer) would depart the yard then make a pickup as they passed the different freight houses. In turn, the Southern used only SR 36', 40' and then 50' box cars for the service. All of the large freight houses had multiple tracks accessed from the same platforms. To make that work, all car doors were opened and aligned so bridges could be used between cars on different tracks. Everything was handled by men with hand-trucks so the system worked. When cut-off time for shipments came, the bridges were removed and doors were closed.

Depending on the day of the week, as many as 50 package cars left Atlanta every evening. The SEARS cars for Florida would be in Jacksonville the next morning with some passed to the FEC, ACL and SAL.

Here are two items that will be included in a package car article being researched for TIES. We have two complete package car schedules in the SRHA archives, if anyone can copy or donate anything on the subject they may have, we'll use it in the article.

Ike

<Aug 1927 package car directory Eastern terr to SR.jpg>

<SNB 1_28 Package Svc 1.jpg>

Sears had a large rail-served facility north of downtown Greensboro, not far from my trackside apartment, that still loaded or received 40’ boxcars, and was switched by a local switch engine in the morning. IIRC, the cars were taken to/brought from Pomona, where they may (not entirely sure) have been added to the Western Carloading pickup.