From the Library of Congress:

Ben Sullivan
Brookeville, MD

Welp, just stumbled on a related image, which shows the exterior of the car. Spiffy.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/hec.29279/



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Ben Sullivan
Brookeville, MD

Note the date and method of material handling.  That's not a forklift, but rather a powered platform truck. And that's not a pallet, at least not as we understand pallets today; these were captive to the facility, to me moved about by those powered trucks. Look at the freight, it's sitting right on the boxcar floor. The labor brought the platform truck in with an empty platform, loaded six boxes, and will now take it somewhere where it will be unloaded and stacked on the floor. The platform IS separate from the truck, so if they have extra platforms he may leave it for another crew to stack, but the concept has not quite matured to the point where it's normal to leave the boxes on some sort of platform, which we know today as a pallet, full time. That will take another few years and a world war to develop.

Dennis Storzek

On Sun, Oct 16, 2022 at 07:33 PM, Dennis Storzek wrote:

That's not a forklift, but rather a powered platform truck. And that's not a pallet....

... it's a skid.
The platform truck is an Elwell-Parker. They're still in business here in the future, and still making platform trucks which are still quite useful for intraplant material handling in some industries. Not so much for loading and unloading LCL railcars anymore, though.   :^(

Jack Mullen 

On Mon, Oct 17, 2022 at 06:06 AM, Philip Dove wrote:

What is the difference between a skid and a pallet. I'm not doubting that you are correct but what tells you the load platform is not an integral part of the truck? 

When did corrugated cardboard boxes start to become commonly used. Was early corrugated card as good as the current stuff? 

By the time I came along they were synonymous, but I suspect Jack is older, so he may have heard the distinction. In the photo you can see the skid is separate from the truck because it has four bent steel legs, so it's free standing. However, with those tiny little feet you can't 'double stack' them on top of a lower level of freight; they'll crush right in, not that the truck has the capability to lift them that high. This is just one of many incremental steps toward the universal palletization of freight we see today, which is why I pointed it out.

Dennis Storzek