Nostalgia & History > Menlo, Kansas - UP's Plainville branch

This is train 186 stopping in Menlo, Kansas on Union Pacific's Plainville branch. UP 1193 is an Alco S-4, dating this slide somewhere from 1956-1971. Gene Lonnon, UP engineer, was the photographer. He told me that the majority of this rather impressive train was lumber. Apparently, lumber mills would ship out cars of lumber without the wood being sold, these freight cars would slowly roam the UP network until the lumber was purchased. I had never heard of cars being shipped without a consignee. This unusual move was why Gene took the photo.

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Wow.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice shot, impressive train for a pair of switchers.
JB

That was hold lumber, which was set out on line or at a yard until the lumber was sold. The Mop used have it come in from Pueblo off the DRG&W and they would have three tracks of it at Osawatomie. I wasn't aware that the UP was getting any of it at Denver. Alco RSC 2's used to show up on the Mc Pherson Branch in the early 60's and I have been told the Alco S-4's did as well ,but I can't say I have ever seen a photo of them on the Mc Pherson Branch So if they were on the Plainville Branch I am sure they found their way down to Mc Pherson. Any idea how many cars the rain had that day?

No consignee shipments (actually , most of them had a "blind" consignee on the bills of lading) happened a LOT in the rail carload business and also in the trucking business. I have been involved in several of BOTH types in my shipping career.

My contacts in the trucking industry tell me it still happens sometimes......

Keith Turley
Monrovia, California

> That was hold lumber, which was set out on line or
> at a yard until the lumber was sold.

> I wasn't aware that the UP was getting any of it
> at Denver.

Hello,

I believe most of that lumber would have come via Green River - Laramie - Denver then east on the KP.

At least in UP's case, I don't think it would have been intentionally "held" anywhere. Instead, it was just routed on a very circuitous route by the shipper, such as via Denver & the Plainville Branch in Kansas. That gave the brokers extra time to sell the "rolling inventory". If it actually reached its (temporary billing) "destination" and stopped somewhere, I believe the shipments were subject to demurrage charges, something they'd have tried to avoid.

Take care,

Mark

Priceless shot. We used to switch lumber up and down the Solomon Branch. Toward the end, there was so few that they stored them at Solomon.
Regular duty for the westbound Junction City Local was "Boxin the Boards" at Solomon as they got sold.
Gene was a prince of a fellow. I piloted him from Ellis to Salina and he me west of Ellis to Oakley when we started running through Ellis
in late 78.

Thanks for sharing this.

Bob Helling.
PRose

The diversion point in the UP lumber tariff was Beloit, KS, located at the end of the Solomon Branch.

Lumber and plywood purchased and shipped by wholesalers would be routed from origin to Beloit "for furtherance" pending sale to a retail account. In the early years, as Mark says, the lumber would get on a Denver manifest, then be hauled east on the KP from Denver. Evidently in this case they ran some via the Plainville Branch to kill time.

However, in the 1970s, if I recall correctly, the Beloit diversion cars were routed to North Platte and then down to Salina, if not diverted by the shipper first.

Wholesalers existed as long as there were many small and/or ignorant retail customers. As retailing consolidated into large chains and even nation-wide chains, the wholesalers were put out of a job, and lumber diversion points faded away, like the decline Bob witnessed on the Solomon Branch.

Great photo, thanks for posting.

Best regards,

Rob L.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/13 16:30 by rob_l.

That is a super shot. Those 1100s could lug 90 cars easily---not at any kind of speed though, but they could control the train just fine. Solomon Branch was used for lumber storage at great lengths also. Thanks for sharing this.
Brian Stevens

mamfahr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > That was hold lumber, which was set out on line
> or
> > at a yard until the lumber was sold.
>
> > I wasn't aware that the UP was getting any of
> it
> > at Denver.
>
> Hello,
>
> I believe most of that lumber would have come via
> Green River - Laramie - Denver then east on the
> KP.
>
> At least in UP's case, I don't think it would have
> been intentionally "held" anywhere. Instead, it
> was just routed on a very circuitous route by the
> shipper, such as via Denver & the Plainville
> Branch in Kansas. That gave the brokers extra
> time to sell the "rolling inventory". If it
> actually reached its (temporary billing)
> "destination" and stopped somewhere, I believe the
> shipments were subject to demurrage charges,
> something they'd have tried to avoid.
>
> Take care,
>
> Mark


I suppose the UP might have called it something else, but the Mop called it "Hold Lumber". The PS and PSC trains usually set out 20+ cars of it a day and it was held there until it was diverted to a buyer. One lumber yard in Topeka comes to mind and a couple in the KC area. Seems like the hold lumber had pretty well vanished by the early 80's

love it ... reminds me of the PRSL Baldwin end cab switchers that would lug 60-70 cars on local freights here in south jersey ... a lone Baldwin yard switcher could lug 50 cars with no problem

Great shot and thanks for sharing with us!

I watched may 1100's struggle with 30 car cuts in Omaha/Council Bluffs yards. I can't imagine one of them working a 90 car cut, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. My experience was only that of an observer, not an employee!

John Bush
Omaha

Held for furtherance lumber was still going on as of ten years ago, but may not be any more. I'll check up on that.

The most recent process was to forward it to Klamath Falls, where it would get a diversion to the new buyer.

WOW!!

More Plainville branch pictures please!

"Roller lumber" is what I heard it called. It just rolled around on the longest route in order to give the seller/broker a chance for a better market. When the market improved or the cars got to the diversion point, the owner had to rebill it to a final destination. Places like Oakes, ND and the Michigan car ferries were used as junctions and routes since they took such a long time. In the days before derugulation, each railroad in the route got a division and the business added density to operations that desperately needed it, and the shippers used diversion ability to differentiate between routes ("you want my business, put three free diversions in your tariff").

Industry changes away from small independent lumber yards and middlemen, rail degregulation, mergers, increased charges for unneccessary services (turning cars, weighing cars, diversions, inspection stops, transit privileges, manual waybills, etc.) and electronic systems eliminated the ability, need, and desire for this kind of grossly inefficient activity. Thank god.

Although I would kiss my sister to see this train, or any train on the Plainville branch today.....

Thanks to all for the informative responses. I learn something new everyday on Trainorders.

A major traffic source for the Roscoe Snyder and Pacific in Texas was diversion lumber moving both ways between the Santa Fe at Sweetwater and the T & P at Roscoe.

After quick fix w/ Photoshop...

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JamesJay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WOW!!
>
> More Plainville branch pictures please!
>
> "Roller lumber" is what I heard it called. It
> just rolled around on the longest route in order
> to give the seller/broker a chance for a better
> market.,

The D&RGW got  "rollers" off the SP.  On the wheel report  there was a note on the consignee line that a waybill was needed since no one knew where it would wind up.  Often handed off to the connections  still as a "roller".   Never dreamed they'd use the Plainville Branch for this purpose. Thanks for all the info!

A tidbit from the Plainview Branch: the track runs through the town of Codell, Kansas, which has the distinction of being hit by tornadoes on May 20, 1916, 1917 and 1918.

And, on the 100th anniversary of the 1918 strike (the worst of the three) the town was in a tornado watch -- but not tornado hit on that day.