When Southern Railway designed and built the "Big Boy" box car and assigned it the mission of bringing tobacco traffic back to the rails, the prediction was that shippers of other lightweight, bulky commodities would also take an active interest in the car's possibilities for them.
The prediction has become fact and "Big Boy" cars believed to be the biggest railroad cars now in use for general freight service are ranging far and wide, making money for Southern and showing how users in a variety of industries can cut their costs of transportation.
One of the reasons the "Big Boy" equipment can cut transportation costs was illustrated by a dramatic photograph in the June 8 issue of the nationally circulated magazine Business Week.
Used as the lead-off illustration for an article titled "Boxcars go to battle for Southern," the photo showed a "Big Boy" and a standard box car with the tobacco hogsheads that each can carry arranged alongside the cars.
There were 94 hogsheads alongside the "Big Boy ." There were only 36 alongside the standard car. The photo taken at an R. J. Reynolds Tobacco company warehouse near Winston-Salem, N.C. - made clear the meaning of what Southern President D. W. Brosnan meant when he told Business Week: "We're going to fight for the traffic that's rightfully ours and we're going to keep on fighting until we win ."
Will. It is this dynamic determination to create competition -not just meet it -which led to Southern Railway's development of the "Big Boy" car in the first place.
As Business Week relates it:
"Tobacco represents a typical example of what the Southern has done. It is, of course, one of the major crops grown in the Southern's territory .At one time it all went by rail, but bit by bit it switched to trucks as they grew bigger and more efficient, highways improved and truck rates came down.
"The first thing the Southern did was to research the market thoroughly. It asked questions such as: 'Where does the tobacco come from, where does it go, does it always travel in hogsheads, why did it go to trucks, was the service better, rates lower?'
"The Southern officials then had a roundtable discussion to see what they could do. The standard boxcar, they discovered, simply was not an economic vehicle for carrying hogsheads; it was too small, and too much time was required to load and unload the giant barrels. So the Southern designed an entirely new car with wide doors and such a cavernous interior that the road then had to put skylights in the roof to relieve the inky darkness.
"The final step in the process after building and testing the car and after discovering how significantly it reduced the Southern's handling costs was to reduce rates, As a result, the tobacco traffic is now coming back."
Southern's President Brosnan told Business Week magazine reporters that "We're going to fight for the traffic that's rightfully ours and we're going to keep on fighting until we win." |
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As the Business Week article then went on to note, Southern's "Big Boy" box car has entered the "fight for the traffic that's rightfully ours" on more than one front. Tobacco was only the beginning. And the end is nowhere in sight.
There is cotton.
Ten-foot-wide doors make for quick loading and unloading of the "Big Boy." In this case, mechanical handling equipment that was easily maneuvered through the doorway area allowed workmen to unload the 251 bales of cotton in about an hour. |
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A Southern "Big Boy" was switched into the Springs Cotton Mills warehouse at Fort Lawn, S.C., recently with 2.51 bales of California cotton.
Weighing 126,037 pounds, the bales were of a type called "gin standard." The accepted average for this kind of bale is 2 1/2 bales of cotton per acre. That meant 100 acres of cotton in one car.
This Southern "Big Boy'. brought 251 bales of California cotton to the Springs Cotton Mills warehouse, Fort Lawn. S. C. At standard averages, that's 100 acres of cotton in one car. |
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It was more than twice the amount of cotton that can be loaded into a standard car, which carries between 100 and 110 bales.
Springs Cotton Mills officials were on hand at arrival to see the good shape their freight was in when the doors were opened. |
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And the 10-foot-wide doorway allowed workmen to unload this greatly increased volume in the sharply reduced time of something like an hour . . . with time out for a soft drink.
In contrast to the hour it took to unload the 251 bales of cotton at Springs' Elliott warehouse, it took a receiver in New Orleans three days to unload a "Big Boy" full of General Electric home appliances. But the receiver Universal Furniture Company had it planned just that way.
Universal unloaded the car directly to customers in an old-fashioned "carload sale" that utilized the "Big Boy" as a showroom on wheels.
The three-day sale was the result of an idea formed in the mind of C. A. Moore, General Electric traffic manager at Appliance Park, Ky., in September, 1962.
At General Electric's Appliance Park, Ky., plant, the "Big Boy" assigned for a special movement of home appliances arrived with the standard-type car GE most commonly uses. GE officials came to see first-hand the striking comparison between the two cars. |
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That was when Moore visited Southern Railway's "tour train" while it was on display in Louisville. Of all the big cars on display, Moore was particularly struck by the size of one the "Big Boy."
GE normally does not ship enough appliances to anyone place at a given time to justify using the "Big Boy ." Shipments usually are made in standard box cars, which GE finds best suited to its rail needs. But Moore had seen visitors to the Louisville equipment display stand in awe at the dramatic appearance of the "Big Boy" car. He felt this appeal could be put to work for General Electric. Universal Furniture Company agreed that it could be mutually profitable.
Mechanical handling equipment quickly and easily loaded 200-plus GE appliances which were shipped into New Orleans for an old-fashioned "carload" sale. |
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So General Electric loaded more than 200 appliances ranging from refrigerators to garbage-disposals and sent the "Big Boy" to Universal in New Orleans. Universal attached banners to the car right where it sat on a team track, put up tents and opened for business. When the three-day weekend sale ended, only a few appliances remained unsold.
Universal Furniture Company in New Orleans held its three-day "carload" sale at Southern's team track. When the sale was done, only a few GE appliances remained to be taken to Universal's regular showrooms. |
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The shipment in the "Big Boy" car was, of course, more than a promotional stunt. Box cars are for hauling freight they aren't really intended to be salesrooms or warehouses. Primarily, the shipment was made so that General Electric could get answers to questions that shippers everywhere are asking themselves about the "Big Boy ."
Shippers want to know how they can best utilize the car's interior nearly 10,000 cubic feet of loading space in a car which measures almost 85 feet in length, 9 1/2 feet in width and nearly 12 feet in height at the center. They want to see how quickly their freight can be handled through the 10-foot-wide doors, which permit easy access for forklift-trucks and other mechanical handling equipment. They want to check for themselves how this easy, fast loading and unloading will save them time and handling costs. And they want to see how Southern's Super-Cushion underframe also saves shippers money through eliminating the need for expensive crating, bracing and blocking, and how it protects their freight en route for damage-free arrival.
They are also very interested in finding out how heavier loading in a single car, elimination of such things as paperwork and the reductions in cost that result from handling one car in place of two and sometimes three . . . how all these factors can be translated into lower over-all transportation costs and, ultimately, lower prices in the market place.
Southern is anxious to help shippers resolve these questions. The "Big Boy" was built for use in a world where competition for available business must be carried on not only through better products but through lower prices, too. Outside of the very real responsibility for getting freight to destination in a damage-free condition, Southern has no control over the quality of a customer's product; but through reduced transportation costs, Southern Railway can help make lower prices possible . . . to the ultimate good of the individual American consumer.
At the Alma Desk Company plant in High Point, N .C., furniture for Stanford University at Stanford, Calif., was loaded directly from the production line into one of Southern's "Big Boy" box cars. |
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All of these factors are persuading more and more shippers to try a movement using a "Big Boy" car.
The Alma Desk Company of High Point, N.C., is one more example.
Alma Desk recently shipped 756 separate pieces of household furniture to San Francisco, Calif., in a "Big Boy" car. This figure, 756, compares with an average of 280 pieces that can be loaded into a standard box car .
The high loading characteristics of the "Big Boy" -which is 12 feet high at the center was another factor which enabled Alma Desk to load 756 pieces in the one car. That figure compares with an average of 280 pieces in a standard railroad box car. |
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When the "Big Boy" arrived in San Francisco, it was described by the Southern Pacific Company - the delivering carrier -as "the largest single shipment of furniture ever delivered in a single box car" to the area. The furniture was destined for housing units occupied by married students at Stanford University at Stanford, Calif.
The "Big Boy" was spotted at Alma's dock and for two days the furniture was loaded directly into the car from the production line. There was no pause between production and shipping, and so the furniture did not take up valuable and costly warehouse space at the Alma plant.
Alma officials were particularly interested in the Super-Cushion underframe that would protect their freight while it was en route. |
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The 60,000 pound load was shipped without blocking or bracing, and, thanks to the Super-Cushion underframe, it arrived in California in fine shape. And the load which the same "Big Boy" brought east into Louisville, Ky., on the turn-around from the West Coast arrived in just as good a shape.
Received by the Wholesale Office Equipment Company, San Francisco, Calif., for Stanford University, the "Big Boy" load was hailed as "the largest single shipment of furniture ever delivered" in the bay area. |
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The return load consisted of aluminum vent pipe, used in heating and air conditioning systems for office buildings and apartment houses. Shipped by Dura Vent Corporation at Redwood City, Calif., to Dura Vent in Louisville, the load, weighing 42,654 pounds, was more than twice the amount usually shipped in a standard box car .
After delivery of the Alma furniture at San Francisco, the "Big Boy" was sent to Redwood City, Calif., for a load of aluminum vent pipe shipped from Dura Vent Corporation's headquarters to a Dura Vent agency in Louisville, Ky., where this picture was taken before the unloading of the car got under way. |
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It was a big load -a bulky load of lightweight products -in a big car. This is another of the reasons shippers are finding the "Big Boy" car useful to them.
Unloading the Dura Vent shipment at Louisville. Almost everyone of the "Big Boy's" lO,OOO cubic feet of loading space had been used to good advantage. |
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The potential for savings in overall transportation costs, which volume loading and quick loading and unloading can help make possible . . .
The Super-Cushion underframe eliminating the need for expensive crating, bracing and blocking, and safe, damage-free arrival at destination . . .
Shippers happy with Southern service because their own customers are satisfied . . .
Mean more customers for Southern as an even greater variety of industries find the "Big Boy" car useful to them. More and more of "the traffic that's rightfully ours" increasingly more freight will return to Southern Railway lines.