When were these cars in use and what types of things did they haul? I don't think I've ever seen one in real life.
All-door cars were used for dimensional lumber, plywood, siding, and other manufactured building products that needed weather protection but are not convenient to load through a double-door boxcar. The drawback was the maintenance requirements of the door carriage and latching mechanisms and the vulnerability to damage of the doors and mechanisms, plus a higher capital cost. Complex and specialized cars can work OK when they're held captive between a very small number of origin and destination points, but that's not a characteristic of the lumber and building products distribution system. People unfamiliar with the needs of these cars -- who often don't really care either since they don't own the car and might never see it again -- can inflict a great deal of abuse on them.
All-door cars were not uncommon in the 1975-1985 time frame. Bennett Lumber at Princeton, Idaho, I recall having a modest fleet of 50-100 or so. I haven't seen too many in actual use (as opposed stored likely never to turn a revenue wheel again) in about 10 years.
RWM
loathar wrote:Great explanation! Thanks! I guess it's cheaper to wrap the wood in plastic and stick it on a center beam car these days.Sounds like 1-2 would be good candidates to sit on a rip track near my lumber yard.
At Princeton there was a string of them, rusty and overgrown with blackberry bushes, parked on a back track at the sawmill. The lumberyard is the less likely place to see them stored as lumber cars are usually under the control of the shipper, railroad or lessor, not the receiver.
They still ply the rails...there is a small lot of them still operating. FURX has a bunch - and also they advertise them on their web site, and I think NOKL also evidently has a couple dozen. There are a bunch evidently still operating under the ADN reporting mark, the Arkansas Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad Company (formerly included Ashley Drew & Northern).
They are evidently now used for high-quality wood products, top-end hardwoods and veneers and the like...
If you go to Joe Shaw's railroad images at Krunk.org, and click on shortlines, he has a pic of a Thrall all-door in Radford, VA in 2002. It's an ADN. http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/shortlines/adn/adn4727.jpg
Here's another ADN, who have seemingly repainted and refurbed a lot of them:
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhoge/adnalldoor/P0003801.htm
Here's a NOKL photographed in 2007. Looks in pretty good shape too. Somebody obviously still has use for these cars:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=854108
Another NOKL in 2005:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=104318
Here's a FURX all door LU in 2005:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=163602
and a FURX LU in 2007:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=806868
All Doors...Rare, but not all retired!!
There is one sitting at mile post 630.6 on the Central Oregon & Pacific Siskiyou line today.
The Oregon Pacific & Eastern had some. Four are still in Cottage Grove, OR being used for storage at the city shops. The property used to be the location for a RR car maintenance and rebuilding shop.
http://www.brian894x4.com/OPandErailroad.html