Pieter: Of course, there were examples of 40-foot boxcars with larger door openings than the typical 6-foot door. Some of these were actually the creation of rebuild programs by various railroad shops during the 1950's. There were even some double door 40-foot boxcars -- as Bob mentioned, some of these were in automotive service with interior racks.
However, one of the issues with increasing the door width of a 40-foot car was that a 40-foot car with an 8-foot door now had 20% of its length comprised of door area. Shippers want to "unitize" their load, creating a tight fit in the car, so that the lading cannot shift and become damaged. The doorway area of a sliding door car created particular problems, because the lading in the doorway area could not be fit snugly up against the door -- otherwise you would never be able to get the car door open at destination. The only way to prevent the load from shifting against a sliding door was to provide more blocking and bracing (at shipper expense). As the 1950's progressed, the truck trailer became the standard vehicle for designing packaging and pallet sizes, etc. A truck load could be unitized more easily, and loading from the rear was much easier than having to enter the side of the boxcar, and then pivoting the load 90 degrees into the boxcar. I will stop here -- this can all get fairly dry, but it does help to explain how the 40-foot boxcar slowly became obsolete, and why, as modelers, we should try to reflect this evolution in the national freight car fleet in our model rosters. Although the Pacific Rail Shops 50-foot boxcar kits do have some limitations, they are still the best representatives we have of typical 1950's 50-foot boxcars in S-scale. Dan (but not Dave) Vandermause Ellicott City, MD --- In [email protected], Pieter Roos <pieter_roos@...> wrote: > > Hi dave; > > Well, except that there were 40 ft cars with 7 and 8 ft single doors and 12, > 14 or 15' double doors as well. > > While I have not looked hard enough yet, the PRS 50ft car seems to have a > somewhat unusual rivet/panel pattern on the sides. It would also be nice to > have a 50ft double door car with the rectangular panel roof, like the ATSF > Fe-24. > > Pieter E. Roos > > > --- On Mon, 8/15/11, danvandermause <danvandermause@...> wrote: > > > Bob: > > You are right about the difficulties of loading automobiles > > into boxcars -- no wonder the railroads lost most of the > > finished automobile market until the advent of multilevel > > flats! > > > > One factor that drove the conversion from 40 foot to 50 > > foot boxcars, that you do not hear a lot about in the model > > press, was the increasing use of mechanized loading (fork > > lifts)during the 1950's. The typical 6-foot door on a > > 40-foot boxcar was a good door size during the days when > > labor was cheap and a car could be loaded one box at a time > > (or one stick of lumber at a time). The 6-foot door > > was also easy to close off with a grain door, for grain > > loading. > > > > Generally, you need at least an 8-foot door width to > > effectively utilize a fork lift, and if you are loading > > lumber, a 16-foot double door is better. > > > > So, even if a customer did not necessarily need the extra > > cubic capacity of a 50-foot car versus a 40-foot car, the > > door width of the newer 50-foot car was often the > > determining factor. > > > > Dan Vandermause > > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
