The finished products of the Works are all shipped from the Shipping Department except when unusual size or other special considerations indicate advantages in shipping from the building of manufacture. Some large machines are shipped in pieces for muleback transportation, or for lowering into mines; others are assembled in part or entirely and shipped on large flat cars, or in packing cases. In the year 1903, the total shipments, amounting to about 100,000 tons in 320,000 separate packages ranging in weight from an ounce to 137,500 pounds, required 8730 freight cars. Some of the larger pieces required extra large and heavy cars specially constructed for the purpose.
[Photo: Shipping Department: original size (11K) | 9x enlarged (74K)]
Building No. 12 contains standard gauge tracks, electric cranes, and every facility for painting, handling and boxing the various products of the Works, brought in on an elaborate system of interfactory tramways.
Shipping boxes are put together by nailing machines in the Carpenter Shop (Building No. 74), where about 16,000,000 feet of lumber are worked up annually for all uses.