Examination of M&NJ Freight Bills For
December, 1955
by John Deserto
While, at first, an examination of freight bills might not seem like the most exciting thing to write or read about, there is a method to my madness. Freight bills show (among many other things) car numbers, what they were loaded with, who the consignee was, who the shipper was and the route the car took between shipper and consignee. My thought was that if I could reliably account for all the M&NJ freight bills for a fixed period of time we would be able to get a good picture of the M&NJ for that period.
We could answer questions about what customers were receiving, how much and from where and who was bringing it to the M&NJ? Taken all together this snapshot could form a base for an examination of other periods to show the evolution of the M&NJ from what it was to what it is. While sorting the boxes of records that Ray Brown had saved and his sister Audrey had donated to the Society, I found the December 1955 bills for cars from the Erie, O&W, S&W and M&NJ. This way cars could be traced to the interchanging roads and cross checked to make sure none fell between the cracks. This article represents the first step in this process, not the culmination.
As this piece was in the formulating stage I thought I could use these bills to show the operations on a typical day, week and maybe the whole month of December, 1955 on the M&NJ, including interchange. While the bills don't show the through interchange cars or empty returns I hoped that these gaps would be filled in by using the information from the train lists for the month.
Unfortunately, after Peter Brill hand scribed the train lists for December, 1955, it became obvious that this wasn't possible with the bills and trainlists for one month alone. A quick comparison of the cars in the bills and the lists showed that the bills were made 2-3 days to 2 weeks after the car moved. A car that actually moved on December 2 according to the train list was dated mid-December on the freight bill. Therefore to do a comprehensive picture of the M&NJ in December, 1955 I would need all the bills for November, 1955, as well as December, 1955. We have the M&NJ, Erie and S&W bills, but the archives have yet to reveal the O&W bills, if they are even there. We do currently have the bills for all four railroads for November and December, 1954, which with the December, 1954 train lists would allow an operational examination of the M&NJ. So, this will happen at a future date.
Ray Brown took this picture of the M&NJ's 44 tonner #1 sitting on the "Loop Track" in 1968. The Erie's DW yard and the M&NJ's only connection with the rest of the nations rail network starts on the far side of East Main St. which can be seen behind the engine. In 1955 the M&NJ still had all 3 interchanges with the other Middletown railroads but by 1968 all but the Erie (Lackawanna ) were gone.
In contrast to the M&U and MU&WG, when hauling milk was the financial bread and butter, the M&NJ of 1955 was very much an animal feed oriented line. This is likely due to several factors. The evolution away from the smaller self-sufficient farm towards the larger, more specialized dairy farm was underway. Another factor was that the owners of the M&NJ in 1955 were also the owners of several feed mills and stores along the line. The last vestige of this business on the line today is Agway fertilizer (since this article was written this Agway has closed). Today the M&NJ's major commodities are chemicals and plastics. This evolution from milk to feed to chemicals is more a reflection of the changes in agriculture in Orange County than any organized plan by railroad management.
I've summarized what each of the carload customers was billed for in December, 1955. While I included what commodity each customer received and from where, I did not include car numbers and individual routing information as this would have been cumbersome and greatly increased the length of the article. I did try to mention the more common routings and anything exceptionally interesting about a car. The M&NJ billed 11 carload customers at various stations along the line in December, 1955. Clark and Manning both had more than one location along the railroad.
Pounds / Middletown
A run down the line from Middletown south/east to Unionville brings us to the first and largest customer on the M&NJ, the Middletown Grange League Federation (GLF) at Pounds/Middletown. This station was for billing purposes only and the bills alternated labeling it Middletown or Pounds. The GLF plant generally received bulk shipments of animal and poultry feed (which was abbreviated to AP feed on the bills) and other assorted commodities that were either taken as is or custom mixed into feed orders for local member farmers. For a detailed look at switching the plant in the 1960's see Carl Detwylers article "Railroading on the M&NJ in the late Sixties", Vol. 4 #1 Unionville Flyer. This operation was loads in, empties out. Of the loads, the most common was AP feed. 30 of the 41 carloads to GLF Middletown were of this commodity, all of which were shipped from GLF's mill in Bordentown, NJ where mid-western grain would be shipped and milled. The basic ground feed would now be shipped to mixing plants to be custom mixed for member farmers. In the case of the Middletown plant, cars were shipped off the PRR's branch where the GLF mill was located and interchanged with the S&W, who then took them up to Hanford/M&NJ Junction to interchange with the M&NJ. The M&NJ then brought the cars north to the Middletown plant. For a more detailed look at this aspect of the traffic see page 13 of "Susquehanna Operations and Facilities at Hanford NJ, Part II" Vol. 5 #1 of the Unionville Flyer. All but one of these 30 carloads of AP feed were in bulk form as were most of these loads for the plant because it was equipped with several conveyors, one for the bulk depot and one for the custom mix plant.
M&NJ #1, still in M&U colors with just the initials redone on the cab,
is on the mainlin with the switch heading down to the Dolson Ave. GLF plant in
the foreground.
This water damaged NYS&W bill from November 15, 1954 shows CB&Q car #18417 was a typical carload off the S&W for the M&NJ. It was a bulk load of animal and poultry feed for the Middletown GLF from the GLF's mill in Bordentown, NJ. The routing was PRR to the S&W at the Marion interchange. The S&W then ran it up to the M&NJ at Hanford Junction. M&NJRHS Archives
While the basic AP feed made up the majority of the traffic to the Middletown GLF, it was by no means the only commodity delivered to the plant and the S&W wasn't the only line interchanging cars bound for the plant. The Erie brought a car of bagged beet pulp from Michigan and a car of bulk corn from Toledo, Ohio. The S&W brought a car of crushed oyster shells from Atlantic Shells, Jacksonville, Florida, a car of bulk wheat from Philadelphia and a car of bulk linseed oil meal from Edgewater, N.J.. The O&W brought a car of oats from Buffalo Jct., a car of bagged mixed wheat feed from Pillsbury in Buffalo (both via LV's Coxton Yard), a car of baled dehydrated sugar cane from Iberia Sugar Corp. New Iberia, Louisiana and a car of spent dry grain from Continental Distillery, Philadelphia.
Slate Hill
Slate Hill Feed and Coal in Slate Hill was billed for a total of six loads in December of 1955. Four of these six cars were of some kind of bagged animal feed (grain, hominy, brewers grain and linseed meal). Of these only the hominy from Wilkes-Barre was routed off the O&W, the Erie delivered the rest. The Erie also brought the M&NJ both of the bulk loads. One car of bulk corn gluten was shipped from National Starch in Indianapolis, Indiana. The other car was bulk dry grain mash from Seagrams in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Middletown Milk & Cream in Slate Hill was the second largest customer on the M&NJ in December, 1955, receiving nine cars. This is far behind the 41 cars the Middletown GLF received but represented the last vestige of the once dominant milk/dairy traffic that the M&NJ's predecessor lines enjoyed. All of their nine car loads were bagged fiber cans from American Can Co. in Croxton, NY. MM&C was the largest LCL customer on the line and a loyal customer of the Erie Railroad as all their freight (LCL and car load) was shipped to the M&NJ by the Erie. No other M&NJ customer that had more than one commodity or shipper showed more loyalty than MM&C to the Erie. The feed dealers seemed to shop around a great deal for shippers and in routing over the rails.
This bill is a good example of the freight bills used for this article. This Erie bill shows that Erie car # 81250 was billed from American Can Co. in Croxton, NJ on December 29, 1954 (a year before the period examined) to Middletown Milk and Cream. The route was simply Erie to M&NJ for this car due to the on-line location of the shipper, most bills showed a much more complicated routing. The load was 463 bags of fiber cans without tops or bottoms. MM&C paid $55.43 for the car, of which the M&NJ received $27.37. M&NJ Archives
This wonderful shot of Johnson NY shows the 2 major customers in 1955. Mannings lumber and coal facility is on the left, Clark Feed (later owned by Ford, Weld and Cox) is on the right. The following shots of the #1 drilling these customers was taken from a spot in the top center of this picture.
Johnson
Clark Feed in Johnson received a total of 4 cars. Three of these cars were bagged AP feed from Park and Pollard in Buffalo which were shipped via the O&W. The fourth car was a load of baled dehydrated sugar cane from Godehaux Sugars in Raceland, Louisiana which came to the M&NJ via the Erie. The Manning's feed and lumber store in Johnson was busier and received a larger variety of commodities in December, 1955 than their Unionville store. Of the 8 cars they took in Johnson, 3 of the cars were building materials ranging from wallboard and plaster from US Gypsum to oak flooring from Myscogee, Georgia. The third car was dimensional lumber which was sold enroute by an agent in Buffalo, NY. This means that when the car was loaded it had no destination but was shipped east in hopes of finding a buyer. The other five cars were either feed or ingredients for animal feed. These loads included linseed oil meal, soybean meal, bags of beet pulp and spent grain mash from Carlings Brewery in Cleveland, Ohio. The soybean meal traveled the farthest, from Cargill in Chicago, Illinois and was the only commodity to arrive via the O&W. The Erie and S&W split the other four cars.
This shot shows the #1 working Johnson, NY sometime in the 1960's. The engine is spotting two boxcars of hay bales on Mannings siding. The NYC boxcar on the left is on the Ford, Weld, Cox Feed "Hill Track". Today the Manning's siding is home to a shipping container that hold the VRA's trackcar. This group does a great deal of brush clearing along the line today. Photo by Ray Brown, M&NJRHS Collection
In this view, taken just after the #1 had spotted the loads of hay, we see the #1 on the main close to a boxcar on the "Farm Track" next to the Ford, Weld, Cox feed store. The photographer Ray Brown has climbed up the NYC boxcar for this brakeman's view of Johnson, NY. M&NJRHS Collection.
Kostic and Usyenski received a car in Johnson. This single load of bagged poultry feed was shipped from Delaware Mills in Deposit, NY and delivered to the M&NJ by the Erie. If anyone has any information about this customer please contact me so we can share it with members.
In this shot we can clearly see Clark's operation behind the Westtown station.
Westtown
Clark's operation in Westtown was the more active of his two on-line operations in December, 1955 receiving a total of 6 cars. Unlike the Johnson store, the Westtown outlet could handle bulk loads in its large elevator. Of the six cars received in December, two were loads of bagged AP feed, one from the O&W and the other from the Erie. Of the bulk cars, one car of hominy feed came from Patent Cereals in Geneva, NY and was delivered via the O&W. Another car of bulk corn came in from National Starch Indianapolis Indiana via the Erie. Another carload of feed came from Ralston Purina in Buffalo, NY via the O&W. The sixth car was soybean meal from Glidden Soy in Hammond, Indiana via the Erie. Ford also received one car of bagged poultry feed from Ralston Purina in Buffalo, NY which was delivered by the Erie to the M&NJ.
Seward Farm Machine took a car of castings, conveyors, shields and parts from New Idea Farm Equipment in Coldwater, Ohio. It was delivered by the O&W to the M&NJ which in turn took it to Westtown for them to unload. (This is another customer that I've never heard of.) In addition to the large Middletown operation, the GLF also had an outlet in Westtown, in the former Borden's Creamery. This customer received only bagged feed (3 cars in this billing cycle) from the GLF mill in Bordentown, NJ which was routed in the exact same manner as the Middletown GLF cars, via the NYS&W to Hanford.
Unionville
Delford Rubber in Unionville received two cars of paper bags filled with clay from J.M. Huber Co. Langley, South Carolina via the O&W. This customer operated out of the old "condensery" building south of Unionville.
The Manning family had several stores in the area, two of which were on the M&NJ. The Unionville location received a total of 3 loads. Two of these were hopper cars of anthracite coal from Lehigh Navigation Coal in Greenwood, Pennsylvania which were brought to the M&NJ by the S&W. These were unloaded into the still visible under-track pit and a conveyor brought it up into the coal bins. The other car was a bulk load of corn gluten from National Starch, Indianapolis, Indiana via the Erie. Since this outlet was not equipped with a grain elevator (it is assumed the coal elevator was not used) the bulk corn was probably bagged in the car by the local farmer/farmers that had ordered it and taken by truck to their farm. The fact that a feed dealer didn't have an elevator doesn't mean that a bulk load wouldn't be shipped to that dealer. At times, a few farmers and a feed dealer might order a bulk load, which was cheaper than a bagged load, and when the car arrived the farmer or group of farmers would come with their own shovels and bags to unload the car themselves. Grain consigned a car of bagged beet pulp from Monitor Sugar in Bay City, Michigan which was brought by the Erie to the M&NJ which then delivered it to Unionville. "<
And so ends our tour of the M&NJ's customers billed in December, 1955. Please remember that these were not the only customers the M&NJ served, but they were the major ones. Also note the steady decrease in the number of cars delivered in each town south of Middletown (Slate Hill 17, Johnson 13, Westtown 11, Unionville 6)
Major Type of Load
As can be seen in the individual examinations of the carload customers the hands down most common loads on the M&NJ in December 1955 were some kind of animal feed. Of the 88 carload bills issued during December 1955, 83% of these were for animal feed or some commodity used in making animal feed. While this feed traffic created an impressive number of total carloadings for this billing cycle, the railroads didn't make much money on these cars. The typical 40 foot boxcar of bulk or bagged feed weighed somewhere between 20-25 tons and yielded the M&NJ about $50-$60 each and required a lot of switching. For comparison the most common load the M&NJ currently handles are covered hoppers loaded with 95 tons of plastic for Polytherm/Genpak. These cars net the railroad anywhere from $360-$740 per car according to where it is shipped from. This means that every $360 car of plastic the M&NJ delivers in 1999 equals six $60 cars of feed in 1955, with less switching and many fewer miles on the engine.
Of the 15 car loads (17% of this month's total) of non-feed related items the largest commodity was the bags of fiber cans that Middletown Milk and Cream received. Coal, lumber and building supplies to the feed dealers rounded out the loads to the M&NJ.
Interchange Partners
The M&NJ in December, 1955 still enjoyed being connected to three class one railroads. The Erie which connected to the M&NJ in Middletown, NY was the biggest of these connections and while on shaky financial footings was still the strongest of the interchanging roads. The other Middletown connection and second largest was the O&W, whose poor financial status was well known to all at this time. This road had less than two years of life left at this point. The third connection to the M&NJ was the NYS&W a mile below Unionville at M&U Junction (Hanford) on the New Jersey border. While the S&W was the smallest of the M&NJ's connections it carried the greatest number of interchange cars to them. This is due to the GLF traffic from Bordentown, NJ being routed over the S&W and up their Hanford Branch. Like the O&W, this connection only had a few years left as the S&W abandoned and scrapped the Hanford Branch in 1958. This abandonment would have a tremendous impact on the operations of the M&NJ. All of the Bordentown GLF traffic would have to be rerouted over the Erie to Middletown with only a short hop on the first mile of the M&NJ to the Dolson Ave. GLF plant. This coupled with the dwindling loadings on the southernmost portions of the line would soon force a series of service cutbacks to the point where today only the northern third of the railroad is operational.
This bill from the O&W shows one of the many cars the Middletown GLF received in December, 1954. The bill shows that Black Creek R.R. car #1790 was loaded with edible flour by Pillsbury Mills Inc. in Buffalo, NY and routed via the B&O to the DL&W. The DL&W handed it off to the O&W at Norwich, NY. The O&W then shipped it to the M&NJ which received $30.67 to move it a little over a mile from DG to Pounds. M&NJRHS Archives.
This is the M&NJ bill for the BCK car #1790 in the above bill. M&NJRHS Archives.
Breakdown of Major Railroad Interchange Cars
Standing trackside watching an M&NJ train in December, 1955 you would not be able to tell that this was a small 15 mile line from the vast distances some of these freight cars traveled to get here. In this era when most cars were owned by railroads (unlike today's dominant car leasing companies) you could get an impressive geography lesson from the sides of the 41 different railroads cars that appeared on the M&NJ during this month. Of these 41 railroads only 12 had 3 or more different cars on the M&NJ. The New York Central had 8 different cars on the line, the B&O, CB&Q, and PRR all had 6 each, MP and UP had 4, and the ATSF, C&O, GM&O, LN, MILW and SP all came in 3 a piece. Of the eastern roads the DL&W, Erie, LV and Reading all had 2 cars each. The lone New Haven car delivered bags of crushed oyster shells from Florida to the Middletown GLF, which was likely the return loading from a NH delivery to Florida.
In this view we see the #1 and a 50' outside braced wooden boxcar with a load of hay passing an abandoned house in Unionville. How much would you have paid for this house with our favorite railroad passing through the front yard? Photo Ray Brown M&NJRHS Collection.
The S&W and O&W didn't have any cars show up at all. I don't think at this point the O&W had many cars fit for interchange service and of these I doubt they had many (if any) boxcars, which is what most of the feed came in. I think the S&W had those PS-1 boxcars at this time (Little help) but none appeared on the M&NJ's bills for December, 1955. A modeler would be forgiven if they slipped in one of those beautiful S&W PS-1's that Kadee makes. The preponderance of midwestern and western cars makes sense due to the large number of feed loads the M&NJ received. The surprising thing was the small number of eastern railroads cars. Of those 9 cars, most were in GLF Bordentown to Middletown service.
Less Than Car Load Service
While not the big business that it was in the early days of the century before the personal automobile, trucks and improved roads, the M&NJ did handle a surprising amount of Less than Car Load (LCL) shipments. While three boxcars and a truck load doesn't seem like a great deal, remember the size of the M&NJ and its proximity to Route 6 and Route 284. The small amount of LCL off the O&W was handled by the O&W's truck but the consignee (customer) was billed by the M&NJ. I'm sure the O&W and M&NJ had some kind of compensation system set-up for this arrangement. The O&W's truck delivered 4 bags of animal feed to Howard Angeloni and dropped off a TV set to Chicks Electric Service, both in Slate Hill. The truck then traveled down to Unionville to deliver 200 lbs. of stock tonic to Charles Bailey (I thought he was having a "wonderful life" in Bedford Falls).
The largest portion of LCL traffic to the M&NJ came from the Erie. They generated three full boxcars during this billing month. The most heavily loaded was Missouri Pacific car #32935. It carried cartons of bottle caps and cleaning supplies for Middletown Milk and Cream in Slate Hill and TV tables for Chicks Electric Service. It then continued down to Unionville with a bicycle from Montgomery Ward for George Sparling, winding cores for Standard Insulation, a fire plug for the village of Unionville and a mystery (unreadable) container for Albert Sutton. This car was passed on to the S&W when empty because it arrived later in the month with a load of bulk AP feed for the Middletown GLF. It was "deja vu all over again" when another Missouri Pacific car, 46832, came in off the Erie full of LCL for the M&NJ. It even contained a very similar load for the same customers. This time Chick in Slate Hill received a TV and Middletown Milk and Cream received cartons of disks, presumably for the milk bottle caps. This car then went to the Westtown GLF with filter press cloths. After unloading in Westtown #46832 emptied out in Unionville. Thomas Horler received a tub and pail and Standard Insulation received more winding cores. This car also was pressed into Bordentown to Middletown GLF service and was billed at the end of the month. The other LCL car from the Erie was Erie car #82148. This car contained several hundred containers of bottle caps for the Middletown Milk and Cream creamery in Slate Hill and one drum of flavor compound for Mannings in Johnson.
The M&NJ #1 is gliding through this wintry scene with a lone boxcar somewhere along the line. This and all the other photo's in this article are available for sale from the Society. M&NJRHS Collection.
Biggest Customer
The biggest customer on the M&NJ during December, 1955 was the Middletown GLF. The M&NJ issued 88 bills to on-line carload customers for carload traffic. This plant on Dolson Ave. in Middletown received 46.4% of all carloads billed in December, 1955. This represents a vast majority of the cars billed, as the second largest customer, Middletown Milk and Cream in Slate Hill came in at 9.1% of all cars billed.
Summary
December, 1955 on the M&NJ was really the end of an operational era. Soon the O&W would be gone and the S&W's Hanford Branch would be abandoned. The Bordentown to Middletown GLF traffic would be rerouted over the less desirable Erie route and the feed traffic on the southern end of the line would start to wither away as the small family farms gave way either to larger farms that relied more heavily on trucks or real estate development. A retrenchment in the railroad's length and customers would begin. As mentioned in the introduction it would be instructive to continue this process with other months and years to see what kinds of interesting things could be learned.
