NEB&W Guide to Open Top Loads - Marble & Other Stone Slabs

Last Update: 2009-11-07

Open Top Loads, Products of Mines - Table of Contents
Open Top Loads Table of Contents
Flat Cars Table of Contents
Gons Table of Contents
Rolling Stock Table of Contents
Freight Car Guide Table of Contents

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Examples:

• Marble and other slabs of stone were normally shipped on flats - easier, I would guess, for a crane to lift off the slabs than from a gon. We had guessed that one of the most important things was that the slabs need to sit on a some timbers, so that they could get a cable underneath in order to lift. Also note that only a few slabs were placed per car, the car was not packed solid with them.
  • [AAR loading diagram 1.]
    
  • [AAR loading diagram 2.]
    
  • [AAR loading diagram 3.]
    
  • [AAR loading diagram 4.]
    
  • [AAR loading diagram 5 for large blocks.]
    
  • [AAR loading diagram 6. Note that the side of the block with the largest area must be face down.]

• On the Rutland, there were on-line quarries that shipped marble blocks a short distance to the finishing plant at Proctor, VT. Apparently this was too short to bother with all that blocking, so they were just set on a couple of heavy timbers. (Raising them off the deck so a cable could be snaked under them to raise them off.)
  • [Two flats loaded with marble bound for the finishing plant in Proctor in diesel days. Jim Shaughnessy photo.]
  You know, when we first looked at this photo, we put a couple of heavy timbers under each block, but now that I look at it again, there are timbers spaced evenly down the deck, even where there was no blocks.

• Bill Brigham send us a c. 1961 photo of Montipelier & Barre flat car no. 719, apparently carrying granite.
  • [M&B 719 c. '61. Bill Brigham photo.]
  The other interesting thing is that the stone blocks are sitting directly on the deck. Okay, the right-most one has some small pieces of stone under part of it, but I think that was to get to lie flat. It was our understanding that stone blocks like this sat on heavy wood timbers to allow a cable to be snaked underneath, in order to raise the blocks off.
  Also note the grooves on the sides of the blocks, where they drilled the stone when quarrying it.

• The largest block of marble ever shipped (at least up until that point, 1931), was for the tomb of the unknown soldier, from Marble, CO to Proctor, VT. The slab weighed 56 tons and measured 14 feet by 7 feet by 6 feet (in HO, roughly two inches by one inch by one inch).
  • [On a flat car, I believe, of the Crystal River & San Juan.]

• We've tried using real chunks of marble, which is hard to cut. It also looks waxy up close. Plaster has turned out to be the best. We have cast slabs and then cut it into about one inch cubes. We also tried that shortly after it was poured and thus partially set, to insert a flea comb into it to model the drill marks. This worked pretty good.

• Marble could also be crated, particularly I would expect finished pieces. The marble for the tomb of the Unknown Soldier was shipped from Proctor, VT. The finished marble was crated and heavily braced. Another touch is the banner on the side to proclaim the load. (You could model the flat and crate, and change the sign each time you operate.)
  • [C. 1930's photo, Vermont Marble Co., courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Rutland 2753 with the unknown soldier tomb, up close, c. 1931. Photo courtesy Jim Shaughnessy.]

• And originally, the marble came from one of Vermont Marble's Colorado quarries. This would seem to be the same slab, as seen above. Not sure why it was apparently reloaded onto an other flat.
  • [D&RGW 21148. Not sure of why the double stairway.]

• Smaller slabs could also be shipped.
  • [GN 69750 c. '66, carrying granite slabs (probably curbstones). Photo courtesy Rail Data Service.]

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