In the Northwest we used to see many older 40' cars with the doors taken off and holes punched in the roof about 2 feet apart above the door opening to accommodate several 4x4's vertically. The cars were loaded with green vineer to make plywood and the 4x4's were dropped in to hold the center part of the load in the car at the doors. If this had been shipped in a closed car it would cook or start a fire.
Bob Boring ----- Original Message ----- From: danvandermause To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:34 AM Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: 40' vs. 50' boxcars This has been a really interesting discussion and Jeff and many others have provided examples of the use of obsolete cars to move bulk or contaminating products. We can easily model some of these on our layouts. It also brings up an interesting point that, if we think about it a bit, can also be reflected in our modeling. From the 1950's to the 1960's and into the 1970's, steam engines and 40-foot boxcars were not the only things to disappear from the railroad scene. A major change that took place during this 25-year or so period was the disappearance of cheap labor. Look at all the examples provided here of manual labor being used to load and unload bulk products from boxcars -- you could not afford to do that without a supply of inexpensive labor. One of the main driving factors behind the death of the steam engine was the disappearance of cheap labor to maintain the steam engines. Up to the late 1960's, a local lumber yard was still receiving its inventory at the Silver Spring, MD B&O team track. I can recall watching the lumber yard crew opening the doors of a 40 foot boxcar, which had been loaded one stick of lumber at a time. The load had shifted enroute and the inside of that boxcar looked like a giant set of pick-up sticks. Over the next day or so, the lumber yard crew removed the lumber one stick at a time. Can you imagine that being done today? It is great to have these discussions, because our memory of the "good old days" can be faulty, and visitors to our layouts will be drawn into the era we are modeling if we provide some of the visual cues that this is a different place and time we have created on our layouts. Dan Vandermause Ellicott City, MD --- In [email protected], Jeffrey Madden <nasgdispatch@...> wrote: > > And sand. I helped unload a boxcar of foundry sand at my uncle's foundry in > Pennsylvania. Knocked out the plywood retaining board and then > wheelbarrowed the sand down a ramp and dumped into bin. > Jeff Madden [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
