Thursday, June 19, 2014

Freight Statistics I--1945 California

Santa Fe carried a lot of freight for the war effort.  It's annual report to the California Railroad Commission documented that effort in the amount of carloads and tons of freight carried.  The table below is a summary of freight handled by the Santa Fe in California during 1945.  Within the borders of the Golden State, Santa Fe handled a whopping 721,392 cars of carload freight.  Of this total, 40% originated on the Santa Fe within California.  They received an unknown portion of their traffic from other carriers originating in state and a good portion from out of state sources.  They terminated 60% of their traffic on line in California handing off the other 40% to other carriers or moving it east themselves.  

ATSF California State Commodity Summary 1945

1945
California in state statistics, ATSF
Originating on line
Other freight carried
Total freight carried
Terminating on line
Class
Commodity
Carloads
Tons
Carloads
Tons
Carloads
Tons
Carloads
Tons
800
TOTAL. Products of Agriculture
103414
2365067
32494
974161
135908
3339228
35186
1082122
810
TOTAL ANIMALS AND PRODUCTS
5472
130414
23562
378747
29034
509161
21803
357684
820
TOTAL PRODUCTS OF MINES
24297
1262770
46299
2231025
70596
3493795
52990
2787305
830
TOTAL PRODUCTS OF FORESTS
2254
71183
21905
761133
24159
832316
19424
677114
840
TOTAL MANUFACTURES AND MISCELLANEOUS
153479
4646817
308216
7951428
461695
1.3E+07
301187
7955216
850
GRA.ND TOTAL, CARLOAD TRAFIC
288916
8476251
432476
1.2E+07
721392
2.1E+07
430590
1.3E+07
710
All L. C. L. freight

115779

89031
0
204810

133870
850
GRA.ND TOTAL, CARLOAD AND L. C. L. TRAFIC
288916
8592030
432476
1.2E+07
721392
2.1E+07
430590
1.3E+07
701A
Forwarder traffic included in Class 701
2135
36771
29404
442229
31539
479000
28488
435939
Source:  1945 ATSF Annual Report to CA RR Commision, CA State Archives

These are enormous numbers.  Lets take a look at the daily averages so we can begin to understand the magnitude of the traffic.  Not accounting for weekends and holidays, there was a war on, the daily volume in California was shown below:

ATSF Average Daily California Car Loadings

1945
California in state statistics, ATSF

Cars per Day

To others/

Class
Commodity
Originated
Others Ca
Tot Carried
Terminated
out of CA
% off/out
800
TOTAL. Products of Agriculture
283.3
89.0
372.4
96.4
276.0
74.11%
810
TOTAL ANIMALS AND PRODUCTS
15.0
64.6
79.5
59.7
19.8
24.91%
820
TOTAL PRODUCTS OF MINES
66.6
126.8
193.4
145.2
48.2
24.94%
830
TOTAL PRODUCTS OF FORESTS
6.2
60.0
66.2
53.2
13.0
19.60%
840
TOTAL MANUFACTURES AND MISCELLANEOUS
420.5
844.4
1264.9
825.2
439.7
34.76%
850
GRA.ND TOTAL, CARLOAD TRAFIC
791.6
1184.9
1976.4
1179.7
796.7
40.31%
701A
Forwarder traffic included in Class 701
5.8
80.6
86.4
78.0
8.4
9.67%


Some of these numbers scale out well for an ops session.  Forwarder traffic originated in two main centers, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Dividing the traffic evenly between them means that it is reasonable to have 1-3 cars per day loaded at the forwarding companies.  Others are not so easy.  The Agricultural Products are well known, Potatoes from the Central Valley north of Bakersfield made up most of the 20,152 car loads originated.  Santa Fe carried an additional 3414 cars of potatoes, but only terminated 6326 in state.  Most moved to eastern markets in GFX blocks.  This was an average of 55 cars a day over the year, but that's not how they shipped.  In the month or two of the spud rush, the entire crop moved to California users and out of state customers.  Citrus was similar with a longer season, with the majority moving east.  Hogs moved in the other direction, with none originating in California during the year and 5.8 cars a day terminating little piggies at CA destinations for the dining pleasure of Californians.  Logs were insignificant with less than 30 cars handled over the entire year.  Lumber, big through traffic with 34 cars terminating each day, 4 originating, and 39 coming from other carriers or out of state.  One example was a car originating on the California Western, shipped over the NWP to Tiberon, Santa Fe to San Diego for delivery to a customer on the San Diego and Arizona Eastern.  Knocked down autos and trucks were also significant with 2.4 cars per day originating and 17.4 terminating in state of the 27.2 carried every day.  This is not surprising, given that many trucks were crated for shipment overseas and several of the depots were served by the SP and PE.  One other commodity directly related to the war effort shows up for the first time since 1941, explosives.  Santa Fe carried 39.1 cars each day in 1945, originating 10.2 and terminating 12.3 cars while handing off or moving out of state 26.9 cars.   Given the interchange to the Government RR at Port Chicago, a major munitions loading point, this traffic is another must for my modeling.  A number of the originations would have come from the Hercules Powder Company near Pinole.  

More in the future.

John Barry
Cameron Park, CA
19 June 2014

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