by BR&P
Also Freights moved on a schedule pre-conrail instead of a waiting around till they had enough cars to be oppitly move a train. If a scheduled train had only one car that day it ran because the ICC set the standard of service.I have no idea who told you that but it just is not true. The ICC did not set standards of service dictating that a freight train would run at a given time or place. And trains did not necessarily move with only one car. In some cases it may have happened, especially if it was the return end of a "rounds" crew going home, or power was needed elsewhere. But it was not unusual for a crew to be laid in on a given day if things were light. Maybe you are thinking of passenger trains - which would leave at the appointed time even if they only had one rider.
Also totally false is the idea that trains before 1970 or so ran with 20-50 cars. In fact, one knock sometimes handed the PC was that they held cars too long in order to run one huge train rather than two smaller ones. I recall in about 1968 a westbound coming into Rochester with perhaps 170 cars, and picking up about 50 more - I was on my way home after work and pulled over near State Street just to watch the monster go by. Nor was that something recent - in Kachler's book "The Snowflaker" he tells of an almost identical move in the 1950s not long after diesels arrived - a train with 150 cars picked up an additional 85 at Rochester.
Sorry but short freight trains were certainly NOT the norm - you were misinformed.