Milk Money and a Claim to Fame by John Deserto

Throughout the history of the Middletown, Unionville and Water Gap RR and the Middletown and Unionville RR, milk always figured as an important commodity for the line. It was not until doing some serious “number crunching” using figures from financial records found in the archives, that the true importance of the milk traffic became apparent. This article will present concrete facts to illustrate the critically important role that milk traffic had on the railroad and to justify the statement that the MU&WG and the M&U, mile for mile, hauled more milk than any other railroad in the United States.

The graph below plainly shows the importance of the milk traffic on the Middletown and Unionville Railroad even as late as the 1930’s in the midst of the Great Depression. The graph was completed with data from the M&U financial information dating back to 1928. Of note is that 1929’s milk revenue as a percentage of total earnings was 66% just as in 1934 and 1935.

The total revenue data from 1930 and 1931 were unavailable and therefore a percentage of milk revenue could not be figured. Unfortunately the same limitations occurred for the 1928 data but some assumptions can be presented. In 1928 milk cars represented 68% of all the cars on the M&U for the year and milk represented 42% of all the revenue tons moved for the year. Both these percentages were greater than the next year, 1929, when milk cars represented 63% (5% less than 1928) of the cars moved and 35% of the tonnage (7% less than 1928). I feel it safe to theorize that the percent of revenue from milk as compared to the total revenue for the year 1928 was probably greater than 66%. Until the total revenue for the year 1928 is available, we are unable to be sure.

Total revenue for the years 1939 and 1940 have been adjusted for the short lived movement of coal between the O&W and the S&W over the line. This temporary, but dramatic, increase of tonnage and revenue over the M&U would have squeezed the results and was omitted. The overhead coal data was broken down in the financial reports separately and was therefore fairly easy to subtract out of the final data.

The following graph shows the annual dollar figures of the M&U’s milk revenue from 1929 – 1940 excluding 1930 and 1931 for reasons mentioned previously. While the graph of percents shows the importance of the milk traffic, this graph underlines the general erosion of revenues due to increased truck competition that forced lower rates and slimmer profits as well as the Great Depression.

The chart below combines the total amount of milk in tons, the number of milk cars moved and the total milk revenue for the years 1932 through 1939. The evaporation of the milk traffic over these eight years is clearly seen, as is the effect of the decreasing rates forced upon the railroad by truck competition.

     The gap between the amount of milk moved in tons and the revenue for the year 1932 is fairly sizable. This illuminates the milk traffic as being very lucrative in comparison to weight. By comparing that gap in 1932 to the absence of any gap by 1939 demonstrates the squeeze that the truck competition put on the railroad. Revenue from milk traffic dropped 32% during this time while the number of tons dropped 48%.

     In summation, two thirds, if not more, of the M&U’s total revenue came from the transportation of milk in 1929, 1934 and 1935. In fact over 50% of the M&U’s total revenue came from milk up until 1939. This definitely proves that milk was the life blood of the railroad and undoubtedly the most important commodity moved during the M&U era.

     The productivity and quality of the Orange County dairy farmers was nationally understood and well earned. Not as well known is the fact that the 15 miles of railroad from Middletown to Unionville produced more milk per mile than any other railroad in the United States. More than any other city in the United States, New York City always benefited from the close proximity of dairy farms. Of the railroads that served the city, four companies hauled a lions share of all the milk into this market. The Erie Railroad was the first to handle milk by rail and always had a strong business because of its sprawling lines into Pennsylvania and through Orange County. The O&W had a similar strong showing due to its rural character and its connections into the New York City area. The DL&W in New Jersey served a similar function as the O&W in New York by tapping into the more rural parts of the state. The S&W was the smallest of the four lines and in total carried less but because of the 15 miles of Middletown Unionville and Water Gap Railroad that it leased until 1913, it averaged out to be the largest carrier per mile.

	40 quart cans	total miles	cans per mile	quarts per mile
Erie	1,538,676.00	998.00	1,541.76	61,670.38
O&W	1,430,459.00	324.00	14,415.00	176,599.88
S&W(MU&WG)	657,230.00	88.80	7,401.24	296,049.55

The impressive amount of milk the NYS&W moved in 1896 in relation to its size can be easily seen in this graph. The S&W carried less than half compared to the Erie and O&W but because the mainline run of the S&W was 88.8 miles from Middletown to Jersey City, the average number of cans per mile and quarts per mile surpassed the others. A vast majority of the milk that the S&W carried was from the fifteen miles of MU&WG that it leased. This fact appeared several times in Lucas’ book on the history of the NYS&W. I included the rest of the 73.2 miles of the S&W to keep the numbers fair with the other railroads’ main line lengths.

	40 quart cans	total miles	cans per mile	quarts per mile
Erie	16,750,000.00	998.00	16,783.57	671,342.69
O&W	16,750,000.00	324.00	51,697.53	2,067,901.23
S&W(MU&WG)	7,500,000.00	88.80	84,459.46	3,378,378.38
DL&W	16,750,000.00	319.15	52,483.16	2,099,326.34

The incredible increase in the amount of milk shipped into the New York Metropolitan area is clearly evident when comparing the 1896 figures with the 1900 figures. All the railroads experienced incredible growth but the S&W which leased the MU&WG, still won hands down in cans and quarts per mile at over three million.

As a check on the MU&WG’s portion of the S&W numbers, an investigation was launched to find the earliest M&U milk traffic numbers. This would show only the milk coming from the 15 miles between Middletown and Unionville and would therefore act as a type of control for the 1896 and 1900 numbers. The earliest M&U data found was from 1928 in which the M&U transported 13,260,017 gallons of milk. This translates into 53,040,068 quarts of milk for the year. Divided by the 15 miles of the M&U, gives us 3,536,004.5 quarts of milk per mile of railroad for the year 1928. This proves that the MU&WG portion of the NYS&W could have easily been responsible for a vast percentage of the NYS&W’s entire 3,378,378.38 quarts per mile average in 1900.

	40 quart cans	total miles	cans per mile	quarts per mile
O&W	4,069, 767.44	324.00	12,561.01	502,440.42
M&U	563,458.70	15.00	37,563.91	1,502,556.53

This last comparison is between the O&W and M&U alone because these were the only two roads I had figures for covering this year. Again the M&U can still boast a healthy lead over its class one neighbor in the per mile averages. This is only six years from the total demise of milk traffic on the M&U.