N&W Exit from LCL Business... Date?

[NW Mailing List]

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:37:46 +0000 (UTC)
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: N&W Exit from LCL Business... Date?

Does anyone know the date the N&W exited Less-than-Car-Load business and closed the freight stations? 

I think it was around 1959, probably part of the general retrenchment which followed the 1957 recession. 

-- abram burnett 



Adding to Abram's question, my understanding is that a "peddler car" bringing LCL freight to depots didn't operate every day towards the end of this service.  Instead, I think they were scheduled to be handled on local freight trains about once or twice weekly, depending upon traffic volume.  Also, I suppose a brakeman plus the agent at wayside stations transferred the freight from the car onto a trackside wagon.  Large cities such as Hagerstown or Waynesboro may have had cars loaded only for that station which were spotted at the freight house.

Not related to LCL traffic are the "supply cars."  I have been told that these were scheduled monthly over a division, departing the stores department at Roanoke and filled with requisition orders from all depot agents.

I concur with Abram that I think these services were discontinued by the late 1950s, coinciding with local agency discontinuances.  Although not N&W, the RF&P leased its former Alexandria LCL freight station to United Clay prior to 1960.

Further information on either topic is welcomed.

Best wishes,

Frank