Lumber Loads for Prairie Shadows bulkhead flats

[lock4244]

Not sure if already mentioned here, but these were a long time in coming. If anyone here has some of the bulkheads in need of loads, Jeff has released four schemes in two packs that are, imo, pretty fairly priced. If you don't own any of the bulkheads, they're discounted, as are the loads if you buy them together.

https://www.prairieshadows.com/catalog/product/prairie-shadows-n-bulkhead-flatcar-lumber-load/496

[dandopinski]

Jeff has been good to us Canadians, and an excellent custom painter as well.

[BCR 570]

These look quite nice; I would entertain purchasing a few Canfor loads.

Tim

[lock4244]

Jeff has been good to us Canadians, and an excellent custom painter as well.

He had his N scale UP Tiger SD60M on display at Trainfest... it was pretty damned good. His CP Military units were also exceptional. I don't actually do any real modeling, so seeing what someone with actual talent in person can do always impresses me.

Beyond his painting skills and the goodies he's taken financial risk to produce for us N scalers, he's also a great guy (and fun at parties, lol).

[lock4244]

Some pics of the lumber loads:

MacBlo
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Canfor
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Can see under the loads, nice touch
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Underside
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[cv_acr]

the strapping lines on the loads are a little odd unfortunately though. The banding should tie each row of bundles to the one below it to make a solid load. None of those lines line up from one level to the other, so this load isn't tied together at all and would just fall off the car....

[lock4244]

the strapping lines on the loads are a little odd unfortunately though. The banding should tie each row of bundles to the one below it to make a solid load. None of those lines line up from one level to the other, so this load isn't tied together at all and would just fall off the car....

True, but probably not an issue in this instance.

[dandopinski]

Easily fixed with a fine tipped Sharpie marker.

[thomasjmdavis]

the strapping lines on the loads are a little odd unfortunately though. The banding should tie each row of bundles to the one below it to make a solid load. None of those lines line up from one level to the other, so this load isn't tied together at all and would just fall off the car....

The banding ("strapping lines") holds each pallet load together. Which looks correct to me. The plastic wrapping by itself wouldn't hold up to keep the loads together. And it would make unloading more difficult. What is missing are the strap or cable tie downs that would attach to the ...whatever the modern nomenclature is for a stake pocket...and go over the top of the load.

In any case, some years back, when I had my business in Chicago, we occasionally purchased lumber products in large enough quantities that we would drive a flatbed (glorified pickup truck) over to the lumber company, and they would pick our order (banded and wrapped) off a flatcar with their fork lift and put it on our flatbed. 

[lock4244]

Each bundle banded to adjacent bundle but nothing to the car or are my eye's missing something?

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn603147&o=cn

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn603418&o=cn

[thomasjmdavis]

Each bundle banded to adjacent bundle but nothing to the car or are my eye's missing something?

You're right, that does seem to be what they are doing in those photos.  It does accomplish the same thing- that is, that the everything is attached "together".  But also note that the individual loads/bundles/pallets also have some individual strapping/banding around the bundle.  In looking at more pictures, it also appears that in some cases, the "wrapper" either goes over the strapping of a load, or is sufficiently strong to keep the pallet load together, as the banding for the individual bundle is not evident.

[lock4244]

You're right, that does seem to be what they are doing in those photos.  It does accomplish the same thing- that is, that the everything is attached "together".  But also note that the individual loads/bundles/pallets also have some individual strapping/banding around the bundle.  In looking at more pictures, it also appears that in some cases, the "wrapper" either goes over the strapping of a load, or is sufficiently strong to keep the pallet load together, as the banding for the individual bundle is not evident.

In the limited investigating that I've done it seems that the more recent the photo the more the focus is strapping to secure the entire load to the car vs strapping individual bundles. I've ignored centerbeam cars, just been looking at cars matching or close to the Prairie Shadows model. That said, in flood of centerbeam cars relegated the 52' type cars to more specialized loads so seeing them in lumber service is much less common as you get move closer to current year from say 2000.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol19062&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol19085&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol17968&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol18417&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol17405&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol17397&o=bcol

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bcol17274&o=bcol

[lock4244]

In the end, I'm not going to loose sleep over the banding / strapping... more concerned with affixing them to the cars in a way that they will not shift or fall off, yet be easy enough to remove should the need arise.

[Philip H]

In the end, I'm not going to loose sleep over the banding / strapping... more concerned with affixing them to the cars in a way that they will not shift or fall off, yet be easy enough to remove should the need arise.

Maybe small magnets like the JTC ones for containers?

[milw156]

tiny bit of latex caulk al a couple of points has worked for me, even for TOFC.