They would have to be considered as one of the first "unit" trains as they
met all of the criteria even though that definition was not set out until
many years later. One cargo, one origin, one destination. And they ran fast
and direct, in fact they had priority over passenger trains. The trains were
waiting at the docks with crew on board and fully fuelled and watered and
they were all ready unloading the ship and loading the railcars while the
ship was still in the process of docking.
Doug
So the Silkers would be disqualified why? They didn't reblock, setout or
pickup en route as that would all take too much time. And what other cargos
did they carry? Near as I've been told, the Silk Trains were nothing but
Silk.
Or are you thinking that because they didn't always use the exact same
reefers/boxcars/whatever that they're disqualified?
Jon
On 2013-11-05, at 6:15 PM, Roger T. wrote:
-----Would the Silk trains the CPR carried be considered a Unit trainsince
the cargo, origin and destination points were the same? These were
extremely fast freights without switching en route, and IIRC, always
destined for New York via Prescott, Ontario...
Cheers,
Jon
