I recently acquired a limited run Schmidtchens Rifles & Firearms factory kit from Bar Mills. I began to wonder if rail was the prefered shipping method for a factory like this (mid 1950s in my case). I would think there would naturally be security issues. Just what type of precautions would be taken. What type of car would most likely be use (boxcar, REA baggage, etc.).
Boxcars.
Would use a padlock on the door or a heavier duty seal. If its an era that load dividers were available, they might use a load divider car and add extra bracing inside.
From the outside its just another boxcar.
Oh, and special agents in the yards who aren’t afraid to pop your butt with a 45 if you are messing with a car.
Dave H.
Hi there jecorbett, this is a interesting question you raised, i wonder if you where to contact Remington or Winchester or Marlin one of them might be able to help you, i believe most of the major players have an archive or history dept. and I would think they could answer this, of course you are modeling a smaller company so that might be different, please keep us posted on what you find out, hope this helps you.
Chuck
Why would you think that there would “naturally” be “security issues” with firearms shipments? Anyone in the USA could buy a rifle from Sears and have it MAILED to your front door intot he 1970s, and there were little or no “security issues” with that.
In the 1950s, 99% of firearm sales that went through the mail travelled by rail at some point. Since the bulk of these orders would have been from a “big box” store of the day (Sears, etc) they would have been treated as conventional LCL shipments, the same as socks, bicycles and chickens (dynamite would have to have special explosives plackards added to the sides of the cars, but you could mail order that too). Larger firearms shipments from manufacturers to retailers would have had their own cars, but that’s only because of the quantities involved. Normal boxcar door seals would suffice for all of these shipments.
And have you ever heard of Bannerman’s Island? Through the 1960s it was a large surplus arms dealer situated in New York harbor. Want a K98 Mauser? Three for $5. Want a .45 ACP? $6 apiece. How about a French 75 (ARTILLERY piece)? They were going for around $100. You could get machine guns from them too, but you needed the proper Federal licenses. All fo these items were shipped to customers through the mail as well, and everyone knew who Bannerman’s was.
Mail order firearms went away after 1963, for obvious reasons if you think about the big, traumatic historical event in November of that year.
Outgoing shipments of firearms were probably small enough that they tended to go by express. Incoming shipments of steel, wood, etc were the most likely rail traffic for a small arms factory. The only exception might have been during the World Wars, when the government was buying in carload quantities.
Yes it was shown that the rifle used to kill President Kennedy was bought by mail order under an assumed name by Lee Harvey Oswald. Technically I believe not giving your correct name when purchasing a firearm was against the law, but it wasn’t very tightly enforced obviously.
I don’t know if there were any wholesalers who would order enough at one time that they might be sent a boxcar full of weapons. Of course express often went by rail then (REA) so they could have been on trains in that capacity.
A major manufacturer (Colt, S&W, Remington) with several different models to ship might send enough to a major distributor (Sears, back then) to justify an occasional full carload - especially in the months leading up to hunting season and Christmas. Firearms are ‘big boy toys,’ and the demand curve was similar to that of the other main gift items.
Consider, too - a firearm without ammunition is simply a rather dense, awkwardly-shaped club. Ammunition, being explosive in nature, would be subject to hazmat rules which went back long before the beginning of the use of the term, “Hazmat.” (I don’t have my copy of Josserand’s Rights of Trains handy, so I can’t state rule numbers, but I do know that handling of explosives is covered in detail.)
Interestingly, I believe that the major ammunition suppliers would be more likely to load out carload lots. Over its lifetime, one firearm in the hands of an active shooter will consume an immense number of rounds. Military bases, especially, use ammunition by the kiloton.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
For that matter, how are they transported today?
Being in Texas, I can pop into any Academy sporting goods store, select from a pretty good armory, and take my purchase home right away.
I imagine that as with many goods, these items arrive at the store by truck and at the warehouse in bulk by rail and/or truck.
You just never see any trucks marked “Hey! Load of Weapons Inside!”
Assuming your factory makes the bullets as well as the rifles, the shipments of bulk gunpowder would be a placarded hazardous shipment, probably placarded Explosive. MDC used to make a Hercules Powder boxcar. Then they would need shipments of brass tube and sheet to make the shell casings. Lead, nickel or other metals for the bullets.
For the rifles, shipments of steel rod, sheet steel, spring steel and other metals for the barrel and mechanism; wood for the stocks, various paints, varnish, lubricants to finish the weapon. They would also need large quantities of cutting fluid for the machining operations; and would ship out scrap metal turnings and bits of plate.
Today, that would be Wal Mart. They are the largest seller of firearms in Maine, according to local news reports
I think some may have missed part of the question “mid 1950’s”. I remember as a kid that the doors were almost never locked in my home - even at night or if we were just going someplace for a couple of hours! Street gangs were local to big cities, the “Mafia” controlled most major crime, and pilfering of railcars was almost unheard-of. THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS!!![:)]
As I stated before, they would be loading crates and shipped in a boxcar. It would be very, very, very hard to know what was in a boxcar because they aren’t placarded shipments (they wouldnt ship them loaded.)
Dave H.
You are speaking of the ease with which individual firearms can be obtained. No one disputes that. The issues I raised have to do with security for large shipments of firea
Ray is correct, they would have went in LCL loads the same as any other freight. Mail order of firearms ended with the implementation of the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prior to the effective date of that legislation, firearms were carried in the US Mail to anyone. When I was in the Army my unit once received two complete M16A1s in the mail. Had to sign for them of course.
Another thing to think about is quantity. The only carload size shipments of firearms would most likely be to the military. A manufacturer of sporting arms simply wouldn’t have a customer that received that many weapons at once. I’m sure they left the factory in small quantities to wholesale and retail customers. REA and the US mail would be the most common way they traveled.
I can see a car load of raw material coming into a firearms manufacturer, but I don’t see the finished product leaving the factory in carload quantities.
The military would transport large numbers of small arms locked in racks and shipping containers and accompanied by armed guards.
Jeff
Ahhhh…the good ol’ days. [;)]
Yep. You would have to know someone at the railroad that had access to the shipping manifests. That’s how booze shipments got broke into when I was a kid in Cleveland.
Now, small gun shipments go via UPS and FedX. The receiver just has to have an FFL permit.
This reply makes the most sense to me. Even the major gun manufacturers are not big industries and in most cases would not have large shipments of small arms going to a single destination, although as someone mentioned, a large chain like Sears might have received a fairly sizeable order and that is the type of shipment I wondered about when I began this thread. The gun shops I have done business with, even the small ones, have elaborate security systems simply because they do have merchandise which might be very inviting to criminal elements. It seems to me that even a small shipment of firearms might be just as appealing to these elements and that such a shipment might be vulnerable to theft if added security precautions were not taken, but maybe I am just thinkin
Nope. Boxcars in the 1950’s. Containers now. No guards armed or otherwise.
Dave H.
Dave,
Check AR 190-11. I dealt with that regulation a lot when I was in the Army. I don’t know what they did before 1974, but I know how it’s been handled from then until now (middle son followed in his father’s footsteps and is an active duty NCO now).
Bolts are removed from the weapons, tagged and placed in a seperate container that must be transported seperate from the weapon. Weapons are locked in racks. The racks are chained together (the chain has to be of a certain size) and fastened to the inside of the truck or railcar.
Armed guards accompany the shipment. My unit decided to hand carry small arms on the aircraft from home station to the National Training Center at Ft Irwin because of the requirement to put armed guards on the train that was carrying the vehicles and conex containers.
It may have been done differently in a different era, but that’s how it’s done now.
I have read somewhere that in the DODX fleet there were some cars that were set up to carry a security detail on a train. I don’t know that they are used much as most units choose to hand carry their small arms on the charter aircraft (probably because they don’t want to deal with the logistics of supporting a security detail on the rails).
Jeff
Yup, the good ol’ days. If a kid brought a gun to school it was because he was going to do some work on it for a shop project not some ill intent.