Using Walthers Clayton County Lumber Kit

[kasskaboose]

Very helpul information.  Thanks everyone.  I can't wait to start on this effort.

[NittanyLion]

There were plenty all-door boxcars roaming around in the back then days.  Those were mainly for plywood and soforth, as I understand it.

[wp8thsub]

Here's a modern rail served lumber yard near my area.  There's a track into a paved lot for access to railcars.  Incoming product is stacked on the pavement as well as inside covered sheds.  https://www.google.com/maps/@41.2080684,-112.0217796,198m/data=!3m1!1e3

Another facility has only open air storage, with product trucked to retail locations or contractors.  Note that both center beam flats and boxcars are shown on one of the spurs.  https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7352949,-111.9512629,282m/data=!3m1!1e3

Yet another variation with both indoor and outdoor storage.  https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7158211,-111.9073769,335m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

Note that all of these have forklift access to both sides of a flatcar for unloading.  

 

[wp8thsub]

kasskaboose

1. How would operations work with that lumber facility? Flatcars arrive with lumber to get transported on trucks for customers? 

Flatcars and/or boxcars.  The individual lumber units from the railcars would typically be moved onto storage racks or stacked atop one another until sold.

2. Since I model the early 1980s, where to get centerbeam from that period (or earlier)?  I see that places sell those cars with BLT dates from the 1990s.  Should I just use bulkhead flatcars.

Bulkhead flats were common, but at that time so were plain flatcars.  A few roads did have early center beam cars (including western roads like UP, WP and BN), models of which were made by ExactRail, although you may have to do some serious hunting for these now.

3. Any cheap/fast way to make my own lumber loads?

Good loads won't necessarily be cheap or fast, but there are multiple options.

DSC03229 (2)

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

The above load is from Jaeger, and consists of wood blocks wrapped with a paper material.  Kits could be had for numerous lumber companies, and they featured vinyl chart tape for banding (1/32" and 1/64" tape can be had separately from Amazon), and wood blocking.

DSC03227

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

This load is from the plastic kit by Wheels of Time.  It includes blocking, but not banding material, so I used leftover tape from Jaeger kits.  Most of the time spent on the Wheels of Time loads is in painting the plastic to look like wood. http://www.wheelsotime.com/ho-scale-lumber-load/ 

DSC03231

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

Next is this load using the TrainLife components https://trainlife.com/products/ho-scale-laser-cut-lumber-loads-kits?_pos=2&_sid=6c0538637&_ss=r .  These are laser-cut micro plywood that are stacked into lumber bundles. 

Cannon Load 1

by wp8thsub, on Flickr

This load was from Cannon & Co https://shop.cannonandco.net/main.sc .  It's wood sections with laser cut board detail. Wood blocking and banding must be supplied by the builder.  Unfortunately the website does not show these as currently available.

 

All of the above are useful for lumber stacks for detailing the business itself, not just for loading cars.

[cv_acr]

kasskaboose

Great Walthers kit (933-2911), but I had some Qs:

1. How would operations work with that lumber facility? Flatcars arrive with lumber to get transported on trucks for customers?  I saw pics of rail served lumber facilities with stacks of lumber.

Looking at the buildings in the kit, you get a collection of small storage buildings. The one building looks like it has elevated doors that can be used as a dock for trucks or boxcars.

Or, if you want to unload flatcars, simply run the spur into an open area, with space on both sides to unload bundles of lumber off of flatcars using a forklift.

The unloaded lumber could be stored in the sheds or around the property in the open.

If your lumber yard receives boxcars (even today high-grade plywood, millwork and particle board/MDF that needs to be protected from the elements is shipped in double-door boxes) then you'll want a ramp or dock for them to be spotted at.

kasskaboose

2. Since I model the early 1980s, where to get centerbeam from that period (or earlier)?  I see that places sell those cars with BLT dates from the 1990s.  Should I just use bulkhead flatcars.

There were some centerbeams in the late 1970s, mostly the shorter 60' ones vs. the now-standard 73' cars. They weren't super common yet though, with only a few railroads owning relatively small numbers of them, so a lot of shipments would have been on standard flatcars and bulkhead flatcars. (Or boxcars.)

kasskaboose

3. Any cheap/fast way to make my own lumber loads?

Not "fast", but this is what I do:

http://vanderheide.ca/blog/lumber-loads/

It's somewhat labour intensive, but low cost and makes the best looking loads. All the information you need, including a bunch of printable artwork is available at that link. (Although early 1970s-80s American names are lacking, but there are blank templates if you can come up with or make your own graphics.)

[mbinsewi]

If you read the Product Information on the page that Henry linked to, you can make up your mind on how you want to use it.

I'm not 100% on this, but the center beams were introduced in the late 70's.  They were shorter cars, 60' or so long, and most had the "opra" style openings in the centerbeam.

I believe in the early 80's, the 73' cars came out.  You'd be good with just the flats, and if you find any of the older models, mixing in one or two would be right.

Not sure if you can get them anymore from the on line shops, but if you hunt Ebay, look for McKean models.

I found a link to a thread on the sunject:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/196055.aspx

Mike.

[doctorwayne]

I'm not familiar with the dates regarding centrebeam flatcars , but I'm sure that bulkhead flats would be acceptable for your modelling era.

At one time lumber was shipped on regular flatcars, in gondolas, and in boxcars, too, and since I'm modelling the late '30s, I've done loads for all three types of cars.

kasskaboose

3. Any cheap/fast way to make my own lumber loads?

If there is, I wouldn't mind hearing about it.

While at one time, many years ago, basswood was one of the few options for scratchbuilding, I pretty-much dropped it when styrene sheets, strips and shapes became readily available.
I had no use for my supply of stripwood, until I decide to make lumber loads, just to use it up, rather than tossing it in the woodstove...it wasn't cheap, and nowadays, is even more expensive.

Here's a lumber load built from it, which will fit only these Walthers' models of 53' GSC flatcars (I have a few, so don't have to have it always showing up on the same car)...

...here's how to save at least a little bit of your money...

This is an old Athearn 50' flatcar, with bulkhead ends from those Walthers GSC cars, and its load fits only this type of car (and again, I have several)...

...and use the same ruse for the load...

This load, built from strip styrene, fits only these Walthers 50' boxcars (I have quite a few of them, but only 2 or 3 on which I've modified the doors to open and close).  The ones with non-operating doors can carry whatever I want, with no need to build a load...

...and the very tedious-to-build load of styrene lumber in relatively small sizes...

This 48' CNR gondola was built from a Westerfield kit, and its load fits into at least two of these cars, and may fit into others, although I haven't tried it yet...

While the loads built from large-sized strip material are easier to build (fewer pieces) they would seldom go to lumber yards, but rather to specific industries. The steel plant where I worked often got multiple carloads of large-dimensional lumber for use as cribbing and scaffolding, and I recall on one occasion seeing several loads of wood in sizes which I would estimate to be at least 16"x16" and in 50' lengths....I have no idea of what its intended use might have been.

I have a small lumber yard on my layout, mostly freelanced, but inspired by a real yard owned by an uncle.  Like the real one, some lumber was stored outside, and that's where I learned how to stack (and re-stack several times) lumber to "season" it...in other words, allow it to dry properly without ending-up warped and useless...

...the piles of lumber are all made from strip styrene, painted and cemented together, with hollow interiors.

Wayne

[rws1225]

Not sure what kind of lumber yard this kit represents. My kit was used for a warehouse ( I split the largest building in half and made a flat twice as long) and one of the other buildings got an end door and is now an engine house for my industrial "critters".  The last 2 buildings are probably going to be an agricultural warehouse.  Most lumber yards i'm familiar with have one side open and intermal racks for different size boards.

[BigDaddy]

Can't help with an of your questions except Canadian Canyons had a plywood mill and had the wood wrapped in plastic.  I don't remember where they got those.

Here is the kit in questionhttps://www.walthers.com/clayton-county-lumber-kit

[kasskaboose]

Great Walthers kit (933-2911), but I had some Qs:

1. How would operations work with that lumber facility? Flatcars arrive with lumber to get transported on trucks for customers?  I saw pics of rail served lumber facilities with stacks of lumber.

2. Since I model the early 1980s, where to get centerbeam from that period (or earlier)?  I see that places sell those cars with BLT dates from the 1990s.  Should I just use bulkhead flatcars.

3. Any cheap/fast way to make my own lumber loads?

Thanks!