cotton waste

[doctorwayne]

Can anybody tell me what the source was of the cotton waste use in freight car journal boxes? Is this the same stuff that was used to wipe down locomotives?
It would appear that railroads used a lot of it: how was it shipped, in bales or in some type of container, such as a barrel or a drum. (I thought this might be a good load to spot at the stores department on my mid-'30's layout). Thanks for any info that you can provide.
Wayne

[ndbprr]

Since no one has answered this I'll take a stab at it. Cotton waste is most likeley the ends from rolls of cotton batting used as cushioning in the furniture industry. Sources wuld be furniture companies and batting manufacturers. Industry buys rags from vendors today that are made from the odds and ends of clothing manufacturing and there is a whole subindustry dealing in them. It was probably the same when it was used for rail cars. Yes it probably was the same stuff as the railroad would have some in their storehouses. I doubt it was compressed and probably shipped in boxes. that is totaly a guess however.

[Leon Silverman]

NDBPRR:
Your guess was pretty close. I put the topic into the Yahoo Search Engine and read that it the end product of CLEANING the cotton fibre prior to weaving it into a cloth, not remnants. The waste consists of "Stems, leaves, soils, and lint." Older cleaning methods resulted in the waste amounting to about seven percent of the fibre produced. Current methods yield a waste of about 3 percent.

[AztecEagle]

I Think It Was Used To Pack Journal Boxes In The 30s To Prevent Hotboxes.FYI:Doers Any Manufacturer Make HO Scale Cotton Bales?I'm Planning To Model Central Texas in The 1958-59-60 Era And It'd Be Nice To Have A Box Car Loaded With Cotton Bales.

[jrbarney]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AztecEagle

. . . Does Any Manufacturer Make HO Scale Cotton Bales? I'm Planning To Model Central Texas in The 1958-59-60 Era And It'd Be Nice To Have A Box Car Loaded With Cotton Bales.

AztecEagle,
Walthers has some model trucks by Trucks N Stuff that have cotton bales for loads. Here's the link:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=cotton+bale&quicksrch_butt.x=35&quicksrch_butt.y=6
However, all of the items appear to be back ordered, so Trucks N Stuff may have gone out of business. If not, perhaps Trucks N Stuff would be willing to sell you a few freight cars of cotton bales. Or, you might find some of their models at a train meet.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[dehusman]

If you had a boxcar loaded with cotton bales you would never see it. The doors would be closed. You might see bales on a loading dock, but not in a boxcar that was moving.

Dave H.

[AztecEagle]

Daaveey,Thanks For The Info.I've looked at some European Freight Car Loads in The Walther's Catalog.With a few exceptions,most of them could easily fit into the era I'm modeling.(1958-59-60).FYI:Do you think Model Power's 57'orIntermountain's 60'Flat would be usuable as Late 50's/Early 60's Era Piggyback Flats?

[Anonymous]

Azteceagle was right, but a few years off in usage. My Grandfather worked for the CB&Q in Cody Wyoming and took me along in the mid-50's as he checked and repacked/reoiled tankcar journal bearings in the staging yard for the Husky Oil refinery. I don't recall where the cotton waste was stored, but I do recall that both 'waste' as defined by Leon Silverman AND as defined by ndbprr were used. The cleaning waste reminds me of dryer lint: formless, but not without volume; a box/crate or barrel would have been appropriate for transport. The method of transport probably depended on the percieved volumetric need. I.E., Cody, at the section house would not need as much as Alliance would, because there were simply fewer cars to repack. I remember seeing some bits of rag in some of the journal boxes, but those may have been added by railroaders when they were out of the cleaning waste. The important thing to remember is that the waste was used to keep oil on the bearing journal surface. As such anything that would do that, would and could be used...and probably was at some point! Granted, I was 4 or 5 years old at the time I 'helped' Grampa re-oil, but it made a huge impact and the memory is still pretty vivid nearly 50 years later. Mike

[nbrodar]

During the later friction bearing era special pads, similar to sponges, where used to keep the journals lubed.

Nick

[wjstix]

You could have a boxcar with an open door (or sliding openable doors) that had a cotton load inside. I've done similar things with MDC / Athearn cars using lumber loads or boxes etc. You just need to put enough stuff to block your view into the car so it looks like the car is being unloaded. I sometimes sneak a worker in there too.

Course, when them cotton balls get rotten......

[bwftex]

Cotton was often shipped on flat cars in addition to boxcars. From pictures I have from the earl 1900's it seems like many more flat cars were used than boxcars. In many cases the cotton bails did not have to travel very far from the gin to the compress. From the compress the compressed bails might travel a great distance to a port city and I would think it would be more likely they would be sent in boxcars at that point. But during cotton harvest at least here in Texas just about anything and everything that could be loaded up was used. I would not be surprised if gondolas and hoppers might have hauled a few bails too. Cotton oil facilities that were often right next to the compress plants were busy too so tank cars full of cotton oil would be moving around at the same time. You can mass-produce cotton bails for your layout with out too much trouble. Use square strip wood (balsa might be best for this) of the appropriate size for your scale. Round the edges a little with sand paper. With a triangular file make six evenly spaced shallow groves around the bail for each bail and smooth them with a swipe of sand paper. Then cut off pieces for each bail. Round off the ends of each bail with a few swipes of sand paper then paint them a flat slightly off white. You might add some fine texture to them first then paint them. Use small pieces of tissue painted tan for the burlap retainers and then wrap the bails with six evenly spaced pieces of fine thread in each of the six groves. You could make a huge number of these over three or four evenings while watching the news. Bruce