1918 piggyback

hankmorris · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2003 10:01 pm

According to H. Roger Grant's book on CGW, The Corn Belt Route, in 1918, the Midland Continental RR (North Dakota) carried a fully loaded commercial vehicle. A harbinger of piggyback service.
Does anybody have more information on this historic event?
Hank Morris

hankmorris@earthlink.net

T.J. Gaffney · **Posted:** Fri Apr 04, 2003 11:18 am

> According to H. Roger Grant's book on CGW,
> The Corn Belt Route, in 1918, the Midland
> Continental RR (North Dakota) carried a
> fully loaded commercial vehicle. A harbinger
> of piggyback service.
> Does anybody have more information on this
> historic event?
> Hank Morris

My guess is that Dr. Grant would have that information. You can contact him at ggrant@clemson.edu. He was one my professors a few years back, and is a real nice guy, and I'm sure happy to help. I haven't talked to him in a while, but I think he is currently writing a book on the Wabash. If you talk to him, please say hello for me.

TJG

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Fred Ash · **Posted:** Fri Apr 04, 2003 2:51 pm

To "really be a piggy-back movement," rather than just a load-on-a-flatcar, it had to have a unique tariff. I assume the Midland Continental move was intra-state, so a review of the North Dakota Commerce Commision records could turn up something. In the case of the CGW, the trucker who came to the railroad with the idea, Harry Chaddick, stated in his biography that, "We tore the cover off of an existing railroad tarrif and typed out a new "freight all-kinds hauled in truck trailers" title on a new cover." Previously, I beleive the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee had a very distinct tarriff for its Truck-Ferry service. The New Haven used or at least tested the North Shore's system and I assume they also had a unique rate.

According to H. Roger Grant's book on CGW,
> The Corn Belt Route, in 1918, the Midland
> Continental RR (North Dakota) carried a
> fully loaded commercial vehicle. A harbinger
> of piggyback service.
> Does anybody have more information on this
> historic event?

fred_ash@bankone.com

hankmorris · **Posted:** Sun Apr 06, 2003 12:20 am

> I assume the Midland Continental
> move was intra-state, so a review of the
> North Dakota Commerce Commision records
> could turn up something.

Good thought. Such records may provide rate structures, even names of principal players, but can one really derive the "story" of this event?

hankmorris@earthlink.net