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Emigrant Freight Car

Of all the goods railroad freight cars have hauled over the years, on of the most interesting is described by the term "emigrant car". This meant a freight car in which a family moved to a new home before the days of moving vans and large trucks. 

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An emigrant car was simply an ordinary boxcar, usually reasonable clean one not used for harmful substances, and often a larger car. In 1926 my family moved household goods, several cows, chickens in crates and a terrified family dog from near Menomine, Wisconsin, to a farm near Tracy -- in an emigrant car Dad leased from the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. My brother Bill and I remember this well, because we rode along in that car, somewhat in defiance of the law. 

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Our hire man rode legally, having a pass, to accompany and care for the livestock on board. Since we boys wouldn't fit into the family car for the trip, we merely rode in the emigrant car, lying low when the train stopped or switched in towns enroute. 

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I remember Dad being particular about the car the railroad selected; Dad wanted a large automobile car - one used to transport the new machines - big enough for all our goods including even a few farm implements as well as hay, straw and grain for the cattle and white leghorn hens. For several days the car stood on a siding beside a loading platform so that we could carefully load our goods inside, making use of every bit of space. 

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Remember, this was the principal method for families to move longer distance after the time of the covered wagon. Sometimes, when I hear the sound of a train in the night, I can still remember the cry of the switchman in the St. Paul yards: "Emigrant car, not so hard!" Or see the reflected engine headlights and smell the coal smoke. And though our mom had packed a great box of food, we were famished by the time we rolled onto Tracy's freight siding. Our first meal was t the B and Y cafe, an eating place on the South Street now long gone. We moved the goods to our new home in horse-drawn hayracks and wagons. But we had traveled with a emigrant car. ~Art Drackley, Tracy MN

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