Earlier I mentioned that forest products are a primary focus of my layout interests. This interest is expressed not only by my decision to model a paper mill as the central industry on the layout but also in the revenue traffic that the Olympic Peninsula Branch will carry and, necessarily, the types of freight cars needed to handle this traffic.
The inclusion of appropriate loads on various types of freight cars is a great way to increase the variety of industries served, implying their existence off "stage" as they feed traffic to the portion of the railroad modeled on the layout.
The Great Northern, like many Western railroads, depended heavily on forest products for revenue. Advertisements and other GN publicity materials illustrate this well.
This one, showing rolls of paper coming off of the finishing line at a paper mill:
Another discussing transport of logs and lumber, as well as promoting the railroad's efforts in developing industrial land for forest product manufacturing:
The boxed text in the center of this ad points out that the railroad not only transported forest products, but also consumed them for their uses, such as with ties for track. Yet another source of loads for freight cars, in this case for company service and maintenance-of-way efforts.
Going into more detail, company publications provide interesting background and examples of car loading for various wood products.
This short article includes very helpful detail photographs of several different plywood and lumber loads on bulkhead flat cars, which were fairly recent developments in the mid-60's. It is interesting to note that full and partially wrapped as well as unwrapped loads are all shown. This is a period where shippers were transitioning to new types of cars as well as new means of protecting their products from the elements. Previously, much finished lumber was shipped in boxcars, laboriously loaded by hand, as well as on standard flat cars, particularly rough lumber. In some cases, gondolas were also used. The desire for faster loading of larger loads, and for protection from the elements, was driving change in the railroad practices at this time.
This article in a monthly GN publication highlights a new customer for the railroad, a plywood mill in Montana. The bottom photograph of a box car with the iconic standing Rocky goat logo shows forklift loading of plywood into what appears to be a double door 40' car. This car would have been in my favorite glacier green color, a very signature car for the GN and one that sparked my interest in the Great Northern as a kid.
Lumber mills, plywood plants and logging are all typical of the forest product customers providing loads that were a mainstay for the GN and for my model railroad. Other loads that would be common include telephone poles on flats or gondolas, often very long and requiring idler flat cars; cedar shakes, woodchips and boxcars with paper products inside.
There is another entire set of loads and cars involved with pulp and paper mills, with a variety of tank cars handling chemicals, additives and byproducts. These are deserving of a much more detailed treatment in a future post.
As I have been building my model freight car roster, it has been helpful to look at available information like the advertising and promotional materials above, as well as period photographs, traffic reports and equipment rosters. These have shown the variety of flat cars, gondolas and box cars used for forest products by the GN and sister railroads in the Northwest.
I plan to highlight these various car types in more detail, along with their loads, in the coming months.
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