Hi friends,

On Saturday @ 2pm I will be presenting a session on milk trains and PRR milk ops
at the Railroad Museum of PA in Strasburg as part of the Pennsy days weekend.

It is not going to be the end-all be-all research project. Instead, I am looking
at it as a kick-off to further the great work folks like John Greene have
already done and to raise interest in awareness of the PRR as a milk road -- and
not just on the eastern portion of the system.

The PRR is RARELY considered among the milk railroads or the anthracite railroads (my two passions) but it played a significant role in both. Unlike other major milk players, the PRR never had "milk cars" of their own per se, though they did build express reefers designed for milk service among other things. And unlike the roads we think of as "milk roads" the PRR was not focused on one city (the other big milk players focused mostly on New York or Boston). The PRR had milk service throughout the system to big cities and medium sized burgs - and they weren't always the short or medium haul we think of. For instance, one regular car route to Brooklyn started 500 miles away in western New York state.

Most of the PRR material I have uncovered deals with the the can service era (pre-tank cars) and that will be the focus of the material presented, though we will will discuss tank-era trains as well.

Among the topics begging more research are milk trains on the New York & Long Branch, operations around St. Louis and those within the Chicago milkshed.

I hope that the Yahoo MilkTrains group will become the focal point of the discussion going forward and that it
will encourage similar ideas around less-studied topics (like Chicago area milk ops).

If you are around Strasburg, stop by and say Hi!

Rob