Yet another SORRy traffic question - 1940s building materials

[SaltRiverRy]

Thanks to all who have given me great info on previous questions about what type of traffic I could expect on the SRRy in 1946. Now comes the next one (and I'm sure that more will follow.)

In the "general" forum many posts suggest that you should model a "buildiers supply" instead of a "lumber yard." OK, I can got with that. Outside of lumber what carloads of product would I expect to receive?

I know that a lot of milled lumber was shipped on flat cars. I was watching a very old video and saw milled lumber in a gondola. I think that plywood and wallboard would arrive in box cars (probably double door.)

What other shipments would I be receiving? We're talking about an area that (in my world, at least) is having a post-war building boom in both residential and commercial structures. The highway infrastructure is not real good, so most material would arrive by rail. I'm sure a lot of stuff would be LCL and be dropped at the freight house (REA) or the team track.

Besides the above mentioned loads, what can I expect?

(And, yes, I did a few searches in the forums, but not a lot of helpful stuff for my period.)

 

[dehusman]

Assembled doors and windows.

Fuel oil

Coal (hopper loads)

Plywood

Roofing shingles (shake, roll, 3 tab)

Gravel (hopper loads)

Bagged sand

Bagged cement/concrete mix

Pipe (plumbing, copper)

Pipe (sanitary, cast iron, clay)

Pipe (drainage, clay, concrete, corrugated metal)

Plumbing fixtures (toilets, sinks, water heaters)

Furnaces

Fencing (chain link, picket, board, not swords)

Dave H.

[tomikawaTT]

to Dave's list, plus;

Kitchen cabinets and countertop materials.

Tools, mostly hand but also some powered (wire-connected, not cordless.)

Small gensets (for on-site power.)

Decorative stone (e.g., Vermont granite.)

Electrical wire and fittings (BX cable came in BIG coils!)

A large builder's supply might carry gasoline-powered compressors and pneumatic hammers.

I'm sure others will add to this list.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Dave-the-Train]

Valuable (like copper pipe and brass fittings) and vulnerable (like paster and paster board) would travel in box cars.  They would be packed securely, probably arranged to be handled by fork lift truck and shifted from boxcar to secure/dry storage fast - mostly under cover... a canopy over the loading dock... so you wouldn't see much of them except, possibly, the "returned empty" boxes or a heap of smashed up packing in an otherwise unused corner.

Lumber can be interesting if you have enough of it to justify a straddke carrier.

If your aggregate comes in hoppers... how do you get it out? ... to where?  Aggregate can also ride in gons and be scooped out by backhoe... and hand tools.  Bulk sand ... I don't know how you would handle it in the US... the fine/dry stuff (we call it "sharp") would blow out of any open car.  The sticky stuff (we call it "soft") can be murder to get out of a hopper.  If any aggregate/sand is locally sourced it will tend to be delivered by truck... possibly sheeted (fitted with a tarpaulin)... interesting question... would RR sheet a gon or hopper of sand?   Obviously beyond a certain date they would use covered hoppers... any advice on when and what from someone please?  Again covered hoppers have to be unloaded... how? .... to where?

:-)

[dehusman]

Lumber can be interesting if you have enough of it to justify a straddke carrier.

Would be relatively rare in the 1940's.

If your aggregate comes in hoppers... how do you get it out?

Don't know how they do it in England, but over here we open the bottom doors on the hoppers. Gravity takes over.

... to where?

A pit or a low trestle.

Aggregate can also ride in gons and be scooped out by backhoe... and hand tools.

Mostly drop bottom gons or clamshell bucket on a crane. Very few backhoes in 1940's.

Bulk sand ... I don't know how you would handle it in the US

Construction sand that is used in concrete, etc. would be shipped in hopper cars, normally twin hoppers. Hopper built for sand service have steeper slope sheets than hoppers built for coal.

. would RR sheet a gon or hopper of sand?

No. Only things I have seen sheeted are raw sugar and trash.

Obviously beyond a certain date they would use covered hoppers... any advice on when and what from someone please?

Covered hoppers for fine ore date back to the late 1800's early 1900's. They weren't common for sand until the 1930's, grain until the 1960's. Sand for a 1940's building supply would be in either a hopper, gondola or boxcar.

Again covered hoppers have to be unloaded... how? .... to where?

Open the outlet. Gravity works. It is unloaded into a pit or a trestle.

Dave H.

[Railway Man]

Valuable (like copper pipe and brass fittings) and vulnerable (like paster and paster board) would travel in box cars.  They would be packed securely, probably arranged to be handled by fork lift truck and shifted from boxcar to secure/dry storage fast - mostly under cover... a canopy over the loading dock... so you wouldn't see much of them except, possibly, the "returned empty" boxes or a heap of smashed up packing in an otherwise unused corner.

Lumber can be interesting if you have enough of it to justify a straddke carrier.

If your aggregate comes in hoppers... how do you get it out? ... to where?  Aggregate can also ride in gons and be scooped out by backhoe... and hand tools.  Bulk sand ... I don't know how you would handle it in the US... the fine/dry stuff (we call it "sharp") would blow out of any open car.  The sticky stuff (we call it "soft") can be murder to get out of a hopper.  If any aggregate/sand is locally sourced it will tend to be delivered by truck... possibly sheeted (fitted with a tarpaulin)... interesting question... would RR sheet a gon or hopper of sand?   Obviously beyond a certain date they would use covered hoppers... any advice on when and what from someone please?  Again covered hoppers have to be unloaded... how? .... to where?

:-)

In the U.S., in the 1940s, planed lumber and millwork was virtually 100% shipped in boxcars. Flatcars and gons carried rough-cut (unplaned) lumber, low-quality lumber meant for pallets, and timbers and poles.

Most lumberyards in the 1940s ran a significant millwork and custom-cutting business, and bought by the grade, not by a length. Within a purchase the sawmill would guarantee X percentage of the desired length, and a certain percentage of overs and unders. Contractors would either purchase on the same basis from the lumberyard (certain percentage of overs and unders) or would provide a cut list and the lumberyard would deliver most of the framing lumber cut to length.

The very largest lumberyards often ran a door shop and window shop; sometimes milling their own shapes.

Gypsum wallboard didn't become very common in the U.S. until the 1950s and was generally shipped in bulkhead flatcars, not in boxcars. Most lumberyards did not handle it until the 1960s, and then only in very small quantities for do-it-yourself homeowners. Wallboard was typically handled by specialty building materials suppliers.

The preponderance of plumbing materials was handled by specialty houses instead of lumberyards, except for some very large lumberyards.

Fork-lift trucks appeared in the 1950s, as the backhoe. There were pallet jacks available in the 1940s -- big, heavy things -- but a great deal of the work was done 100% by hand.

RWM

[SaltRiverRy]

Railway Man - very informative. Thanks. Just what I was looking for.