"Highballing" fast freight trains..
?known as "Silks", sped raw Asian silk from west coast seaports across the United States for processing into finished garments.
The silks had the right-of-way over freight and passenger trains alike. They rushed their multimillion dollar cargo across the continent because raw silk deteriorated quickly, insurance on it as very expensive, and the price of raw silk fluctuated, making even short delays very costly. A less obvious reason for "highballing" the silks was fear that the valuable cargo would be hijacked from slow trains.
In 1928, at the height of the silk trade, $452,000,000 of raw silk was transported across the continent on railroads. With the Great Depression, and increased shipping of silk through the Panama Canal, the "silks" rapidly disappeared. With the onset of World War II and the increasing use of nylon and other synthetics, silk trains were abandoned.
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