Who knows anything about lumber doors on the ends of boxcars? How common were they, how were they used, etc...

I've got an old MDC wood boxcar kit with a lumber door detail part, and I'm debating whether to add it or leave it on the sprue...

Kevin,
Lumber doors were used to load longer pieces of lumber that were either too long fit through the side doors or after the boxcar was about 2/3rds full and they couldn't get any more in through the side doors. They were quite common on wood boxcars.

I'll throw in my two farthings worth . If you like it , and it is somewhat plausible , use it !

I ran into an issue on my old steel mill layout . I wanted to use one of my favourite locos , a 3 truck Shay . Did mills use a Shay ? I did some research and found that one mill in Washington used one ...don't know what for , but it was close enough for me . If a rivet counter decided to ask , I was ready with the answer ...."Yep , mill over in Washington ...you can look it up ! " As the late Dean Freytag used to say , 90% of onlookers don't know anyhow .

T

Kevin,

What is the era of your layout? Specialized boxcars were quite common in the golden age of steam. In addition to the lumber doors, you might see insulated, auto, ones with floor drains, ones for clean lading only, grain doors, drop bottom, ventilated, and more.

The more modern, the less likely they are to have the "specialization".

Hope that answers your question. Looking at Doctorwayne's threads may also be instructive

Andrew

Kevin;

If it's any help, I clearly remember handling 40 foot box steel box cars (single and double door) with the doors in the ends up through the early to mid 70's. As best I can recall, most of them were Canadian roads or some western roads such as UP, GN, SP&S, to name a few off hand.

It makes for an interesting detail..

Lumber doors were most common, oddly enough, on lumber-carry roads in the Pacific north-west, especially in the '20s and '30s, and a lot of such cars ran into the '50s. Some cars also had rail doors - similar to lumber doors but closer to the floor.
In a quick perusal of Ted Culotta's "Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual" the only ones noted with lumber doors were Northern Pacific, Milwaukee Road, and Canadian Pacific, but I have seen photos of others.




In the same time period, many automobile cars, both 40'- and 50'-ers were fitted with end doors. Wabash was still running 21 such 40' single sheathed wood boxcars in 1964. Their side double-doors had been sealed, leaving only the end doors operable, and the cars were placed in pipe service to the Alcoa Aluminum plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

Wayne

I remember reading articles about boxcars fitted with timber doors, and thinking what a laborious process it must have been to be the poor laborers tasked with having to load or unload a boxcar of timber via a timber door hatch. Trust me I have handled enough sticks and beams of timber over the years while building buildings to know just a bit more than most about the subject.
The use of these doors on boxcars was acceptable in the days when the cost of labour was low in relation to the value of the timber. As the cost of labour increased and mechanized handling methods became more available to handle packs of timber as well as the introduction of several specialized flatcar designs to handle timber packs the use of boxcars with timber doors fell from favor.
One of the quirks of the US rail system during this period under ICC rate making regulations was that a shipper could send a boxcar on its way with no fixed consignee and divert the car in transit to where the best price was being paid for timber. The time taken on this journey also had the side effect of acting as the shippers mobile warehouse and also if the journey was particularly long the boxcar also acted as a defacto drying shed. It was not unheard of for boxcars to be opened and the timber inside was found to be fully seasoned. One would hope that the boys stacking the boxcar had done a good job or else you maybe left with a load of expensive seasoned firewood.
Loading and unloading the boxcar would also mean positioning the car during switching to ensure easy access to the timber door to get at the door to be able to get long lengths in or out.

Mark

doctorwayne Wrote:In the same time period, many automobile cars, both 40'- and 50'-ers were fitted with end doors. Wabash was still running 21 such 40' single sheathed wood boxcars in 1964. Their side double-doors had been sealed, leaving only the end doors operable, and the cars were placed in pipe service to the Alcoa Aluminum plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

Wayne

Here's a picture of the business end of an auto boxcar (A end).

[albumimg]1225[/albumimg]

Andrew

I don't know if these wood ( ) have been used for timber - but they may be of interest

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shortliner Wrote:I don't know if these wood ( ) have been used for timber - but they may be of interest

I'm not sure, but, the idea has kind of " GROAN " on me.

Some lumber Schooners had ( doors ), bow ports, for loading long planks, that were closed and caulked, before leaving port. One of these was the Maine-built four mast Schooner Anna R. Heidritter, launched in 1903. She was driven aground in a storm March 3rd 1942.
Somewhere I have a photo of an Auto Box car, with a load of 28' wood Whale Boats.

Cool info, guys. I decided to add the door, because it looks cool

Sumpter250 Wrote:Some lumber Schooners had ( doors ), bow ports, for loading long planks, that were closed and caulked, before leaving port. One of these was the Maine-built four mast Schooner Anna R. Heidritter, launched in 1903. She was driven aground in a storm March 3rd 1942.

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Here's one in 1872 being loaded at Quebec City. The squared timber is likely white pine from the Algonquin area,a nd would have been floated all the way to Quebec via Ottawa. Very likely destined for England.

Andrew