Lumber loads

[mikesmowers]

A while back there was a post on this forum that mentioned wrapped lumber loads on flat cars and even had a pic or two, I do not remember what they said they used to wrap the lumber and was wondering if any of you remember?  Also. how big are the loads of lumber? I know that plywood is basically 4X8, and the same with sheetrock (although sheetrock is different lengths) but I do not know how tall the stacks are, as the same question goes for 2x4, 2x6, and so forth. Any and all help is appriciated.     Thanks                               Mike

[BRAKIE]

A while back there was a post on this forum that mentioned wrapped lumber loads on flat cars and even had a pic or two, I do not remember what they said they used to wrap the lumber and was wondering if any of you remember?  Also. how big are the loads of lumber? I know that plywood is basically 4X8, and the same with sheetrock (although sheetrock is different lengths) but I do not know how tall the stacks are, as the same question goes for 2x4, 2x6, and so forth. Any and all help is appriciated.     Thanks                               Mike

 

Mike,I have use small blocks of Balsa wood wrap in plastic cut from a trash bag..

I made my lumber load a scale 10'-0" tall to represent wrapped stacked lumber.

[mikesmowers]

Thanks Brakie,    How wide did you make the stacked lumber?  A 10' tall stack would need to be 8' or so wide I would think.                     Mike

[BRAKIE]

Mike,My load was as wide as the bulkhead flat after all it was covered and that's the beauty of wrapping a  block of Balsa that fits the car you don't need to worry about the width of a stack of lumber..

[mikesmowers]

Thanks, under the cover is there more than 1 bundle of ,say 2x6's. if so you could make covered bundle as large as a flatcar under 1 cover.    Right?    Got any Pics?     Thanks, I do not know much about hauling lumber on a train.                                   Mike

[bogp40]

Mike,

Jaeger makes wrapped load kits for various bulkhead flats and centerbeams. Brakie's method of wrapping the pine blocks with the plastic grocery bag will give you the options of sizing a load to any proportion needed to fit the particular car. The kit form does have variuos lumber brands printed on the wrap. If you are good with a printer you should be able to make the covers yourself.

As for the dimensions of the loads, plywood of coarse is 4x8 as is a lift of 2x4/ 8'. KD framing lumber will be shipped wrapped and they come in 8 to 16' normal for 2x4 and 2x6, 2x8 to 2x12 can be up to 24' in length. A wrapped load will hide what is actually there. These could be any sort of lumber including manufactured truss (TJI) or laminated beams (LVL, microlam or glue lam). Unless you what a load showing only 8' material, you should vary the lengths through the 3-4 layers to stabilize to load.

One thing I really liked about the Jaeger loads was the roll of banding. This is nothing more than scale black self stick vinyl tape. Maybe others have found a suitable material to simulate the banding and the tie down web straps. Black tread was popular but doesn't look that real. Chains were once used before the nylon web straps.

A few loads I did make that turned out great were unwrapped green (unseasoned) rough stock. I made this for McKean open centerbeams. I started with a piece of 3/8" thick clear pine and cut it to 1 3/8 high x 8" long. I ripped my strip wood to aproximate thickness and sliced the widths with an Xacto blade. The first coarse was divided up in 16, 12, 10s ans 8' glued with Goo and then glued to the block. Once the first layer is completed the remaining stacks are just glued in place on the block. Remember to divide the height for even layers and also don't forget the stickers (spacers) between the layers. The space between stacks was darkened on the block to give the apearance of greater depth rather than showing only one layer of facard on the outside. The top layer was laid across the entire block and if I remember slots were cut down into the bock to show a separation between the lifts. This type of load is unbelievably realistic, but is a lot of work. I would like to make more of them someday, but considerable time is needed.

[BRAKIE]

Mike,Heres the loads Bob is talking about from Jaeger.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=347&split=60

 

And of course there are other commerical loads as well.

 

Athearn makes lumber loads as well.

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=Load&CatID=THA

 

Walthers makes a plastic lumber load for their 73' center beams.You will need to scroll down the page.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Freight&scale=H&manu=walthers&item=&keywords=center+beam+flat+car&instock=Q&split=60&Submit=Search

[1train1]

For my N scale centerbeams - I took the really long /really thin coffee stir sticks and cut them with the 'chopper' into identical or close to lengths. I wood glued them in an appropriate height stack and wrapped a little thread around them. A quick clear coat, then a little blob of silicon to hold each side in place on the car.

The next bunch will be wrapped in - large address labels (for letters) - a famous paper companies' logo repeated over and over which I printed with a colour printer. ...............Too much time on my hands I guess - but I couldn't see myself paying all that money for pre-made one's.

 

 

 

[SilverSpike]

This might be the posting you are researching, I copied it to my files and saved it in a Word document back on May 16th of this year: (I do not remember who the original poster was, but thanks go out to the original poster!)

Lumber Loads Wrapped

I've wanted some lumber loads for my flat cars, but I just can't stomach forking over ten or fifteen dollars for a single car load. So, I set out to make my own this week.

I completed my first lumber load this evening. It's a Weyerhaeuser wrapped load of particle board, headed out to some city, somewhere. I'm very pleased with the end result!

 

To make this load, I stole the Weyerhaeuser logo off of the Internet, shrunk it and copied it several dozen times in Microsoft Word. I recopied that until I had a page full of lined up logos. I then printed out a sheet of logos on thick paper using the best quality color print setting.

The next step was to cut the paper to wrap around four glued-together sticks of square balsa wood. It doesn't show in the photos, but there are some gently scribed horizontal lines to give the appearance of the product underneath. The tie-down bands were added with a felt tip pen and a small ruler.

How's that for an evening's craft project?

 

 

Again, thanks to the original poster for his contribution, I cannot remember who posted this around the period of May of this year!

 

 

[Shilshole]

dragenrider at http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/802257/ShowPost.aspx

[SilverSpike]

dragenrider at http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/802257/ShowPost.aspx

Thanks Shilshole, you found it!

And Thanks again to DragenRider!!!!

[mikesmowers]

Thanks all for the input. I will try that and if it works like I think it will I will post some pics.    Many thanks,                       Mike