Andy -
Were these covered hoppers or open hoppers?
What about gondolas?
Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA

Coming in on this late. I just finally panned all the way to the far end of the string of cars, and adjacent to the track is a fire hose house, and interestingly, the hydrant identification number is stenciled in a diamond that mirrors the diamonds surrounding the B&W stenciled on the boxes.

I also note the spur is right up against the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee (maybe still the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Ry. at that time) main line; I can see two overhead wires in the background. That certainly proves this is Kenosha.

Dennis Storzek

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Courtesy of A. Clemens:

Download link to a copy of Insulation of Railway Equipment pdf

https://tinyurl.com/y77y2yc2

We've had this debate before, but it doesn't seem like we have progressed very far.

If you choose just the right sized spheres and can get them to pack in the most optimal way (= face-centered cubic close packing), you'll have 74% solids and 26% voids. If your packing is less than ideal, you might end up with only 65% solids, or quite possibly less.

If you add some finer particles, you can indeed fill some of that void space, but you run the risk of disrupting the ideal FCC packing and negating much or all of the gain.  And, as Tony says, the fines have pores spaces too, and lots of them.  Assuming we are talking about something like the interior space of a center-sill, you're not going to be able to apply a ton of pressure to get the particles packed, and even vigorous tapping of the underbody may not work because you'll just bounce the shot out of that space.

So, practically speaking, what's the best you can expect from mixing "big" shot and little particles?  80% solids?  85%?  If the latter, you've increased your added weight  by a mere 15% compared to FCC-packed uniform spheres.  All else being equal, if you switch from lead to tungsten (the metal, not the putty), you can increase the added weight by 72%, which is starting to sound like it might be worth doing.

Combining the above with Ted's sugar cube example, the cube will work just fine if you can trim it to a shape that fits snugly inside the center-sill. Practically then, you could just take some thin lead flashing, cut it to the correct shape, and stack it neatly inside the sill.  With a little care, filling ~80% of that space should not be at all difficult, and that's about as good as you are going to do short of casting a solid metal piece that exactly fills 100% of the space.

PS:  I can't get that excited about tungsten putty, which contains about as much polymer as it does tungsten. At a density of about 10 g/cm3, it only would be marginally better than my 80% lead example above.  Tungsten powder has more promise; at ~70% solids you should hit ~13.5 g/cm3 versus 11.3 for solid lead.  If you can get it to pack that densely.
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Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

        But we were talking about lead shot, which if small compared to the space to be filled certainly does match my calculation.

Book: Insulation Of Railway Equipment

Courtesy of the HathiTrust Digital Library, this is a link to a book published by the Union Fibre Company in 1912 on refrigerator car insulation:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112008409432&view=1up&seq=9

The book runs 130 pages and has a number of photos of period refrigerator cars, discussions on refrigerator car construction and insulation materials, illustrations, and tests of competing insulation materials used in PFE, Santa Fe and Northern Pacific refrigerator cars. There also is a section on the history of the refrigerator car to that point in time.

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

Railroad Citrus Industry Modeling Group

https://groups.io/g/RailroadCitrusIndustryModelingGroup

Railway Bull Shippers Group

https://groups.io/g/RailwayBullShippersGroup

True, thus a much better solution is to mix the shot with the powder and fill the interstices.

If you emboss rivets in thin styrene sheets, an old plastic modelers
trick is to fill the dimples with putty. that way you stand less
chance of disturbing them with solvent.

Curt Fortenberry

To me, the most important detail in this photo is the absolutely shredded board that is the route-card holder.  A great case for adding this detail using basswood rather than styrene.  The grainier the better!
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Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

If you look at the Wiki pages for both Nash and Hudson/Essex, there is quite a bit of information about exports to both Oz and NZ.  One thing that caught my eye was this:

"As was the practice for all car brands during the early 20th Century, the chassis and engines were imported and the bodies were locally built by Australian coach builders".

So, at least in some instances, not only were the cars "knocked down" for shipping, but were also comprised of only the chassis, motor, and running gear.  I guess you wouldn't need a very big crate for that.

Back to the freight cars:  given the build date, the wooden frame components, and the vanishingly small numbers of these cars by 1930 (including the second C&NW car), I would be surprised if this photo dates much past 1925.  Best guess is that it post-dates the war, so that narrows the window to ~7 years , +/-.

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Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

It still looks like he is holding a chalk stick to me.
Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA