Herets How Thev Do h-- Boxccrr Shipping of Lumber in Unit Locrds

By ROBERT B. BROWN Materials Handling Director National Retail Lumber Dealers Association

The recent NRLDA Exposition in Chicago featured publicly, for the first time, the comparatively new method of shipping units of lumber in conventional double-door boxcars. The dealers who saw the trackside demonstrations the third day of the Exposition were completely amazed and found it hard to believe what they saw when they witnessed 36,000 feet of lumber banded in units unloaded in the arnazing time of 21 minutes.

\Me are not overlooking the fact that this record was made under ideal conditions, with the aid of new fork trucks of 7,000 and 15,000-pound capacity, smooth concrete floors, easy accessibility to the car, and fork truck drivers from Sterling Lumber Company who probably have more "know-how" for this type of unloading than any other drivers in the country, since they have unloaded approximately 50 cars of this type.

Cars of units of lumber were unloaded each day of the Exposition and the thousands of dealers who watched these demonstrations were generally in agreement that their own drivers, using only one fork truck, could easily learn to unload these cars in two hours or less. This is in keeping vrith the thinking of the men who developed the system.

John E. Moeling, president of Sterling Lumber Company in Chicago, and Clarence Thompson, president of Thompson Lumber Company, Champaign, Illinois, are directly responEible for developing the two methods of shipping units of lumber in boxcars which will probably come to be the accepted methods. However, neither of these "pioneers" who spent a great deal of their time and money perfecting tiis system could have succeeded without the fullest cooperation of the mills with which they were dealing. R. E. Stermitz, of fntermountain Lumber Company, Missoula, Montana, and W. H. Patterson, of Boise-Payette Lumber Company, Emrnett, Idaho, not only gave their fullest cooperation but contributed many ideas that rvere of great value in perfecting the system.

The units of lumber are packaged as close to 4 wide as possible and the height will be varied to sttit individual customers' requirements, within reason. Both Boise-Payette and Intermountain Lumber Companies, ihe only mills to our knowledge now offering to ship units of lumber in boxcars, prefer not to load more than 6 lengths per car. Half units of different grades can be banded together into one tinit but, to separate these with a fork truck, "easy entry plates," as now ttsed on gypsum board, or chisel forks would be required.

The units are packaged using two fu" steel straps and one inch "stickers" in three or four places, which permits a tighter package and prevents coring. Special corner protectors made of scrap wood are used, which eliminates damage to the lumber and permits the strap to slide easily around the corners when it is being tightened. This also eliminates breakage of the strap at the corners. BoisePayette compresses the units both in height an<l width r,vith hydraulic pressure before the strapping is applied. Under the pressure of over 5,000 psi, the size of the unit is reduced nearly ll inches. The units in one stack are interlaced with two additional 3/4" steel straps to prevent shifting in transit. Each unit is tallied separately with the tally written on the unit.

Intermountain Lumber Company braces the lumber by inserting 4x8 sheets of plywood between the ends of the stacks and making boxes of 4x8 plywood and scrap lumber to fit between the stacks in the center of the car. A brace between the floor and ceiling of the car prevents the load from shifting against the door. They charge an additional $1.00 per M for unitizing plus their cost for the required plywood. This usually is not damaged and can be sold to reclaim the cost.

With the Boise-Payette system of bracing a car, nothing is placed between the ends of the stacks except to fill the one open space left on each side of the car. A bulkhead is built out of scrap dimension to fit into this void. This is rrrade to the width and height of the bottom units. To keep the units from shifting into the void in the center of the car, scrap pieces of 6x6 or larger are nailed to the floor across the center void. A brace between the floor and ceiling is used to keep the load from shifting against the door. Boise-Payette charges an additional $1.50 perM for unitizing.

The system of unloading these cars is much simpler than it would seem. fn the Boise-Payette car, the bulkhead is first pulled out and the lCl' stack is side-shifted into the doorway and then removed. Next step is to lift the end of the 12'stack that is in the doorway and replace the spacers on the floor with rollers. If fairly large rollers are used. this stack can be pushed into the doorway by tr,vo mer-r. The stacks that are longer than the door opening must be "twisted" out.

If the carcan be unloaded from both sides, the san-le procedure is followed on the other side. Ifit is necessary to work from one side of the car, the center stack can be pulled straight across the car. The end stacks can be rolled across, after those on the near side have been removed, instead of straight into the door, by turning the rollers toward the rear door when they are placed under the stack. This will require more rollers than when rolling the stack straight.

To move the stacks from the ends of the car to the doorw-ay, it is necessary to jack the stack high enough to get the rollers under it. A jack that operates from the hydraulic system of a fork truck was recently developed by A. Lucas & Son, Inc., Peoria, Illinois, and has proved to be satisfactory for this purpose. As this method of shipping becomes more popular, other types of jacks that can be operated independent of the fork truck will undoubtedly be developed.

The shipping of units of lumber in boxcars is perfected to the point where it is practical. The next step is to be able to get it shipped this way. Obviously, two mills won't be able to keep up with the demand for unitized shipments. More about this next month.