A question on car loading.

[FCIN]

I hate to get picky here, but since you guys are talking about it...railroads do not pay per diem (per day). Generally customers pay demurrage by the day. Railroads pay car hire which is by the hour (...)

In my day on the L&N, 1970's, what is now called car hire was simply called per diem although I think it was still computed by the hour, but thank goodness it wasn't something I had to worry about other than getting cars moved as quickly as possible. You've obviously been involved in all this stuff more recently than I have so appreciate the info.

On the other hand demurrage charges were a pain in the neck and back then the charge was only $7.00 a day whereas now days it looks to be around $60.00 per day! The way my customers squealed if they had to pay that $7 charge, I'd hate to have to deal with them now!

And I completely forgot about the mileage charges. I often have to really reach back into the memory banks to remember a lot of this stuff - I hated working as an agent which ultimately lead me back to the short line scene and back to being conductor and engineer. Money isn't everything!