Woodpulp Cars

[WGL]

I just searched & didn't find any post on this topic.  At the local train show last Sunday, I saw some HO woodpulp cars whose loads looked so realistic with bark on the logs that I wondered if the hobbyist had cut twigs by hand to make the loads.  Since I thought I might hear, "Are you kidding?", I didn't ask my "dumb" question.  After the show was over, I suddenly got a craving to have a woodpulp car.  So has anyone here made his own woodpulp load of real wood?  Buying a plastic load doesn't appeal to me.

[pdlethbridge]

The pulpwood cars were very common on the Maine Central. Any place where there was timber and Paper mills these would be used. Ambroid made a wooden kit of a 70' pulpwood car. Sometimes you can find them on ebay.

[J3a-614]

Yes, indeed, some people have made the loads out of twigs.  It helps if you happen to have a hedge that needs trimming regularly; also, if you are one who goes in for real Christmas trees like I do, there are many branches you can trim off to make pulpwood and log loads, in various scales (the trunk itself would be good to represent large to very large logs in G-scale).

There are a couple of tricks to use if bulding up a load this way.  One is to make an enclosed or at least topped or inverted box slightly smaller than your load.  This is painted a dark color, and "coated" with twiggs (full-length on tops and ends, stubs on the sides, where only the ends of the pulpwood pieces would be visible); this is supposed to reduce weight to a certain extent, and reduce the gross amount of wood you need (helpful if making the load from dowels, which some people have also done), but you still have a lot of cutting to do.

I have a hedge, and my choice would be to use sticks and twiggs in full.  You do want to glue all this together of course, and in either technique (box or full), you will want to work on a surface or (better) a car template (flat pieces assembled to  represent the deck and bulkheads of the car you are loading) coated with waxed paper.  The waxed paper keeps the glue from sticking to the template, the template itself guarentees you get no glue on the car, and you get a removable load.

Of course, you don't want to use super-glue on this job!

Hope this helps.  Does anybody else have anything to add (even if it is to tell me I'm full of hooey?)

[Sunshine Express]

Yes,I too was interested in these cars.Came into HO US late and never could buy the original Tyco models.Bought one without the dummy load and cut real logs from a shrub in the yard and glued them with PVA white glue to the car body,one layer at a time.Next row sits in between the first etc.,and they hold together. This is not really prototypical,because when you see the Tyco Cars,the logs are half the width of the floor,and are slanted inwards.     I am scaling back to 40ft cars on my 10x5 Layout. Since these are 50ft cars
I am selling 2 that I made this way on you may guess where,but surprisingly no interest to date With this real wood load they run very well,hard to derail.
Hope this is of interest to you,I have never been to America so I cannot help any further on the real thing. Cheers from Oz.  Owen

[jward]

pulpwood cars of the 40' variety were very common around 1980 on the western maryland lines out of elkins wva. they, and woodchip hoppers, required special handling. they had to be hauled ahead of any coal loads, so that the coal dust didn't contaminate the wood. i believe atlas makes the correct model for these cars.....

[WGL]

 Thanks, everyone, for your help!  I will print out your advice.  I looked on eBay, where I saw some cars without supports, but I am considering a Walthers Gold Line pulpwood car on sale in their catalog for $14, which has supports to hold the logs in place.  It about 65' long, which is close to the limit for my curves & a "lotta" logs!  I was born in Grand Rapids, MN, along the Mississippi R., where the biggest business is Blandin paper mill.  Blandin Foundation does much philanthropic work.  I've visited International Falls, where Boise Cascade has a big mill.  Here in Wisconsin, there are paper mills, too.  Nobody mentioned using wooden matches, but they wouldn't look as realistic as twigs with bark on them.

[pdlethbridge]

If you use real wood for the loads, cook it at low heat to kill any bugs.

[J3a-614]

Pulpwood cars came in a variety of configurations, some specially built for the job, some converted from other equipment.  C&O had several series made from old gondola cars similar to the Athearn 50-footer; one of these cars is here:

http://www.cohs.org/repository/Archives/cohs/web/cohs-21363.jpg

These cars came out looking like a flat car with ribbed sills (rivet counters beware, the number of panels isn't quite right, but the look comes out surprisingly well).

Athearn's own pulpwood car that was sold as such was a fairly accurate model of a series built for the Missouri Pacific around 1947.

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=Pulpwood+Flat+RTR&CatID=THRF

The Atlas model mentioned is a prototype used by several roads, starting in the 1950s I believe.  This C&O car illustrates the type:

http://www.cohs.org/repository/Archives/cohs/web/cohs-21332.jpg

Mike Dodd, who models the Virginian Railway, has a bit about VGN cars here, at

http://mdodd.com/virginian/models.html

One unusual series was owned, I believe, by the Bangor & Aroostook; they had open slatted sides and ends, like a cattle or stock car, and were loaded from an opening in the center of the sides (like a door), or through the top (no roof).  What was really unusual about these cars was that the sides were somehow hinged at the top, and were unloaded on a canted track by unlocking the sides, which swung open virtually along the length of the car, letting the pulpwood fall out into a millpond.  Some more conventional cars from the BAR are here:

http://users.silcon.com/~lgoss/barpage8.htm

This is from this site here:

http://users.silcon.com/~lgoss/Homepage.htm

Enjoy.

[WGL]

 Thanks for the recipe, pdlethbridge!  I enjoyed the links,
J3a-614, showing the variety of pulpwood cars.

[WGL]

I got my CN 63' pulpwood car, but it took me 5 days to find, cut & glue 10 layers of twigs!  Sunshine Express, nobody would pay what it cost us in time (8-10hours for me) to make our pulpwood loads!  I tried to approximate the 6-8" diameters of the real logs.  I wanted poplar (quaking aspen), but the twigs are too thick & knobby.  I used Loctite non-toxic glue, which spared me breathing a lot of fumes from my hobby glue.
I hope I remember how to include pictures here.

[J3a-614]

Well, the pictures came out--and you've got a great looking pulpwood load!  Now I've got to get busy on my own (and logging loads, too--but how do I get my wife out of the house while I "cook" the sticks and things to kill anything hiding inside?)

Seriously, it looks good.  Now, how to reproduce the results at a slightly better pace. . .

How many pulpwood loads do you figure to need?

[WGL]

 Thanks, J3a-614!  I did take a shortcut with the baking & used the microwave.  I have only one car.  I don't plan to get any more.  Making one load is enough for me.  While I was waiting for the pulpwood car to arrive, a package of wooden skewers for about $2 caught my eye in the supermarket.  My wife, the temptress, said, "Why don't you use those?" & I could put a layer of twigs on top . . . .

[Doneldon]

WGL-

The microwave was a BIG mistake.  Unlike the regular oven which kills the bugs slowly so they stay in the logs, nuking them makes them blow up and they'll drip innards in your food the next time you use the mic oven.  Thanks for the dinner invite but I'm sorry, I can't make it.  I have a subsequent engagement.

     --D

[Santa Fe buff]

You could always have a dedicated microwave. You guys know you can try that same technique with tree bark to make rock cuts, right?

Cheers,
Joshua

[WGL]

Doneldon, do you often invite yourself to dine at the homes of strangers?  If you are so concerned about bug parts, I recommend Life on Man by Theodor Rosebury.  Have you ever wondered about all of those cooties on you & in you?
Joshua, one could always use a covered container in the microwave.  I don't know what rock cuts are.