Hello;
I am modeling the fiftys era and was wondering how lumber was shipped. I just picked up some lumber loads at the hobby shop for paper wraped flatcar loads and was wondering if these would have been used in the fiftys.
Bill
Upon doing research, I find that the first uses of wrapped lumber loads were experimented with in the early 1960s. In the 50s, some lumber would move unprotected on flatcars, but most dimensional lumber would be loaded into boxcars for the weather protection thus afforded. Most often these would be 50-foot cars, either single or double door types. Sometimes the single door types would have a lumber loading door in the ‘A’ end of the car for boards longer than would fit through the side doors. Green lumber would be shipped in boxcars with side doors removed so as to obtain airflow over the lading to assist in the drying process. Hope this helps.
I think, IN GENERAL, in the ‘50’s, lumber that was shipped on flats was the type that would be stored in the open at lumber yards. It would thus have been shipped unwrapped. I also think that lumber that lumber yards would shed-store would have been shipped in boxcars. Boxcars could also carry the “wetable” kind of wood, if necessary. At the time, railroads (inspired by shipper demands) were discovering that double door boxes were a lot easier to load with lumber. You would probably want to consider using 40’ and 50’ double door boxes for dry lumber loading. Some boxcars had little teeny end doors at one end. I believe it’s commonly thought that these doors were used to load planks in those cars one at a time. And unload. Quel pain. I wouldn’t be shocked to find that Sheetrock was, in the '50’s, carried wrapped and on flats. Sheetrock arrived in construction pretty much at the end of WWII. It obviously had to be shipped somehow. Probably at first they used boxcars, maybe double doors loaded with fork lifts. Actually, I probably WOULD be shocked–I’d stay with boxcars for this purpose (in the '50’s). Ed
DOH, I guess I maybe could have read what Rick said before taking the time to pretty much say the same thing. Ed
Thanks for all the info. Looks like wrapped lumber is out. Maybe I will do a modern centerbeam for wall display.
Thanks
Bill
In 1961 the PRR had 33 bulkhead flats in dedicated wallboard service. These would have dated from the late '50’s.
KL
I believe the first centerbeam flats were designed and put into use by Northern Pacific, which means it would have to have been before March 1970 (BN merger) but I’m not sure exactly when, but probably early-mid 1960’s at the earliest.
In the fifties lumber would go in a double-door auto box, preferably one with opening end doors.
As with any decade, the 1950’s were a period of transition. In particular for the lumber industry, the transition was one from hand loading to the use of forklifts. The forklifts appear to have found early use with plywood and plasterboard as noted by previous posters. Indeed, a number of railroads converted existing flat cars (usually 50 ft-nominal) with end bulkheads for plasterboard service. Plywood most often ended up in double door cars–easier to load and protected. Certainly in the early fifties, lumber most often ended up in plain box cars. This would be both dry and wet (green) lumber. Indeed, a number of mills (often the ones on the ‘cheap’) would load green lumber into a box car and then let it cure enroute. Routing for these cars was often circuitous and controlled by a lumber broker–much like produce was shipped out of growing regions on speculation that a broker could conclude a sale as the car crossed the country. The weight of green lumber contributed to Southern Pacific’s almost exclusive use of 10 ft interior height 40 ft. box cars, with the last built in 1953. Green lumber “cubed out” (volume) about the same time it “maxed out” (weight) for such cars. The extra 6 inches of height in what was by then a RR industry standard 10’-6" IH led to overloading, hence SP’s use of 10’ IH. Though other Pacific Northwest roads had lumber doors (the small hatch in the “A” end) and SP had them in cars of the 1920’s, most were plain box cars. Hand loading was the norm into the early fifties for “plain” lumber. The push to build double door 50 ft box cars in the later half of the fifties coincided with the growing use of fork lifts and the move to 70 ton journals. Rough lumber could be loaded into open cars–flats and gons. A typical SP lumber drag climbing up the Cascade Line would have at least some of both. Load securing would be with side stakes and cross bars or cross ties (wire wrapped between side-stakes and tensioned by twisting).
One advantage to having two magazines catering to our interests for what is approaching a combined 150 years (plus the NMRA mags and Trains) is that you can see what was done in past when it was still new. Using the MR magazine index, http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe , I found a few 1950’s - 1960’s articles on modeling the lumber industry and lumber cars. (For example: “Lumber Loads for Your Flat Cars”, MR, 2/57.) There are a number of people on here with long-ranging collections of magazines. Once you find some likely articles you could post asking for people with those issues to contact you about content and so forth.
KL
Hi Bill, If you find an MR article from the 1950s that you’d like to see, you can order a photocopy under “shop” on this web site, or by e-mail to customerservice@kalmbach.com. If you’re an NMRA member you can order photocopies of out-of-print articles from any magazine in the NMRA’s Kalmbach Library collection through the Web site at nmra.org. Either way, you won’t be asking any of your friends on this forum to violate copyrights for you. Happy New Year, Andy
Of course not. I was actually thinking that if you determined an article had what you wanted, you could get an original off Ebay. I just looked and there are a number of 1957 issues that can be had - with shipping - for less than the cover price of the current Model Railroader. In the past year I’ve bought the equivalent of 55 to 60 years of mags for less than a dollar each on average. (And by cutting out only the useful content and dumping the ads, layout tours, and obsolete technology electronics, I can store it all in four rather short file drawers.)
KL