Canton RR Customer - Carbon Black User ca. 1967

[SAH]

I found this waybill during my last trip to the University of Akron to search the AC&Y Archives.  Given the geographical tilt of this list I thought some folks might find it interesting and perhaps could answer a few questions my finding it has generated.



The WITX reporting marks, the destination in New Mexico and the hint "Last Contents Carbon Black" jive with documentation I found on line regarding  the location of a Continental Carbon plant.  The Shipper is Western Electric.  Did the Canton RR serve Western Electric and if so, did the plant make black plastic or rubber parts?

Penn Mary Jct is the Canton RR interchange with the B&O, correct?  It appears the car began it's journey on the B&O at Camden Yards, pre-baseball stadium of course.   The routing to get to New Mexico is most interesting:  B&O, AC&Y, N&W (what would have been NKP pre 1964), Alton & Southern, MP and TP.

There is a stack of 1967 waybills in the archives feeding what is threatening to become a hobby within a hobby.  What I've found has already informed my operating scheme and added a wrinkle or two I'd never have guessed.

What do you think Canton RR fans - Am I reading the origin data correctly?

Steve

[mmyers]

My father used to tell me of the Carbon Black room when he worked for Western Electric in Baltimore. He started there right after WW2 and from his description that was the entry position at the plant. Large sacks of carbon black would be dumped into a hopper by the guys in that room. It was the color for the insulation on the cable being manufactured. I recall him telling me they had their own shower area due to the amount of black powder that had to be washed off after each shift.

Martin Myers

[OldEastRR]

Where's the car type designation on the bill?

[Chris333]

Akron must have used a bunch of carbon black to make tires.

[SAH]

I can understand how the carbon black dumping operation would have been an entry level position Martin.  DIRTY work.  Carbon black is a close cousin to lamp black or soot, but flows like water when it gets free of it's container and becomes airborne easily.  It gives rubber the abrasive resistant quality needed for tires and, wire insulation of course.  It is shipped in bulk (special designed covered hoppers in the case of WITX 4013) or bagged in box cars your father probably unloaded.

Yes, Akron was the destination for thousands of carbon black loads per year, both in hoppers and box cars.  Nearly every AC&Y freight had at least one carbon black load in the consist.  The result of my AC&Y research a few years back was an article I wrote for the AC&YHS Newsletter describing the carbon black manufacturing, shipping (as in RR routes to Akron) and unloading process.  Hence my interest is piqued whenever I see a carbon black load pop up during my searches.

[Blazeman]

The Western Electric traffic manager would have had dozens of possible routes to move the car out to NM. Hence while the simplest route would have been B&O or PRR to ESTL/A&S, the manger opted to reward N&W and ACY for their efforts in other opportunities. They may have helped with another rate matter, or assigned cars for movements with modifications, or even as a favor for tickets to a Colts game.

Routing guides, before the onset of mergers in the 70's were Manhattan phone book size volumes involving almost every RR possible wanting to get a piece of the revenue pie. Revenue divisions were skewed to favor the western carriers, so the eastern lines would divvy a shorter division among several while the western lines were able to retain all of their share for the most part.

If you come across a routing guide at a memorabilia event, especially one dated in the 50's, take a quick look and you'll come away amazed at the routes possible and all the interchange points.

[thomasjmdavis]

Just a guess, but I would hypothesize that carbon black would have found its way into a lot of bakelite (or more properly baekelite, after its inventor Baekeland) which was a material commonly used in electrical devices for insulating blocks and mounting of various components, and also for any sort of molded "plastic" item, such as the exterior parts of a telephone.  Probably on its way out by 1967, at least for telephone parts, but no doubt still has its uses today.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@mmyers , do you know when that plant closed?

[wm3798]

http://www.dundalkeagle.com/spotlight/western-electric-power-plant-slated-for-demolition/article_e25b0760-6035-534c-89db-6e85c319ee66.html

According to the Dundalk Eagle (my former nemesis when I was editor of the East Baltimore GUIDE) it was shuttered in 1984.  When AT&T was broken up, the operation there became superfluous.

This vintage map shows the plant being served by the Canton.
https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/32618/Canton%20Company%20of%20Baltimore%20Canton%20Railroad%20Company.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

In case the links don't work, Mr. Google can find them both for you pretty quickly.

Lee

[Mark5]

Continental Carbon sure likes to renumber their cars! 

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/other_cars/witx_cars/index.htm

Mark

[SAH]

My AC&Y history mentor, who retired from the customer service end of the Norfolk Southern, explains car routing exactly as Blazeman did.  Many, many factors went into the selected route, not the least of which might be Colts tickets, fine dining, special Christmas gifts, you name it, especially back in the '60s time frame.

Since the car is empty, I suspect it is returning per the reverse service route, common for specialty cars like carbon black hoppers.  And pure conjecture suggests that since so many Continental Carbon loads went AC&Y Akron to Goodyear and General Tire the CCCX traffic manager knew the AC&Y salesman well and was passing on a little extra business to his buddy, even though it was not a terminating load.

Eric Neubauer (I think that is the spelling) did a freight car monograph dedicated to carbon black cars several years back.  As companies merged and fell away many cars had different reporting  marks since specialized rolling stock tended to have a long service life.

I noted in the back of the last RMC Scale Trains is advertising N scale 4727cf and 5750cf carbon black hoppers.  Too modern for an early 60's era layout but a welcome addition to the N scale line up.

[tom mann]

Is this something @scaletrains would be interested in seeing?

[Philip H]

Is this something @scaletrains would be interested in seeing?

Duh!

On a slightly related tack - anyone got any good close-up photos of modern Carbon Black loading equipment?  Mr. Google only gave me pictures of entire plants, and so I don't actually know how these are loaded.

[SAH]

Here's a 1970s era photo Philip.  Not "modern" but the elements are the same - gobs of duct collection equipment to catch vent stream particulates.

I read the Pittsburgh convention posts about Scale Trains being disappointed with pre-orders after I posted my mention of the new cars last night.  I would be disappointed too.  If you model traffic out of TX or LA (where the bulk of CB producers are located) or have a tire plant anywhere on your road's system you will find there cars in your train.  They're everywhere but don't stand out anymore because other covered hoppers are so large.  During the steam and transition era these cars were giants.   Even today they provide a good contrast to the endless stings of coal hoppers, intermodal and grain trains.

[Philip H]

So basically loading is a drive under and open the chute sort of thing?

I agree those hoppers are more common then one expects - I see them in nearly every mixed freight going both ways down here on the Coast.