How many truckloads does a particular warehouse hold?

This is assuming the warehouse has an exterior footprint of 108 feet x 108 feet and has three levels and at least one freight elevator.

What is this capacity of this building for goods on pallets in terms of both:

-truckloads (53' dry-vans) and 50-foot standard-gauge boxcar loads

Is there a general mathematical formula to convert warehouse size in volume to truckloads and trainloads?

 

The total cubic capacity for a 53-foot dry-van trailer is 3,950 cubic feet.
Dry Van Trucking Companies: Freight and Shipping Services

A 50' BNSF boxcar is 6235 cu. ft.in volume.
https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with-bnsf/ways-of-shipping/equipment/pdf/50ftF_BoxcarDiagram.pdf


My scale warehouse is 108' x 108' x 41' (scale) external dimensions it has three floors for goods storage and no basement space for goods. The total volume of the building is: scale 478,224 cu. ft.

Let's assume to be conservative, that only half this volume can be used for storage of goods on pallets in perfect uniform cubes. Scale 239,112 cu. ft. Let's also assume that there are imaginary pallets uniform in size and perfect cubes that will completely occupy the interior of a scale 53' dry van or scale 50' boxcar.

That's scale 60 full dry van loads or scale 38 full boxcar loads for this scale little warehouse with a small scale footprint.

The reason I ask is because I have such warehouse on my model railroad layout. It is G scale. It is a freight terminal on a RR siding with dock space to park two boxcars on one side and dock space to park six trucks on the opposite side. I suppose the building is sufficient in size to service all the freight vehicles that can possibly access it daily. My facility also has spaces to park 12 semis to wait to access the dock.The local railroad division might only be able, ready and/or willing to pick up and deliver a total of six boxcars at this facility over a 24-hour period. I doubt if 60 semis can access this facility in just a 24-hour period for loading/unloading full truckloads.

Model railroading makes you wonder about all the math, planning, management, architecture, engineering and physics involved in real world infrastructures.

 

Warehouses probably have little of no weight restrictions in terms of what can be stored inside its walls as long as it upper floors don't collapse from the heaviest of goods, perhaps solid blocks of lead. Which is more profitable for a common carrier to ship? A light truckload of Nikes or truckload of house paint in one-gallon cans, much heavier and denser?

 

Sorry, meant transport. Ship according to the dictionary can mean SEND or TRANSPORT. Confusing term. I better convert my multistory warehouse to a single floor one then. Even one level can still support 20 dry van loads and 12 boxcar loads. Is 20 feet a realistic roof height?

 

Here is my latest revision to my scale model RR warehouse, it's scaled to have its exterior walls 32' high to the flashing from the concrete slab below which is one meter above ground level, the footprint on the concrete foundation is 108' x 108' scale feet:




My brick warehouse is fictitious Jonstown in northern California in a mountainous and pine-forested rural region. The small town has a fictitious population of 750. How high can a typical Hyster forklift reach from a single floor to stack or shelf goods? This warehouse is small because real estate is limited. Your trucks are probably difficult to maneuver in some dock areas because certain customers are tight on available real property for transportation use.

Here is the train side of the freight terminal:


Forking around up close: