N&W in 1910--Cars

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
November 11, 1910

SCRAMBLE FOR CARS
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Coal Selling Agencies Beginning to Feel Effects of Shortage

The coal selling agencies are beginning to feel a car shortage and in most cases it is serious, as there is a demand for the coal which must be met.  In the scramble for cars by all the roads it is to be expected that there will be a shortage but it had been hoped that it would not affect this field to any great extent.
    In the middle east railroads are making open charges against one another, each claiming that the other has stolen its cars.  The situation in this section has not yet become so acute, and it is hardly likely that such a condition will occur until after the lake season is over, which should be about the first of December, five days earlier than usual.
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[Apparently in 1910 neither the railroads nor the Federal Government had developed effective rules which required empty cars to be returned to the owning railroad.  The ICC was given this power by the Esch Car Service Act of 1917.  The Car Service Division of the AAR was formed prior to WW II, and it administers the rules for the ICC (now STB).  Also, when the Great Lakes freeze over, the coal and ore that otherwise would move on the lakes would move in railroad cars, increasing the demand for cars.]

Gordon Hamilton
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