A Q about F4 plasterboard flatcars / GRAIN DOORS

[NW Mailing List]

When I lived on Shelburne Farms in Vermont in the 50s and early 60s it was an 1800 acre dairy farm.  We got a lot of stuff shipped in railroad cars.   We got grain for feed and sawdust for bedding in box cars.   The single doors were blocked up with large timbers.   We unloaded both with an 8" diameter electric powered auger that was fastened to a 2x10 timber pushed under the roof walk.   When the area inside the car around the door was clear we used a large grain shovel to feed the auger.  As we emptied more of the car we added an auger extension on the floor so we never had to shovel more than ten feet.   The farm got a 30 ton load od sawdust from a lumber mill in New Hampshire every ten days and two loads of grain each year.   We got potash in box cars for two years and then it was switched to covered hoppers.    Unloaded them with the auger as well.   When the Rutland stopped running in 1961 and the farm had to have everything moved by truck the transportation costs went up significantly.  

Shelburne Farms was converted from a working dairy farm to a charitable historic site in the early 80s long after I left as a kid in 1963. 

Sent from my digital telegraph key
Jim Stapleton
Hillsboro VA

On Sep 16, 2025, at 18:47, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:


I once heard that they were cardboard. Maybe this varies according to the railroad.

Carl Barna
Emmaus, PA
From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 5:24 PM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: A Q about F4 plasterboard flatcars
 
Mr Barna asks:  What were grain doors made of ?

Answer:  rough lumber, probably about 2 x 10".

No guess on the kind of wood. 

They were also good for building fires !

-- abram burnett
Certified Turnip Coach
.
 
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