pulpwood cars

[Anonymous]

hellow everybody.
i need some help. i have replaced the resin loads on athearn pulpwood cars with the real thing, doing this i wondered if these cars ever carried full width logs and thinnings, they would be about 8feet to nine feet long,also do you 'know what type of cars are used for the transport of full lenght logs going to a saw mill . i model in ho.and i am building a timber industries complex.

regards

patrick
ps. i floated this on our other formum list

[leighant]

I know that pulpwood cars GENERALLY carried logs cut half width of the car. I won't say "ever" or "never".

In GENERAL, pulpwood cars had V-shaped racks as seen in cross-section across the car, high on the outside, low in the center. This made 4 foot long pieces of wood lean towards the center, the two sides holding themselves in the car by gravity, rather than every piece having to be secured with tie-down etc.
For how this worked on the Santa Fe, see Santa Fe Rwy Historical and Modeling Society website,
www.atsfrr.com
click on "online resources"
then find and click on "Material Contributed by Matt Zebrowski"
then ”Pages from Folio 211, Santa Fe Freight Car Diagrams”
Then to FT- flat cars for individual car diagrams

FT-10b (F-10) pulpwood car does not have a cross section of V-shaped deck/rack but diagram figures indicate “floor” is 1’ lower than “side plank”

Similarly the diagram FT-La (F-8) pulpwood service

Compared this to the diagram for a bulkhead flatcar which is NOT a pulpwood rack,
FT-L & N- wallboard service, which plainly shows flat deck.

Full length logs carried to a mill, usually on LOGGING CARS.
On the same site as the pulpwood and bulkhead flatcars, go to
LG logging cars.
Here the diagram shows a car with LOG BUNKS, permanently attached metal uprights, much stronger than "flatcar stakes" to hold the load in car. Car was often similar to flatcar but with no flat deck., just the frame of the car.
Some logging car did not have the high log bunks, required chains to hold logs.
Some logging operations used "disconnect trucks", a truck like found at one end of a freight car, except that the truck has couplers at each end. Two disconnect trucks were used to carry a log or bundle of logs, one truck under each end. The logs served in place of the frame of a flatcar.
Hope this helps.

[wjstix]

I seem to remember reading that the difference was that a 4' long piece of pulpwood was about the biggest that a man could lift a by himself, so for many years pulpwood was cut no longer than that since it was going to be loaded by hand. In the 60's or thereabouts, when machinery began go be used to load the cars mechanically, human strength limitations were no longer a problem. Since freight cars could fit 8' long logs, that size became the standard size.

[Anonymous]

thank s to both for heping me on this project, aspecial thanks to "leighant" for the web site for santa fe, i was in corpus christi many years ago about 1957,as a cadet on an irish ship loading grain for india, i bet there have great changes.

best wishes
patrick

[doctorwayne]

All of the pulpwood that I've seen moving through this area is loaded parallel to the sides of the car. I haven't noticed any recently, so I'm not sure about the length of the logs or even the length of the cars, but the cars are bulkhead flats, 50' to 60' long. The side stakes appear to be heavier than just a piece of 4"x4", and may actually be steel, similar to log bunks.

Wayne