Distillery

[sailormatlac]

It is my understanding from reading various MR articles that Canadian railroads continued to use boxcars for grain service far later than in the US due to the gross load limits imposed on Granger lines from having used lighter rail during construction.
The problem then became one of the cost of rail replacement versus the possible revenue to be generated by infrequently used line versus truck competition.
I think the reference article comes from one of the Industries you can Model books.
Hope this helps.
Mark

Mark, I'm well aware of those boxcars that survived late into the 80s (some into 90s). Most of them were also rebuilt with government subsidies, making it even more interesting for these light rail branchline. You don't upgrade the line and get bucks from the federal, a nice deal! ;-)

I should reformulate my question: Was it "common" to see covered hoppers haul grain on CNR in late 1950s? Lots of boxcars were in use from elevators to elevators, that's a given. Was it the same for "alimentary" purpose like a distillery?

Pictures of QRL&PCo after the de-electrification in 1959 are rare, the same for freight trains of the previous era (photographs and historians of the time where much more interested in passenger electric trains). Thus, I have to guess what would have been a normal freight train on this line.

Matt