Thanks...that is terrifically interesting.

My only experience with loaded boxcars came when I worked for a local building supply company while in college. They would take delivery of one or two boxcar loads of white pine lumber each summer. I recall those cars being loaded nearly floor-to-ceiling with sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, and eight foot lengths of 1x12, 1x10, and 1x8 inch lumber. When you broke the seal on the car and pushed the door aside, there was but a two foot gap at the top to crawl into and start shoving the lumber out. It would take a day and a half for three of us to unload the car. The lumber was in grades as well as widths and lengths. I can't even imagine it being moved that way now; today it's probably moved on purpose-built cars in wrapped bundles that can be loaded and unloaded using a lift-truck.

Man, that was nearly fifty years ago; hard to believe.