FUTURE DEMAND FOR TIMBER 



401 



Building and Repair of Freight Cars Will 

 Require Lumber 



Back in the 1920's, the railroads and car build- 

 ing companies annually consumed over a billion 

 board-feet of lumber in building new cars and 

 repairing those in service. Since that time, annual 

 consumption has decreased by more than half, 

 partly due to reduction of the number of freight 

 cars in service (from about 2.7 million in 1928 to 

 just over 2.0 million in 1955), but chiefly because 

 of the substitution of steel for wood. Wood had 

 already been displaced by steel for framing all 

 types of cars. The further displacement has been 

 in the exterior covering of side and roofs; the 

 standard boxcar is now steel-sheathed. There is 

 a similar trend toward the steel-sheathed refriger- 

 ator car. Hopper cars and tank cars, of course, 

 have always been made almost entirely of steel. 



The freight-car components for which lumber is 

 still used extensive!}^ include flooring and interior 

 lining of boxcars and refrigerator cars, flooring 

 and siding slats of stock cars, flooring of gondola 

 cars and of flat cars, and flooring and interior 

 lining of caboose cars. For these, wood has 

 certain advantages: Blocking and bulkheading to 

 secure cargo in boxcars can more readily be fas- 

 tened to wood. Wood lining prevents condensa- 

 tion in boxcars and serves as part of the insulation 

 required in refrigerator cars. Wood floors absorb 

 vibration better than metal, are not subject to 

 rust or corrosion, and are easier and cheaper to 

 repair. 



Estimates of the average volume of lumber used 

 in building various types of freight cars have been 

 made by American Railway Car Institute: "^ 



Board- 

 Type of car: feet 



Box (steel-sheathed) 2,800 



Flat 1,800 



Stock 3,300 



Gondola 1, 400 



Refrigerator (steel-sheathed) 5, 500 



Weighted according to the type-distribution of all 

 new cars built during the period 1940-55 (table 

 234), these estimates indicate an overall average 

 of approximately 1,650 board-feet of lumber per 

 car. Assuming that plywood (and possibly hard- 

 board or sandwich panels) will to some extent be 

 substituted for lumber in freight car construction 

 of the future, it appears reasonable to assume that 

 the cars built by 1975 may average about 1,500 

 board-feet per car and by 2000 about 1,400 

 board-feet. 



Just over a million new freight cars were built 

 and put into service on the railroads of the United 

 States during the period 1940-55. An additional 

 155,000 cars were exported, chiefly during and 

 immediately after World War II. The average 

 number of cars built annually was 63,269 for 

 domestic use, and 72,956 for combined domestic 

 use and export. However, production of new 

 freight cars has been subject to severe fluctuations. 



For close to 30 years, the railroads have pro- 

 vided an increasing amount of transportation 



"2 Transmitted bv letter to the U. S. Forest Service. 



Table 234. — Number oj freight cars built annually in the United States, by type of car, 1940-55 



Year 



1940 



1941 



1942 



1943 



1944 



1945 



1946 



1947 



1948 



1949 



1950 



1951 



1952 



1953 



1954 



1955 



1940-55 total 



Annual average 



Total for domestic use 

 Annual average 



Total 



62, 341 



80, 623 

 62, 873 

 74, 953 



81, 762 

 54, 522 

 59, 975 

 96, 243 



114, 885 



95, 172 

 44, 209 



96, 043 

 79, 398 

 83, 811 

 38, 451 

 42, 042 



1, 167, 303 

 72, 956 



1, 012, 298 

 63, 269 



Box 



27, 662 

 41, 221 



30, 653 

 23, 074 



31, 510 

 26, 250 

 29, 757 

 51, 697 

 41, 566 

 17, 759 

 21, 888 

 41, 759 



23, 519 



24, 348 

 13, 452 

 21, 458 



467, 573 

 29, 223 



389, 109 

 24, 319 



Flat 



825 



1, 859 



2, 834 

 7, 820 



12, 514 



2, 498 

 1, 406 

 1, 124 



846 

 1, 880 

 2,393 



3, 120 

 2,005 

 2,655 

 2,340 

 1,537 



47, 656 

 2, 979 



29, 161 

 1,823 



Stock 



388 

 50 



287 

 213 



50 

 150 

 530 

 500 

 304 

 696 



100 



Gondola 



5, 743 

 13, 351 



9,597 

 23, 370 

 12, 476 



12, 044 

 11,416 



9,888 



13, 837 



18, 779 

 7,037 



22, 518 



14, 791 



19, 283 

 5,087 

 4,297 



3,268 

 204 



3, 188 

 199 



203, 514 

 12, 720 



161, 552 

 10, 098 



Hopper 



24, 477 

 17, 491 



14, 259 



15, 006 



16, 984 

 9,619 



14, 879 

 20, 930 

 42, 193 

 41,701 



7, 808 



15, 722 



25, 977 



26, 689 

 7,903 

 7,954 



309, 592 

 19, 350 



305, 939 

 19, 121 



Tank 



1,395 



2, 057 

 3,391 



3, 494 

 2, 668 

 1,735 



805 



4, 321 

 7, 050 

 5,330 

 1, 695 

 6, 501 

 6,371 

 5,838 

 4, 164 

 3,980 



60, 795 

 3, 799 



55, 231 

 3,452 



Refrig- 

 erator 



936 

 2, 179 

 809 

 211 

 940 

 1, 534 



1, 260 

 7, 262 

 8,069 

 7, 742 



2, 480 

 4, 672 

 4, 622 

 2, 798 

 4, 539 

 1, 837 



51, 890 

 3, 243 



51, 200 

 3, 200 



Caboose 



187 

 110 

 734 

 988 

 2, 634 

 141 

 182 

 188 

 327 

 627 

 80 

 488 

 503 

 139 

 122 

 231 



681 

 480 



4, 527 

 283 



Others 



728 

 2, 305 

 596 

 990 

 1,749 

 488 

 270 

 783 

 847 

 824 

 328 

 959 

 914 

 2,061 

 844 

 648 



15, 334 



958 



12,391 

 774 



Source: American Railway Car Institute. Railroad Car Fads 1955. New York. 1956. 



