Freight Checker

[NW Mailing List]

Michelle,

A freight checker on the N&W would have worked in a freight station checking freight as it was loaded into, or unloaded from, a freight car.  This was in the days when railroads handled less-than-carload (lcl) freight.  As an example, a freight car at a freight station would be designated to go to a particular destination, and it would be loaded with various types of freight from various shippers as long as all of the freight were going to that particular destination.  The freight checker would be given a list of the items to go into that freight car that day, and he would stand at the entrance to the freight car and check off each item as the freight handlers placed it into the car.

The N&W Historical Society Archives has a copy of a December 1953 Norfolk and Western Magazine article, "A Day At the Roanoke Freight Station."  One picture shows Checker T. T. Drewry at his station inside a box car being loaded.

If you are interested in having a machine copy of the article, it can be ordered through the Society's website, www.nwhs.org.

A copy of the article's five pages would total $2.00.  Shipping would be $2.58 additional.

I hope this information is helpful.  Please let us know if we can help you further.

Gordon Hamilton
Member, NWHS Archives Committee

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 8:50 PM
  Subject: Freight Checker


  If my great grandfather was a freight checker for N&W, what exactly did he do? 
  Michelle Baker



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