I was asked a question about the movement of silk trains. Can anyone give me a citation for an article on this subject.

Were they carrying bales of finished silk?

Or were they carrying the cacoons that the animals made?

The Western Pacific Railroad had cargos of silk here in San Francisco. Which of the above would it have been?

Were special cars used to carry what was apparantly a high value cargo. If so what kind?

Thanks for your help!


Ted Miles

I'm sure it was Railroad mag. that claimed it was cocoons in baggage or express cars. Because of the high value, the railroads wanted to get rid of the train as fast as possible and transfer the liability for theft to the receiver or connecting road. That's why they used cars equipped to move at passenger train speeds.

A thread on the CPRR discussion list has some info on silk trains - they say that it was in raw skeins, not as cocoons.

http://cprr.org/CPRR_Discussion_Group/2005/05/silk-trade-trains.html

Another interesting one:
http://www.treenwaysilks.com/secrets_silk.html

In doing a little bit of research for this topic, I ran across a 17-page scholarly article that was published in the Minnesota Historical Society's magazine Minnesota History.

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/54/v54i01p016-031.pdf

It is interesting to note the thought processes of businessmen and global economics even back in the early 20th century. The article talks about James J. Hill and his interest in the Chinese and Asian market (acknowledging that a third of the world's population resided there at the time). International business is nothing new, and the idea of outsourcing has been around for centuries (e.g. the original purpose for the triangle trade network and settlement of America: money*).

Of different interest is the "old time" story I heard from Steve Sandberg about Milwaukee Road 261.

Steve said that an elderly man came up to him in the early days of 261's second career, bringing with him a story about the 261 and silk trains. Apparently some time after the Second World War, 261 was called up to run a rare silk train from Omaha to some point East. Out of Omaha is a long, straight, downhill set of tracks.

According to the story, which was told by the fireman of that run, as soon as the train had cleared the yard, the engineer opened the throttle all the way "to the roof" and the train rocketed downhill. Instead of using the train's brakes, that engineer decided to let a form of "engine braking" work... once the train met its maximum mechanical speed, limited by the admission of steam into the valves and cylinders at a high speed, the train would not go any faster (on account of the light train).

The locomotive climbed above 90...95...100 miles per hour as it raced downgrade with its precious cargo. It finally peaked at 104 miles per hour, and would not go any faster. The crew had their permission to go as fast as safely possible, and fast they went.

Whether or not the Milwaukee Road was still running silk trains in the 1940's is beyond me, but I could certainly believe that 261 would peak out just above 100 miles per hour.

Train lore or not, its interesting to entertain the thought.


*It is understood that the puritans came over in 1620 to seek "religious freedom," but it is evident that financial incentives were the driving force behind all trans-Atlantic travel and development.