How was Sheetrock (Drywall) Originally shipped by rail? When? I'm going
to have a couple of sheetrock loads for my late 1940's-1959 era layout.
Does anyone show pictures of this early operation? How was it unloaded?

--- In STMFC@..., "espeeac12" <milesinniles@...> wrote:

How was Sheetrock (Drywall) Originally shipped by rail? When? I'm going
to have a couple of sheetrock loads for my late 1940's-1959 era layout.
Does anyone show pictures of this early operation? How was it unloaded?

In boxcars, at least prior to WWII, when my dad was working as a
driver and yardman for various lumber yards in Chicago. The transition
to bulkhead flats came after the war, when plastic wrapping technology
advanced to the point where this moisture sensitive load could be
protected. When I see Dad later this week, I'll ask him when he saw
the first bulkhead flats.

Dennis

Don,
I know that it was in use in Ohio in the early 50's.
Chuck Hladik



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s or even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.
So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk) is 90% of sheetrock.
Don Worthy

Dennis Storzek <destorzek@...> wrote:
--- In STMFC@..., "espeeac12" <milesinniles@...> wrote:

How was Sheetrock (Drywall) Originally shipped by rail? When? I'm going
to have a couple of sheetrock loads for my late 1940's-1959 era layout.
Does anyone show pictures of this early operation? How was it unloaded?

In boxcars, at least prior to WWII, when my dad was working as a
driver and yardman for various lumber yards in Chicago. The transition
to bulkhead flats came after the war, when plastic wrapping technology
advanced to the point where this moisture sensitive load could be
protected. When I see Dad later this week, I'll ask him when he saw
the first bulkhead flats.

Dennis






---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

http://db.inman.com/inman/content/subscribers/inman/
column.cfm?StoryId=031201AG&columnistid=Gellner

Eric Petersson


Don Worthy wrote:

"Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s
or even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the
plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and
company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.

"So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread
product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the
Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk)
is 90% of sheetrock."

From the Wikipedia entry for "Drywall":

"The name drywall derives from drywall's replacement of the
lath-and-plaster wall-building method, in which plaster was spread over
small wooden formers while still wet. In 1916, the United States Gypsum
Company invented a 4' x 8' sheet of gypsum pressed between sheets of
extremely strong paper, which they called "Sheetrock." Despite being
used extensively at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933-34, it was
generally seen as an inferior alternative to plaster and did not catch
on quickly. It gained popularity during World War II, when the war
effort made labor expensive. It was reintroduced in 1952, and the
suburban migration of the 1950s was fueled in part by the cheaper
construction methods allowed by drywall."

So just how prominent was it in the early 50's? - Hard to say, but it
had been around since 1916!
regards,

Andy Miller

Don;



While drywall as we currently know it was not around that early, there was a
form of pre-cast "dry" (as opposed to applied in place wet plaster) wall
board/sheetrock manufactured before 1950, that is also sometimes referred to
as "button board" due to the mounting holes that were cast in its surface
that were later covered by "buttons" that were sanded down even with the
surface. This was a cast sheet with no permanent outer paper layer, and
since it used a heavy lime base, the sheets were much heavier than modern
wallboard. Their use in building required either numerous people to lift and
maneuver into place for mounting, or a special mechanical lift. I once worked
at a place that had several of these, which by my time had fallen into
disuse. One can understand how this early form of dry wall covering was
(happily) superceded by lighter drywall.



There was at least one "Dry Wall" manufacturer on my section of the PRR by
1945, which surprised me. They might have tarped loads they may have placed
on flats, if indeed they wished to risk moisture contamination, but as others
have mentioned, they did use box cars, as the early palletized loads were
considerably smaller (and much heavier), than the later huge palletized
drywall loads we are used to seeing. Interestingly, their name was changed
from "Dry Wall" to "Drywall", at some point.



The PRR began creating specially-equipped end bulkhead flats for this
service, after 1955, for the developing use of large drywall sheets being
supplied in plastic protective coverings, and loaded with fork lifts. These
flats were also used for pre-packaged (and wrapped) dimensional lumber and
plywood. These flats were taken out of the general service fleet and had
bulkheads added, without renumbering, and placed into a new sub-class to
differentiate them.



I hope this helps, at least for one situation.



Elden Gatwood





________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of Don
Worthy
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 8:35 AM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re: Sheetrock by Rail



Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s or even
the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the plastered walls
and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and company buildings were
using beautiful "real" wood paneling.
So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread product?? I
have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the Kaolin companies
made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk) is 90% of sheetrock.
Don Worthy

Dennis Storzek <destorzek@... <mailto:destorzek%40mchsi.com> > wrote:
--- In STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> , "espeeac12"
<milesinniles@...> wrote:

How was Sheetrock (Drywall) Originally shipped by rail? When? I'm going
to have a couple of sheetrock loads for my late 1940's-1959 era layout.
Does anyone show pictures of this early operation? How was it unloaded?

In boxcars, at least prior to WWII, when my dad was working as a
driver and yardman for various lumber yards in Chicago. The transition
to bulkhead flats came after the war, when plastic wrapping technology
advanced to the point where this moisture sensitive load could be
protected. When I see Dad later this week, I'll ask him when he saw
the first bulkhead flats.

Dennis

---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

Don Worthy wrote:
"...I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s or even
the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the
plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and
company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling. So,
I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread product??
I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s."

According to this essay on the history of drywall,

http://db.inman.com/inman/content/subscribers/inman/column.cfm?
StoryId=031201AG&columnistid=Gellner

US Gypsum first devloped drywall in 1916. It was used extensively in
buildings at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair, but was not used
extensively until World War II for government and military buildings,
where it facilitated quick construction by less skilled carpenters.
This carried over to the first postwar suburbs in places like
Levittown on Long Island. I wasn't able to dig up any corroborating
sources with a quick search of the internet (the articles on Levittown
concentrate more on other subjects than the nuts and bolts of the
houses), but the story certainly makes sense. In marketing his
Savannah and Atlanta (ex-FEC) rebuilt DS ventilated boxcars Steve
Funaro has stated that the Savannah and Atlanta served a drywall
plant; can anyone confirm this or the facts in the essay?


Ben Hom

On Apr 18, 2007, at 7:35 AM, Don Worthy wrote:

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s or
even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the
plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and
company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.
So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread
product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the
Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk)
is 90% of sheetrock.
Don Worthy

Don,
Missouri Pacific was one railroad that converted a number of 53'-6"
flat cars by adding bulkheads for the transport of plasterboard. I
believe plasterboard and sheet rock are two names for the same product.

More specifically in 1955 the I-GN converted 14 flat cars in the
8500-8599 series for plasterboard service. Five more cars in this
series were converted by MoPac circa 1960 to bring the total of
converted cars to 19. The ORER lists the individual car numbers in
notes. I've seen photos of other cars during the 1950s that were
similarly converted.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins

Don -

Sheetrock was pretty common on new built houses in the late 1940's back on Long Island, NY were I grew up.

US Gypsum has a history timeline on their website at:
http://www.usg.com/about/history.jsp

- Steve Busch
Duncan, SC

--- In STMFC@..., Don Worthy <don_worthy@...> wrote:

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s

or even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the
plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and
company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.

So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread

product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the
Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk)
is 90% of sheetrock.

Don Worthy

From WIKIPEDIA, the home of the –B term paper:

"The name drywall derives from drywall's replacement of the
lath-and-plaster wall-building method, in which plaster was spread
over small wooden formers while still wet. In 1916, the United States
Gypsum Company invented a 4' x 8' sheet of gypsum pressed between
sheets of extremely strong paper, which they called "Sheetrock."[1]
Despite being used extensively at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933–34,
it was generally seen as an inferior alternative to plaster and did
not catch on quickly. It gained popularity during World War II, when
the war effort made labor expensive. It was reintroduced in 1952, and
the suburban migration of the 1950s was fueled in part by the cheaper
construction methods allowed by drywall."

That's not the whole story, however. The original product was called
"rocklath" and its purpose was to replace the wood lath strips used to
support plaster. Rocklath was 3/8" thick and came in 16" X 32" sheets,
normally bundled six or ten (I forget which) sheets together with wire
clips for ease (?) of handling. Both houses I've owned in the Chicago
area have been plaster on rocklath, as was my Dad's.

I also recall seeing, when doing remodeling with my Dad when I was a
kid, "plasterboard" that had a printed woodgrain paper surface that
had been put up years before. It seemed to be a common do-it-yourself
product from the WWII era. Its main problem was hiding the nails used
for attachment.

Neither product was shipped in sufficient volume to warrant special
rail cars; with labor as chep as it was before WWII, it was just
loaded by hand in boxcars.

Dennis (who was bending nails at a very early age) Storzek

My dad built his house in Seneca, SC, at the end of 1949. Sheetrock was
used everywhere in the house. Considering my dad's attitudes about such
things, I have to believe sheetrock was widely accepted at that time.

Mike Turner
Simpsonville, SC

Don Worthy <don_worthy@...> wrote:

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s

or even the early 50s...

My house is in the Albany, NY area, was built in 1941, as well as the
rest of the houses in our neighborhood, and they all have sheetrock
walls. My grandfather's house in Vermont was built in 1955, he was a
finish carpenter and used sheetrock on all the walls. However, my
parents house, also in Vermont, was built in 1903, and used the
plaster and lath technique.

Rome Romano

Well in the early 1950's I remember seeing a number of housing developments in Elmhurst, IL and everything was using drywall. I know it is a small data point, but for C&NW, CGW or IC modelers the developments were next to those roads.

Don Burn

Hello all,

Here in Ontario I recall an addition at home being done in "Gyprock" plaster wallboard. It came in sheets that were 2ft x 4ft. rather than the usual 4ft x 8ft sheets or larger that we see today. Also this Gyprock seemed to be rather heavy compared to today's stuff.

The point here being that if it commonly came in 2ft x 4ft bundles back then it would have been easy to simply load into boxcars.

Rich Chrysler

Hello again,

Sorry, I meant to state below the fact that this was circa 1958.

Here in Ontario I recall an addition at home being done in "Gyprock" plaster wallboard. It came in sheets that were 2ft x 4ft. rather than the usual 4ft x 8ft sheets or larger that we see today. Also this Gyprock seemed to be rather heavy compared to today's stuff.

The point here being that if it commonly came in 2ft x 4ft bundles back then it would have been easy to simply load into boxcars.

Rich Chrysler

Even earlier were Santa Fe Ft-W flats (GSC) with bulkheads
delivered in 1952 -- 38 cars with 10'0" bulkheads. GM&O was
an early adopter too, 50+ cars by 1953.

"Don Worthy" <don_worthy@...>

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s or even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.

I guess the south of Don's youth (Gordon, GA) was different from mine (Doraville, GA). My parents bought a new house in 1956 that had sheetrock walls.

So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk) is 90% of sheetrock.

Kaolin 90% content of sheetrock? I thought gypsum was the main ingredient.

Frank Greene
Memphis, TN

In 1949, SP began converting flat cars with bulkheads for drywall service. From the outset many were marked "when empty return to plaster city," a drywall plant on the SP in the Imperial Valley.
I don't have specific construction memories, but I do recall seeing such loads in the bulkhead cars during the early 1950s.
Before that time, of course, box cars could have been used.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Wow...man!! I've learned something today.....
I guess down here in the middle Georgia area, we've always been behind the rest of the world. My old home place still has the plaster and batten strips. Some of the house may have the plaster over that Rocklath stuff.
Thanks ya'll
Don Worthy

Dennis Storzek <destorzek@...> wrote:
--- In STMFC@..., Don Worthy <don_worthy@...> wrote:

Hey fellows, I didn't think that "sheetrock" was around in the 40s

or even the early 50s. Here in the south, homes were still using the
plastered walls and ceilings. Also, during the 50s many homes and
company buildings were using beautiful "real" wood paneling.

So, I'm wondering "when" did "sheetrock" become a wide spread

product?? I have a feeling that it came around in the 60s. I know the
Kaolin companies made big advances in their field and Kaolin (chalk)
is 90% of sheetrock.

Don Worthy

From WIKIPEDIA, the home of the –B term paper:

"The name drywall derives from drywall's replacement of the
lath-and-plaster wall-building method, in which plaster was spread
over small wooden formers while still wet. In 1916, the United States
Gypsum Company invented a 4' x 8' sheet of gypsum pressed between
sheets of extremely strong paper, which they called "Sheetrock."[1]
Despite being used extensively at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933–34,
it was generally seen as an inferior alternative to plaster and did
not catch on quickly. It gained popularity during World War II, when
the war effort made labor expensive. It was reintroduced in 1952, and
the suburban migration of the 1950s was fueled in part by the cheaper
construction methods allowed by drywall."

That's not the whole story, however. The original product was called
"rocklath" and its purpose was to replace the wood lath strips used to
support plaster. Rocklath was 3/8" thick and came in 16" X 32" sheets,
normally bundled six or ten (I forget which) sheets together with wire
clips for ease (?) of handling. Both houses I've owned in the Chicago
area have been plaster on rocklath, as was my Dad's.

I also recall seeing, when doing remodeling with my Dad when I was a
kid, "plasterboard" that had a printed woodgrain paper surface that
had been put up years before. It seemed to be a common do-it-yourself
product from the WWII era. Its main problem was hiding the nails used
for attachment.

Neither product was shipped in sufficient volume to warrant special
rail cars; with labor as chep as it was before WWII, it was just
loaded by hand in boxcars.

Dennis (who was bending nails at a very early age) Storzek






---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]