What was the effect of a gateway on traffic?
Author: John
Date: 07-06-2007 - 14:33
What was the meaning of a railroad gateway, such as Chicago or St. Louis, on how traffic was distributed?
Let's say in the days pre-deregulation, a shipper sent a load east via Chicago. He specified Santa Fe as far as Chicago, but didn't specify a route all the way to Boston. What road got the traffic to Boston?
I get the impression that a certain amount of traffic via any gateway was randomly assigned to any railroad that could forward the load to its destination, regardless of route. Is this true?