Canadian Railroads > on this day in 2006

May 25, 2006, Exeter BC.  While going about our switching chores, performed another gravity drop of some loads. We would quite often do gravity drops and on occasion would sneak in a "running drop" if the situation was suitable safety wise. Anyhow, image of my Conductor riding a cut of cars free rolling, he will apply the hand brake to control the movement and eventually secure the cut of cars with several handbrakes. The long center beam flat cars were miserable pieces of equipment for crew members to climb up on or ride. Most of the grab iron on the side were vertical, needed both hands to grab on, also very small foot stirrup and oddly placed ladder rungs. Caution was needed boarding these cars.
  Of other interest, on the lumber wrapper is a code  "MSR 1650F" which means the lumber has been "machine stress rated" for strength / deflection and most likely will be used for roof or floor  trusses. Vaguely I recall that the 1650F is the vibration that was applied to the lumber during stress testing. In the images the slings of lumber are 2 X 6 and 18 & 20 feet long. Also barcoded for mill inventory records, and the barcode would contain the date and shift the lumber was produced and most likely who graded the lumber. Modern technology eh!!
Doug

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I love your posts Doug, thanks for sharing them with us.

On the subject of the machine stress rating, the number you see indicates that the machine stress rating estimates the strength of the boards to be at 1650 psi required to deflect them a set amount.  The F indicates it is the psi strength rating being indicated.  There is also an E number that goes after it in the modern reporting system, and I can't quite remember exactly what it represents.

Thanks for your interest in my posts.
Also, thank you for the clarification on the Machine Stress rating.  Years ago I had a tour through the Lignum Sawmill in Williams Lake and the stress rating was explained, guess I forgot what was said. Anyhow, at that time the sawmill was the most up to date mill with a lot of automation and computerized machinery. When we toured the planner mill, the shift had been running about 6 hours and had produced 338,000 board feet of lumber, and that was not at full capacity. Quite an operation.   Doug
 

Wow, that sounds like a massive operation for sure!

Again, I really appreciate and enjoy you sharing all of this with us.  I look forward to seeing your postings!

Brian