ok I just dont know, was looking at pickin up a few flat (bh) cars for lumber yard type a load ,but it seams the bulk head type Im lookin at are for post 70s and Im 50s late . did they even use BH type flats in late 50s or just reg flat cars ? I could use a history lesson (short) on lumber hauling to market say 1959 ? …thanks Jerry
What type of lumber? One of my summer jobs in High School was working for a lumber yard, they received their lumber in 50’ boxcars, 2 by’s, 4 by’s as well as plywood. All on skids, we used a forklift to unload them.
Hope this helps…
Mark
WGAS
wow ,I would never of thought 2x4 material in a box car ,hardwood ,ply yes but not rough lumber.good info …Jerry
The line running past my house when I was a kid (in your timeframe you’re asking about) served a couple of lumber yards about a mile down the line. As noted, my memory would be lumber carried in double door boxcars. The first “opera window” flats for packaged lumber were built for the Northern Pacific in about 1966 IIRC.
Yup. Lumber was shipped on regular flatcars and standard boxcars (usually double-door, 40’ or 50’)
Also on standard (ie. non-centre post) bulkhead flatcars, but most of those are also newer than what you’re looking for.
Jerry,
I have seen lots of HO model flat cars with very nice lumber goads. I never saw a prototype 50’ flat car with a similar load! I remember in the late 50’s/early 60’s seeing 50’ double door boxcars with dimensional lumber in them. And some boxcars had small ‘lumber doors’ on one end for passing dimensional lumber through. I did remember sealing bulkhead flat cars with ‘wrapped’ lumber products(both dimensional and sheet stock). I would be quite concerned about shifting loads with dimensional lumber. It would take a lot of crating/dunnage to secure the load. When I worked for the railroad, we one had a shifted load of very large timbers that had slid to the rear of the flatcar and were hitting an adjacent car. This said, I am sure someone will produce a picture of a lumber load on a flat car!
Jim
I remember reading (in Classic Trains maybe?) about a guy who as a kid in the fifties worked unloading lumber from freight cars at a local lumber yard in the summer. One day instead of the regular boxcar, the load came in an automobile boxcar - the kind with double end doors so the whole end opened up. He said it was a great day as it took half the time to unload that way than from the side doors.
BTW I think somebody posted a while back that the little end doors on boxcars were to allow long lengths of lumber (like 16’-20’ lengths) to be loaded, but not thru the end door. The lumber would come in thru the side door and then be fed out the end door until the lumber piece cleared the side door, then it could be moved back toward the other end of the car til it came out of the end door. This was especially necessary when loading an old 34’ or 36’ single door boxcar.
My first fulltime job out of high school (in your timeframe) was at a furniture mfg company in the bay area. We received lumber in 50’ double door boxcars. At that time and into the 80’s lumber was also shipped on 50’ flats a bulkhead flats.
One night in the 80’s at a switch crew came across a lumber load shifted from the 50’ flat car into the end of a tank car. I was surprised when the SD7 and two cars backed up a ways while a crewman put some ballast stones on the track. The engineer pushed the two cars forward, maybe 5 mph, the two cars were uncoupled and as the flat “rumbled” over the stones the lumber load shifted back onto the flat car. I’m sure the two cars were inspected before traveling on?
Have fun, Rob
Regular flatcars:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn661820&o=cn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn668227&o=cn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp303641&o=cprail
Bulkhead flatcars: (more of a 1960s and later thing)
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn603418&o=cn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dwc605483&o=dwp
Boxcars with green doors on CN were dedicated to lumber service. Other railways that served lumber producing areas had lots of double-door boxcars for lumber service as well (eg. SP/SSW, CBQ, SPS, NP, GN, later BN, CP, Pacific Great Eastern/British Columbia Railway (PGE/BCOL))
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn557635&o=cn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=dwp444068&o=dwp
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcit40589&o=bcol
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol40025&o=bcol
Wow - That first photo says it all about the problem securing a dimensional lumber load on a flat car. No wonder why they started banding/wrapping the loads!
Jim
Jim,Some times dimensional lumber in a boxcar could be jammed together from high impact coupling or rough slack…Needless to say that made a day of hard work.