Shippers: Lawrence Warehouse Co. Richmond CA

The Valley Division Third and Oakland Districts were and remain home to a diverse cross section of industrial America ranging from steel mills auto plants and oil refineries to small machine shops.  They were also one of Santa Fe’s gateways to the Pacific.

I’ve just spent a couple days doing research at the regional office of the National Archives in San Bruno, CA.  Here is some of what I learned so far from looking at their holdings. RG129 are the records of the Office of Defense Transportation, and I was looking at the regional files of the Liquids Transport Department and what follows is gleaned from those files.  More information is held in the main archive sites in College Park, MD  but I am here in CA.

During WWII, you would think that all of the shipping traffic was to support the US drive across the Pacific to defeat Japan, and most of that traffic was.  But there remained a component of coastal shipping that operated along the Pacific coast and rivers to move bulk traffic.  But there was a third component, trade with our Allies and neutral countries.  Lawrence Warehouse Company with a tank farm in Richmond’s inner harbor area was engaged in that little known third area.  What’s more, the trade they engaged in was with the Russians using Soviet flagged tankers.  When you thought of trade with the Soviets during WWII, you thought of large convoys from the eastern seaboard battling through German attempts to interdict them on their way to Murmansk or Archangel.  Or through the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf and by rail across what would become Iran.  But Russian tankers called at Richmond in San Francisco Bay to load alcohol.  Vessels that I’ve seen identified include the Stalin and the Sakhalin.  I’ve not yet identified their Russian destinations, but I am speculating that their neutrality with Japan allowed them to use Vladivostok at the eastern end of the trans-Siberian railway.  All of that is background as to why Lawrence Warehouse was receiving and stockpiling hundreds of thousands gallons of alcohol shipped to them in rail cars.  The SP as well as the ATSF served them directly and gave them options for on-line shipping.  The alcohol was owned by the Defense Supply Corporation or DSC.  I THINK that was a government agency set up for the war effort.  I also THINK that they provided the alcohol to the Russians under the Lend-Lease program. 

But what have I found that relates to modeling the Santa Fe?  The Lawrence Warehouse Co. received alcohol from the following shippers using the routings listed.  Note that United Distilleries shipped cars for both SP and ATSF delivery. 

Shipper	Origin	Routing	Commodity
American Distilling Co.	Pekin, Ill.	ATSF	Alcohol
B.C. Distillery Co	New Westminster, B. C.	GN Bieber WP Skn ATSF	Alcohol
Farm Crops Processing Co.	Omaha, Neb.	CB&Q Den DRGW SLC WP Skn ATSF	Alcohol
Hedgeside Distilling Co.	Napa, Cal.	SP	Alcohol
Lac Chemicals	Culver City, Cal.	PE SP	Alcohol
Puget Sound Pulp & Timber Co	Bellingham Wash	GN Bieber WP Skn ATSF	Alcohol
United Distilleries Ltd.	Marpole, B. C.	V&LI New Westminster BC ELECTRIC Sumas NP Portland SP Skn ATSF	Alcohol
United Distilleries Ltd.	Marpole, B. C.	V&LI New Westminster BC ELECTRIC Sumas NP Portland SP	Alcohol

And this is where they sent their empties:

Consignee	Destination	Routing	Commodity
Humble Oil Refining Corp.	Baytown, Tex.	ATSF Hou MP	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Puget Sound Pulp & Timber Co	Bellingham Wash	ATSF Skn WP Bieber GN	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Lac Chemicals	Culver City, Cal.	SP PE	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Humble Oil Refinery	Johnsue, Tex.	ATSF Temple MKT	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
United Distilleries Ltd.	Marpole, B. C.	SP Portland NP Sumas BC ELECTRIC New Westminster V&LI	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
United Distilleries Ltd.	Marpole, B. C.	ATSF Skn SP Portland NP Sumas BC ELECTRIC V&LI	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Hedgeside Distilling Co.	Napa, Cal.	SP	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
B.C. Distillery Co	New Westminster, B. C.	ATSF Skn WP Bieber GN	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
El Dorado Oil Works	Oakland, Cal.	SP	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Farm Crops Processing Co.	Omaha, Neb.	ATSF Skn WP SLC DRGW Den CB&Q	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Western Vegetable  Oil Co.	Outer Harbor, Oakland, Cal.	SP	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
American Distilling Co.	Pekin, Ill.	ATSF	Mty for loading LCN alcohol
Derby Oil Co	Wichita, Kan	ATSF	Mty for loading LCN alcohol

Why aren’t the shippers and consignees balanced?  Because cars got diverted out of alcohol service to ship other commodities.  And this is not a complete list either as I have not fully reviewed today’s data haul and Lawrence Warehouse might have handled other commodities as well and the records are arranged not by shipper but by commodity and I’ve only looked at three of ten boxes.  Many of the cars used for the start of the Pacific Northwest service had been diverted from Aviation Gasoline service to Richmond Beach, Washington in early 1945 and needed to be returned to their lessor, Derby Oil, for that purpose as other cars filled in. 


More when I have looked at the rest of the data.

John Barry