Highways and Highway TransportationChatburn, George R.
History
Highways and Highway Transportation
Chatburn, George R.
Roads; Transportation
=In the Yards.=--After the logs are sawed the lumber is stacked up in
yards either at the point of sawing or elsewhere. It must be hauled
to the shipment point and from the cars to the yards. Trucks are
applicable for all these purposes. When it comes to delivering the
lumber to the consumer a wagon known as a dolly is of great assistance
for collecting materials to load on the delivery truck. Most retail
yards now deliver their lumber by truck even to a distance of 15 or 20
miles. When an order for mixed grades, sizes, or kinds of materials
is received, a light wagon or cart having a dolly upside down for
its floor, the whole known as a “dolly,” is used in the loading. The
dolly has a roller placed cross-ways of the wagon bed and the lumber
is piled directly upon it, care being taken that some long pieces are
used for the bottom of the load. The dolly is pushed by hand from
place to place in the yard until the order has been filled with the
various pieces desired. The truck, which may be out during the time
the selection is being made, is backed up to the end of the dolly, the
floor of the truck body passing under the lower boards; then by turning
the cross roller with a crank the whole load is conveyed to the truck.
To facilitate the action another roller is placed in the floor of the
truck near its rear end. Both rollers may be turned at the same time.
The dolly may have two or four wheels.
A short truck is often arranged for a semi-trailer which may be loaded
in a manner similar to the dolly. With two or three of these trailers
a busy yard will keep the truck and driver on the road practically all
the time at a considerable saving in expense over waiting time if the
lumber is loaded directly upon the truck.
=Mining.=--The building of railway tracks to mines was at one time a
very expensive part of a railroad’s business. It required much expert
knowledge on the part of the railroad officials to determine whether or
not such a road would pay. In fact a great many miles of such tracks
have been abandoned and very likely the loss to the railroad has been
equal to that of the mining companies. Motor trucking is to a large
extent doing away with the enormous track building that formerly went
on in the mining communities. This eliminates the switching charge
which seldom paid the railroad, and possibly the trucking is more
convenient and cheaper to the mining company. Here again the use of
trailers, special bodies, and mechanical loading and unloading devices
will greatly expedite the work. When the mine has grown so that the
quantity of ore or coal taken out will pay for it a railroad track may
be laid without risk of loss to either railroad or mine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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