Northeastern Freight Houses

Many of the freight houses in the northeast did not have loading docks, packages were offloaded from the boxcar door right into the house. One had to make sure the doors lined up well when spotting the cars.

There was a bit of chatter on one of the Yahoo groups about freight houses along the B&M, MEC and other northeastern lines. Many of the freight houses are up tight to the track with no loading dock. Why, well I am guessing since there is a lot of bad weather up north and with snow and ice being an issue on platforms it seems easier to load and unload right between the boxcar and frt house.

Some of these structures are found on sidings making loading not a problem once cars are spotted but a freight houses next to the main line is another story. On the main line freight traffic would have to be unloaded from a boxcar or baggage car while on the train...making this job a priority when stopped. At some towns the local could be switching a siding while the local freight car is spotted at the proper door. An interesting operational element to create...George Dutka  

For this view I added an ITLA loading dock kit and is located on a siding. I scratch-built this structure and will cover it shortly.