Lumber loads

[Charles Smiley]

I can't remember who sent me the link (thanks!) to the place that sells these lumber load kits but they are very good.

I bought two sets. They are plastic but painting is easy -- I used Floquil "foundation" with rust and brown powdered chalk weathering for deeper color streaks. They simulate the random-board loads stacked by hand when labor was 50-cents an hour or less.

They come from http://owlmtmodels.com/

They are a little expensive but it would have cost a lot more to buy the needed basswood like the loads on the WP flat cars I made 40 years ago from Athearn BB flat cars.

These loads were a little too wide for older Athearn cars. So I used them on a pair of Walthers P2K flat cars. The P2K flatcars have horrible tiny stake pockets so I had to sharpen the tips of the vertical braces to force them in.

 

[goscrewyourselves]

They look very good Charles, nice job.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Those are nice looking loads.
Charles, your ballast ing on the track is outstanding, as well as weathering on the cars!

 

[cajon]

Tony Thompson has a blog for making lumber loads in gondolas. You could probably use the same technique for making flat car loads.
http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/open-car-loads-lumber-in-gondolas.html

 

[Charles Smiley]

The little sticks are a good idea. I'll check the local Michaels store.

Campbell long ago sold HO scale "switch ties" by the bag. They were perfect for making cheap lumber loads. Can't find them any more. In my photo the loads on the Western Pacific flats are the long ties from Campbell. I have other cars with loads made from basswood strips that drive the cost way up. So keeping costs down is a good move. But the ease of assembly of these Owl loads can't be matched.

 

[skillman]

Those do look very good. I have similar loads on old Athearn flats. I'm always amused when I see loads that are supposedly on pre-60s trains that are strapped down or wrapped. Lumber bracing was almost free and labor was cheap. I grew up in a family in the logging/milling business in the Olympia area and watched the trains pulling lots of lumber loads. The other thing to remember is that much of the lumber and plywood was hauled in boxcars. Little chance of spilling shifting loads. They were still tied in with wooden bracing. Saw lots of this as a young man.

Steve

 

[Charles Smiley]

Steve that's really true. You could hire good men to load lumber into box cars one board at a time. Or shovel out the grain from a hot dusty boxcar too. Maybe 50 cents an hour in some areas in the 1950s.