? Any diagrams or dimensions of a 1930s-1940s era longish wood loading dock around?

[chutton01]

This is something I figured I could readily find on the web, but didn't turn up quite what I need. I did turn up lots of great images of scale-model 1-2 spot wood loading docks and some interesting prototype docks, but not a lot of good images straight on to (somewhat) accurately calculate dimensions visually.

To be clear, what I seek is:
A loading dock for general freight made from wood (not necessarily one which you load wood or lumber from - oddly, those seemed to be usually made from concrete)
Multiple car spots - maybe 4 or so 40ft car lengths.  What I envision is a wood deck coming from a medium side freight terminal, perhaps 16ft wide and with sidings on both sides, so freight cars can be loaded on either side.  There numbers of such images, but they tend to be taken from on top of the deck looking forward, so this doesn't help in determining the size of posts, stringers, crossbeams, etc.

This deck would be relatively new construction done in the late 1930s or early 1940s, for the increasing trade in the run-up to WWII.  Nothing fancy, but not a hyper-weathered decrepit derelict either.  It would be designed to handle reasonably heavy loads for the era (10-20 tons), so substantial without being overbuilt would be cool.

Any dimensions of such a beast?
Thanks

[gmpullman]

There's a "Dollar Model" project in the January 1976 MR, pg. 76 that has some construction details for a 16 x 18 wood dock. I imagine length would pretty much be redundant construction until you reach your desired length.

Good Luck, Ed

[zstripe]

Chutton01,

I don't know if this will help You out any, but the project I am working on is centered around a Transload Rail/Truck Terminal of the 50's/60's era. Although this one is concrete, most all wood one's were bacically built the same way. One side of the structure is the truck loading/unloading side, the other side where the Engine is sitting is the rail side, hard to see in the pic' is the dock, from one end to the other, which is wood plank on a concrete foundation, used because concrete, unless poured with grit for a topping is very slippery when wet. The two docks sticking out from the end, where the flat car is off the tracks, LOL, is used for steel coil unloading and other large material, You could extend that as long as You want and generally made out of a 6''x6'' lumber with 16'' center's, 4''x8'' foot planks on top, 13ft. wide, can be wider if You so choose. There is only a foot of space between the car/flat and dock to minimize the width of any dock plate. North Eastern stripwood is a great source for scale dimensional lumber and another MFG. I use is MT. Albert scale lumber in CN. which I like because of the precision. I have a dimension chart, hopefully I can find it and give You a link.

Scale Lumber chart:

http://www.northeasternscalelumber.com/uploads/pdfs/NESLCatalog_2013.pdf

Take Care! Hope that helps some.

Frank

 

[doctorwayne]

Well, my original answer disappeared when I clicked "Submit" so you'll have to settle for the abreviated version (lucky day, eh? )

A couple of years ago, I toured an old cotton mill (made cotton cloth) and the floors were supported (in the basement) by 12"x12" and 12"x16" beams, with 3"x12" joists.  The floors were two layers of 2"x6"s, laid on edge and at 90° to one another.  That was topped by T&G hardwood planks, probably 2" thick.
Incidentally, the loading dock was concrete, supported by concrete piers.

It's unlikely that you'll want to waste that amount of material on detail which will not be seen.  For a loading dock, the visible parts are the vertical supports and bracing, the edges of the deck's support framing, and the deck itself.

There's a thread showing construction of a wooden loading dock here:

bigbluetrains.com

...although I used styrene in lieu of wood:  construction goes as quickly as you can work, and I find the results to be much more permanent than wood.
The dock is 9' wide, with support posts 12"x12" and most support framing 3"x12".  The deck is 3"x8"s.  I think that it looks fairly substantial, although you may want to make yours heavier: more support posts and shorter spans, and likely a thicker deck, too.

Wayne

[NP2626]

I'm mechanical enough that I wouldn't need to see other’s drawings of how to make this item myself.  You could make the whole thing from a chunk of pine cut to size with a ramp on one end if needed.  Then paint with concrete colors.  Or, scribe boards onto the sides and frame with properly sized lumber and put boards; or, scribe lines across the top, to represent a wood deck.  If you feel you want to have it open under the deck, determine what the distance between uprights should be and use wood ties; or, properly sized dowels for the pilings.  Provide pilings under the deck also and support the pilings with diagonal braces.

Sketch the dock out on a piece of paper to see if you will like what you’ve designed; but, keeping an eye towards simplicity.  Draw the structure in three views, so you know where everything goes.  Remember, there likely would be sacrificial beams around the perimeter to take the beating these structures would take at their edges.  Build, stain; or, paint, weather and place on the layout and you have your dock!    

[chutton01]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions; the loading dock in the Mill construction article that Doctor Wayne linked to seems very much what I had in mind. Wayne's suggested sizes seem reasonable (I guess you eyeballed it, as that article didn't seem to have actual dimensions except for the "wood" decking ~3"x12"). I'm kind of tempted to use wood for the decking, and styrene for the deck frame, but that means I'd probably need epoxy (or Goo), as I've never had much success using CA to join the two materials (and white glue doesn't help much either).
I may increase the number of supports too, as I would like a 16ft deck (meaning a stringer along the middle, as the deck planks would be 8ft long). I don't plan to go too nuts with this, nail holes will be the usual push pin indents (or, even better, leftover unused micro finger pricks from my late dad's Glucose Testing kit - they are very sharp, and work great for puncturing decal "bubbles").