Despite the way they're typically modeled, especially on N- & HO-gauge models, freight car roof walks wouldn't very likely have been made from car-length boards (36'-40') but rather butted end-on-end from shorter lumber. Based on drawings in the Train Shed Cyclopedia, it looks like each longitudinal roof walk was composed of three parallel boards, each ~6"-7.5" wide [I'd guess 2x6 or 2x8 lumber was used]. But what's the practical length limit of the individual boards? These days we can usually get 2xsomethingx16' boards at the local lumber yard. Would this have been typical in, say, 1900-1920?TIA Norm

For common "utility" grade lumber, probably not a whole lot different, just due to the problems of transporting and efficiently using longer lengths. Even "back then", shorter lengths would be more available just due to the vagarities of the trees and cutting them (tree size, knots, splits, etc.), and much handier to use for smaller jobs.On the other hand, it would have been much easier and less expensive to get longer pieces *IF* you needed them and were willing to pay for them. This would be especially so if you lived near a sawmill.Similarly, the quality of "utility" grade wood was much higher then. Wood with a lot of knots and such was just scrapped. Today's common 2X4 with bark on three sides would have been a poor joke then (actually, it still *IS*, we just have to live with it). The higher quality of the wood used then is why a lot of old wood is salvaged today, and reused for fine furniture and such.You CAN still get good wood, but you REALLY have to pay for it, and in many...

Q: Roof Walk Lumber Sizes?

Apr 18, 2006 26 Replies

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Jim McLaughlin 20 years ago

Thanks. Direct answers are appreciated, not bafflegab about Google searches when I don't know what the "H" in "HRR" stands for so it can be searched upon. People who blindly point to Google as if it were a Rosetta Stone for everything are at best foolish.

Whoever commented about the web site is quite correct. Had to drill through three pages to find out its in Michigan. To me, Genesee County is upstate New York.

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Steve Caple 20 years ago

I didn't know what it was, either. "HRR railroad" yielded a hit under historical societies that had Huckleberry Railroad, and thence to the Michigan site, and only from there to that somewhat blah county recs site.

Of course, it takes a little reading, a little search refinement, but life isn't like those movies where the hero types in "Search secret database" on a 40 character screen and immediately gets detailed info on the bad guys.

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Daniel A. Mitchell 20 years ago

Lots of people make that mistake. The Genesee County area in Michigan, also known as the Genesee Valley, is a bit south of Saqinaw Bay (the pocket between the 'hand' and 'thumb' of Michigan). The area was originally settled by folks from New York, who apparently thought it looked something like home. One of the ancestors of the present "Mid-Michigan Railway Historical Society" was the "Genesee Valley Model Railroad Engineers" (now defunct, or better, evolved). Every time we went to a convention everybody thought we were from New York!

Dan Mitchell ============

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Daniel A. Mitchell 20 years ago

Sorry to have started the confusion, but the "HRR" issue first appeared was an outgrowth of another thread in which I'd previously been discussing the Huckleberry RR. I assumed (dumb) that most readers would thus be familiar with the abbreviation. I can see where it would be confusing if you started in the middle of the thread. Hopefully that's now cleared up.

Dan Mitchell ============

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Mark Mathu 20 years ago

It needs Flash and Shockwave.

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David Nebenzahl 20 years ago

Mark Mathu spake thus:

Yeah, and multiple popups. And it should resize your browser window.

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fubar 20 years ago

Don't forget all the popunder ads and redirects.

fl@liner

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