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Undated photograph by R. Eggleson, collection of Doug Nighswonger
A Singular
thing: WWV's rolling stock
Dieselization of the WWV in 1950 was not without its difficulties. Among
them, what to do with the less-than-carload-lot (LCL) packages the railroad
carried? Back then, LCL delivered to your local railroad depot was the
equivalent of today's United Parcel Service. The railroad handled everything
from boxes of paper clips for the local business supply store to empty
coffins, chickens, children's toys--you name it, it came by rail. By the
beginning of the 1950s, such business was in decline as truck delivery
services began to dominate, but on large railroads and small--and on the
WWV--the business remained.
With the retirement of the
electrics in 1950, LCL traffic which formerly rode aboard the converted
passenger motors no longer had a reliable ride each day. The WWV was forced
to handle shipments in available empty boxcars--and when these weren't
available, the packages were placed on the running boards of the diesel
locomotives, a practice the local ICC inspector ordered stopped.
In April 1951, WWV general manager
D. L. Carlson wrote his superiors at Northern Pacific requesting lease of an
out of service boxcar or refrigerator car for the exclusive use in LCL
service on the WWV. "The movement of these shipments was handled inside of
the electric locomotives where there was plenty of room, but such is
not the case with the diesels and so poses a problem for us."
The NP leased WWV 40-foot
refrigerator car 90519, built in the 1920s and made surplus by a large fleet
of new steel cars. NP charged the railroad $.50 a day to use the car from
May 6 to June 27, when WWV purchased the car outright for $1005--minus the
$26.50 it had already paid in lease fees. The car was repainted--apparently
in the same "Union Blue" the new diesels wore--and given both the "flying" WWV road name introduced
on the Alco diesels the year before and a circular logo that somewhat resembled a
Pepsi-Cola emblem. It was WWV's only piece of rolling stock during the
diesel era.
Apparently, the car's use on the
WWV was short-lived. General Manager Ed Schneidmiller wrote in April
1959 that "the last time I used the car here was in ice service between
Milton and General Foods at Walla Walla, several years ago. It has not
proven satisfactory or practical to use for LCL because, generally, an empty
box car is available for this service and has proven to be more convenient
in handling." The four-foot doors of the reefer also hindered the handling
of large boxes.
The car was dismantled at South
Tacoma shops on September 15, 1959, netting WWV $447.96 in credit. |
