I’m considering having a factory on my layout for the production of joint compound. My
layout is set in 1958.
Currently, joint compound is shipped pre-mixed in 5-gallon buckets, made from
limestone, water, some polymer, perlite and attapulgite (mined in Attapulgus, GA).
Since drywall has been in common use since WWII, joint compound, in some form
must have been used in 1958.
BUT - what were the ingredients then? Perlite? Attapulgite? Asbestos, I know about.
How were the ingredients shipped?
How was the joint compound packaged (wet or dry) and how was it shipped? It’s
my RR, so shipping probably isn’t a concern.
Anyway, I’ve looked at Wikipedia, the G-P website, the Attapulgus website and
dozens of Google hits and I can’t find anything on the history of joint compound
production.
If you’re talking about 1958, the joint compound being shipped out would have mostly been the dry, bagged stuff that the sheetrock installer would have mixed as he needed it. The early stuff was simply finish coat plaster, and the exact formula depended on what company was mixing it. If you’re modelling a plant of a certain company, you may have better luck looking up the company on the web. Even today, I doubt they’d tell you the exact mixture, but by observation, you may be able to tell what sort of cars you need for loads in and out to model this operation.
Remember to keep things in historic context. 5 gallon plastic buckets weren’t common, if they existed at all, in 1958.
After WWII I lived in the town of Roscoe, said to be named after the SP section foremans dog, in Southern Calfornia. It had a team track with a capacity of about a dozen cars. Most of the cars were loads of plaster board, at first in boxcars eventully on bulkhead flats. I would discribe it as a transition between lath and plaster and sheetrock. It seemed to be 2x4’ peices with about 2" holes in it. As above the installer mixed the plaster and applied it as a finish coat. I would guess there were more carloads of plaster board than bags of plaster.
By 1954 I was living in the Bay Area and sheetrock was in use with dry bags of joint compound. It was also mixed by the installer who papered the joints using joint compound.