Boston & Maine Railroad
Wheel Reports & Freight Conductor Books

Wheel reports and freight conductor books represent a valuable repository of information for historians and modelers. While Freight Train Symbol Books demonstrated the operating plan of the railroad, these other working documents showed the precise makeup of particular trains that actually ran on a given day.  While alone, the books are but an interesting snapshot, taken together, these documents can begin to shed light on freight service and freight car utilization patterns.  The data in the books included locomotive and crew information and a list of cars in each train with: roadname, number, where taken and left, net and gross weight, contents, and eventual destination.

1927, 1929-30 Wheel Report Book

Al Campbell (1940-2017) shared an entire Wheel Report Book with me that a B&M freight train conductor had filled out; a pair of symbol freight trains in 1927-8 were entered, and 45 trains documented his service from the summer of 1929 into 1930.  The bulk of his assignments involved local freights in the Lowell, MA, area, frequently running on the Stony Brook Branch, the Southern Division (soon to be renamed NH Division,) main line up to Merrimack, NH, and the WN&P Division between Nashua and Ayer.  At other times, trips were made to Bedford, MA, via the Billerica & Bedford Branch, Billerica shop employee trains were run, and occasionally, the conductor worked on some thru symbol freight trains and other freight extras.  Perhaps his most unusual assignment involved a circus train which made its way to Manchester, NH.  (While I transcribed all of the car data from the wheel report book, I returned it to Al before I had finished recording much of the crew, time, and locomotive entries, so many of the trains below now lack that vital information.)

My first effort to present this data involved a limited amount of analysis of each train and providing an Excel transcription of the data.  However, with 47 separate trains, it was shaping up to be a look at the trees, while it was the forest I wanted to see.  The extensive work of Tim Gilbert and Dave Nelson documented and explained much about freight car utilization in the post-war period, but their studies did not extend into the pre-Depression period.  The U.S. economy had not yet undergone the crisis of early 40's, and was still of a more regional nature in many respects.  At the outset of studying Mr. Campbell's wheel reports, I had hoped that the work would better define how freight cars were used, particularly on the B&M, in this earlier time period.

1927, 1929-30 Road Freights

B-J 3   12/31/1927

B-J 3 1927 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

B-J 3 was a evening symbol freight train, departing Boston for White River Junction   It was described as a "straight train for Central Vermont Rwy," in FTSB Number 16 from 10/31/1927 (see page 10.)  R.S.Morgan, accompanied by pilot, W.Abbott, made the run from Boston to Concord in K-8b #2660 with 43 cars and a caboose.  The train was primarily fuel products, with all 20 carloads of bituminous coal transported in B&M gondolas, 5 cars of petroleum products in UTLX tank cars, and a NYC hopper of "ovoids," an anthracite product.  Filling out were 10 assorted carloads of freight.  Twelve of the loads were dropped at Nashua.  Only 7 MT's were in the train, all of which were home road cars.  Besides the tank cars, only 4 other foreign road cars were in the consist.  Dropping the entire train in Concord, engine #2341, the road's only K-5d, took 69 cars northwards, however the consist was quite different in nature with 42 MT's: 19 to the CV at White River Jct, 22 destined for the CP at Wells River, and 1 car for Woodsville.  Only one load was passed on to the CV; the remaining cars were to be forwarded on from WRJ, with some going to the CP and others to online destinations.  LCL and coal predominated among the loaded cars (12 and 7 cars respectively,) with the latter traveling, once again, entirely in B&M gondolas.  The merchandise moved in 7 B&M, 1 CP, and 4 NH box cars.  The remaining 8 carloads traveled in 5 foreign cars and 3 home road cars.  The data was transcribed from the original sheets into an MS Excel file.  This file has a few minor corrections, official reporting marks added, and a brief description of the type of car.  Collection of Al Campbell.

J-B 2   1/1/1928

J-B 2 1928 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

J-B 2 was another evening symbol freight train, handling cars from White River Junction to points along the NH Division main to Boston.   FTSB Number 16 from 10/31/1927 (see page 11,) shows the cities at which it stopped to do work.  R.S.Morgan made this return trip, leaving WRJ with 48 cars and a caboose.  Blocks included 10 loads for Concord, 18 loads and 3 MT's for Boston, 9 loads for Lowell, 7 loads for Nashua, and one load for Manchester.  Upon dropping cars at Concord, 3 MT's and 10 more loads were picked up, all destined for the Lowell yard.  More work at Manchester added another 19 loaded cars for Lowell to the train.  29 out of the 80 freight cars handled in this train were B&M.  The remaining cars were a wide variety of foreign roads, 21 being from Canada, as well as 7 private owned refrigerator and tank cars.  The data was transcribed from the original sheets into an MS Excel file.  This file has a few minor corrections, official reporting marks added, and a brief description of the type of car.  Collection of Al Campbell.

Extra: Boston to Nashua   

Extra: Lowell to Boston   

(possible) Z-J 1: Lowell to WRJ   

(possible) Z-J 1: Lowell to WRJ   

Unknown Symbol freight: Lowell to Ayer   

(possible) W-C 1: Lowell to Concord   

(possible) C-W 2: Concord to Lowell   

1929 Pulpwood Extras

The wheel report included data for three round trips of pulpwood extras between Lowell and Lincoln, where the large Parker-Young paper mill was located.  In sum, the three trips hauled 117 rack cars worth of pulp north, primarily in B&M 29000 series cars (100 cars converted just earlier that year from 81000 series steel gondolas,) but 9 MEC pulpwood racks were included in one of the trains.  56 empty B&M wood racks were returned south, all with a destination of Portland, ME.  This traffic is believed to be waterborne traffic into Portland.  Additionally, the trains hauled a limited amount of other general freight and empty cars, detailed below.

Extra 2718 and return   7/21-22/1929

X2718 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

The first pair of these began with a departure from Lowell at 9:40 PM on July 21 behind K-8c #2718, with 45 loaded B&M 29000 series pulpwood racks, a B&M gondola of "joints" destined for Plymouth, and two UTLX carloads of gasoline for North Woodstock.  Arriving in Concord, NH, at quarter of midnight, three additional cars were added to the consist: A Swift reefer of meat and an ERIE box car of salt, both bound for Laconia, and a CNW automobile box containing two motor boats for Lakeport.  After work was completed in Laconia and Lakeport, the train arrived in Plymouth at 4:55 AM on the 22nd.  Note: the wheel report gives no indication how the pulpwood was forwarded on to Lincoln.

After dropping their train, completing any locomotive servicing required, and hitching to their return consist, the same crew readied for a 6:50 AM departure.  The train was considerably shorter, with only 12 empty pulpwood racks to return to Lowell.  With little other work on the way south, the crew arrived at their destination at 10:30 AM.  Collection of Al Campbell.

Extra 2660 and Extra 1011   7/31-8/1/1929

X2660/X1011 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

Ten days later, the same freight conductor was assigned to take another block of pulpwood cars north to Plymouth.  33 pulpwood loads and 12 gondolas of sand and stone with a caboose totaled 2789 tons, and perhaps required a bit of extra power, so K-8b was accompanied by A-41f 1011 (the engine notes included on the pages are somewhat difficult to fully comprehend, so take the engine assignments given here as what is LIKELY.)  All of the freight cars were home road.  The train departed from Lowell just 20 minutes earlier than the run described above.  After dropping half of the sand and stone cars off in Concord yard, the train appears to have picked up another locomotive, K-8a #2637 (identified as such in one location, but identified as #2367 in another.  However, there was no locomotive on the B&M roster with that number!)

Upon arrival in Plymouth, the remaining six sand and gravel loads were dropped, and the engines changed yet again.  It would seem that the two consolidations were left in Plymouth, and #1011 was joined by its sister, #1015, as the crew hauled the pulpwood to Lincoln.  The 33 loaded cars were dropped and 25 empties picked up, and the train returned to Plymouth.

Locomotives were once again changed, with the same two K-8's hitched to the empty rack cars, and the train headed on to Concord.  Pulling into the capitol city, Engine #2637 was cut off, and a number of new cars added to the train, including a derrick car surrounded by a work flat and a work tender.  An empty UTLX tank car destined for Portland, a load of lumber in a B&M box car on its way to Milford, MA, and 7 empty B&M gondolas were also added before #2660 returned to its origin in Lowell.  Collection of Al Campbell.

Two Extras   unknown date

X2718 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

Just two trains later in the wheel report, thus probably still in August, was a third pair of pulpwood extra freights.  Having failed to record crew, time, and locomotive data, I can only offer the freight car consist at this time.  This train left Lowell with 39 loads: 30 B&M 29000 series racks and 9 MEC rack cars.  One car was set off in Nashua after a hotbox was discovered.  In Plymouth, 6 more cars were left behind, with the 32 continuing on to the paper mill in Lincoln.  In Lincoln, the loads were dropped and 14 empties picked up.

Upon returning to Plymouth, the train added a number of primarily empty cars: two home road and two foreign road box cars destined for Portland, a gondola of scrap metal for Bethlehem, PA, a carload of hay for Eastside, an B&M box car for Concord, a hopper for Rotterdam Jct, and two gondolas and a box car for Worcester.  By the time the train had arrived in Concord, one empty rack had to be set out for a broken trainline, and all but one of the cars picked up in Plymouth were also set out.  Many would no doubt be traveling on to their destinations in the symbol freights that originated in Concord, such as C-M 1 and C-W 2.  However, a sizable number of cars were also picked up at that time,   Collection of Al Campbell.

Other Wheel Reports

M-L 2   10/21/1936

1936 Wheel Report - original sheet images

1936 Wheel Report - MS Excel transcription

M-L 2 was a evening symbol freight train, departing Mechanicville for Lawrence, with intermediate stops to work at East Deerfield, East Fitchburg, and Lowell, and with a crew change at East Deerfield.   The Freight Train Symbol Book that I have online which is the closest to the timeframe is the FTSB Number 27 from 4/28/35 (see page 42.)  This report has 5 pages completed by conductors Davis and Goodal documenting B&M 2-10-2 3026 and its consist of 130 loads, 8 empties, two cabooses, and one "trailer," apparently hauled in support of a steam shovel.  Forty one of the cars were home road, while all but one of the empty cars were MDT reefers destined for points in Maine.   Fifty one cars were carrying LCL (with half of those being B&M box cars,) and the most common carload freight was coal, with 22 hopper and gondola cars carrying the fuel.  The data was transcribed from the original sheets into an MS Excel file.  This file has a few minor corrections, official reporting marks added, and a brief description of the type of car.   Collection of Earl Tuson.

Please help preserve and share the history of New England railroads.

Posted 12/9/12.  Updated 8/29/24.   Copyright retained by Earl Tuson.

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