According to John H. White in "The American Railroad Freight Car", the earliest
known proposal for piggybacking dates back to 1822. It was not put into
practice.
Passenger "piggybacking" goes back to the beginning of public railways. I know
from other sources that right from the start, the Liverpool & Manchester (1829)
offered the upper classes the option of having their own fancy vehicle loaded
on a flat car and attached to a regular passenger train. There were regular
tariffs. Mr. White tells us the gentry liked it because they didn't have to
mix with the hoi polloi in the regular passenger cars. What the gentry didn't
like is that their fancy carriages (especially the cloth roofs) were firetraps
for sparks from the locomotive. Other British railways offered the same
service in the 19th Century. Over here, the B&O copied this practice as early
as 1830.
Forms of freight TOFC originated in Britain at least as early as 1860. Moving
vans on their way to France were loaded onto flat cars in London and
transported by the Brighton line (LB&SC). There was no breaking of bulk on
train or ship, so it was a "modern" form of interline service. The system
continued and expanded in Britain, eventually encompassing trans-Atlantic
services.
Forms of local piggyback go back a long way in North America, too. They lasted
spasmodically until the public highway system was fully developed. These were
provided by individual railways with no interchange, to my knowledge. Nor did
they develop into a national system. The U.S. Army made extensive use of
railroads to move occupied ambulances and wagons loaded with supplies during
the Civil War. The Union Pacific transported settlers in their wagons even
before the Golden Spike.
The circus train is the real progenitor of the modern TOFC idea. The circuses
demonstrated how it could be done, developing a roll on/roll off technique as
early as 1872.
As you say, Chuck, it all depends on how you define it. The idea pre-dates the
steam railway as we know it. To me, the "first" that matters is where and when
it started in that continuous progression that led to the modern inter-carrier
system. Good for CNS&M if they started it. Always nice to do something that
has lasting value beyond your lifetime.
By the way, per Mr. White, containerization goes back to Ancient Rome.
regards ... pqr
----- Original Message -----
The Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee is often credited with having the first
true TOFC service, starting in 1926. I find no mention of interchange with
other RRs but there is mention of RRs transporting freight wagons (the horse
drawn kind) years before that. So often there are many definitions and claims
of "First". Makes it interesting.
Chuck Porter
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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