Having just recently learned that livestock traffic would be appropriate for my locale, I'd like to know what would be the most common way for it to be moved, manifest freight, priority freight, or dedicated livestock train?
If it matters, my layout is set in the mid 1950s.
On the PRR stock trains ran on passenger train schedules. Except for short local runs probably most railroads made them priority trains. That is because federal rules had a 24 hour time limit for livestock in cars requiring detraining for water and feed as well as rest.
In my "grand operating scheme", I assume all stock cars are empties. They are being routed to another location where they will soon be needed.
In my mind, this allows me to run them as a "one off" freight car for variety. I have no concern for horses or drovers.
I do not know if this is prototypical at all, but I can run a few nifty Westerfield, Sunshine, and Ambroid stock car models this way.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
All of your livestock handling by rail questions, are probably answered in the book "Livestock Operations, History, Equipment and Modeling", by J. Stephen Sandifer. The book is part of a series offered by the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society, covering major traffic generators on one of America's most popular and widely known railroads. At 256 pages, it doesn't miss a thing, from the prairie to the plate!
I found this webpage to be quite useful.
Livestock Rail Cars (Trains): Transport, Definition, Photos (american-rails.com)
One thing that caught my eye was this paragraph.
"One final expense issue regarded the location of the stock cars within the train, which had to be positioned directly behind the locomotives."
There is a picture earlier of a short string of stock cars right behind a Big Boy with a long string of boxcars behind it. This tells me I don't need to have a dedicated stock train to be prototypical. I'll move the stock cars in my priority freight train, right behind the loco. It seems like 5-6 stock cars would be a reasonable number. This will just be bridge traffic since I don't have any industry where that would ship or receive these cars on the modeled portion of my railroad.
No use for hides (leather, like my Jimmy Dean - makers of sausage - pigskin jacket)? How about the hoofs (adhesives, gelatin)? Bristles (brushes)? Don't forget, the Fifties used a lot less synthetics than today
For example, my mom's home town was Naugatuck, CT - where hides were harvested from Naugas Naugahyde - Wikipedia (I have an HO Naugatuck Plastics covered hopper that I won't part with 20140714064524_Naugatuck.jpg (640×480) (tycoforums.com) )
John-NYBWwhat would be the most common way for it to be moved, manifest freight, priority freight, or dedicated livestock train?
Yes.
It depends on how many cars, from and to where.
Obviously if you are only moving a few livestock cars you aren't going to have a solid train. If its a move onto a branch, it would be on a local. Generally on through freights they would be priority. If you serve a very large feed lot or a large meatpacking facility, and can load and move an entire trainload of stock cars at once, then it would be in a solid train.
On my layout stock moves are on through freights between terminals and locals if down onto branches. The moves are all onsey-twosey car shipments every so often so there are no solid stock moves.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
The reason to have the stock cars 'up front' was to minimize slack action. Cattle are easy to tip over, have fragile legs, and have trouble getting up...
Guys in the caboose appreciated being as far from the critters as possible, another good reason to put them right behind the power.
NHTX Guys in the caboose appreciated being as far from the critters as possible, another good reason to put them right behind the power.
East of Baltimore around 1966 several days a week the B&O would have a block of loaded stock cars right ahead of the caboose on a Philadelphia-bound train. The conductor could ride the head end, but the flagman was stuck back there in the smell. I asked one of the flagmen how he could stand it. He said "I was born and raised on a farm - that's the smell of money." Since then I've heard that expression from farm workers several times.
DSO17 That's the smell of money.
Technicians that repair garbage trucks say the same thing!
DSO17 NHTX Guys in the caboose appreciated being as far from the critters as possible, another good reason to put them right behind the power. East of Baltimore around 1966 several days a week the B&O would have a block of loaded stock cars right ahead of the caboose on a Philadelphia-bound train. The conductor could ride the head end, but the flagman was stuck back there in the smell. I asked one of the flagmen how he could stand it. He said "I was born and raised on a farm - that's the smell of money." Since then I've heard that expression from farm workers several times.
I've heard a similar expression from the guy who used to empty the porta-potties on a construction site I worked on in my younger days. He said "It might be (stuff) to you but it's bread and butter to me."
Maybe I'm just not using the right search arguments but I'm not getting a lot of hits looking for online pictures of livestock trains. The few pictures I am getting show short blocks of stock cars and some even a single stock car in a train. I haven't been able to find any pictures of a solid livestock train. Maybe photographers didn't find them to be interesting subjects for photography.
John-NYBWMaybe photographers didn't find them to be interesting subjects for photography.
Back in the days of film cameras, they probably thought that taking photos of the individual cars in a 50- or 100-car train might be a bit expensive.
In addition to that, there might have been limited locations where they could fit a major portion of the train into a single frame.
As for photos of livestock trains, a quick search turned up THIS
There might be a few HERE
Here's a LINK to an older thread on the subject, too.
Wayne
John-NYBWMaybe I'm just not using the right search arguments but I'm not getting a lot of hits looking for online pictures of livestock trains.
That's because they weren't that common as a train. Stock cars were probably the smallest percentage of the US railcar fleet. Its possible railroads owned more cabooses than stock cars. By the 1950's meat on the hoof by rail was being phased out, it was much more effective to move the packing plant closer to the farm than to haul the cattle thousands of miles. Hauling livestock was very expensive and had a lot of downside for the railroad in the form of cattle that were injured or died enroute. The railroads much preferred to haul the hanging beef than the cattle.
If they ran solid cattle trains, they would have run in very narrow corridors, between feedlots and major packing centers, like Chicago, Kansas City and Philadelphia.
Plus through the 20th century, the number of stock trains running decreased. By the time there were a lot of folks with good cameras and color film, there weren't that many solid stock trains around. Once you had mechanical reefers that you could ship frozen sides of beef in, you could slaughter them locally and ship the sides rather than ship the living animals.
SeeYou190In my "grand operating scheme", I assume all stock cars are empties. They are being routed to another location where they will soon be needed. In my mind, this allows me to run them as a "one off" freight car for variety. I have no concern for horses or drovers.
Stock cars were also used to transport railroad ties. Because they were soaked in creosote, you couldn't ship them in a boxcar or the fumes would build up.
In the Great Lakes region, logging normally took place in winter, so it was common for farmers to be loggers in the winter. Trains would run to pick up the farmers and their big work horses - a teamster got paid better than a regular laborer. So you'd have a train with stock cars for the horses, and passenger cars for the loggers; not a typical 'mixed' train!
I do recall seeing photos of solid stock trains on the PRR. They were in those last days of the business, when it was all kosher traffic. Presumably it was easier to handle entire trains of that business.
wjstixStock cars were also used to transport railroad ties.
Or anything else that didn't matter if it got wet, was to big to slip between the slats and small enoguh to fit through the door.
Watermelons, bricks, pig iron, rough lumber, metal castings and many more could all be shipped in a stock car. Some roads put a lining in a stock car and used it for coal or grain shipments.
dehusmanIf they ran solid cattle trains, they would have run in very narrow corridors, between feedlots and major packing centers, like Chicago, Kansas City and Philadelphia.
At one time, the largest stockyard / packing plant complex anywhere was in South St. Paul MN. IIRC it was served by the Chicago Great Western.
https://chorus.stimg.co/20557811/4dcssp0304.jpg?fit=crop&crop=faces
From 1955 to 1971, Omaha had the largest stock yards in the world, having taken that crown from Chicago.
Forgotten Omaha - The Stockyards (ketv.com)
I grew up in Omaha but I learned a few things from this story. South Omaha was at one time a separate city from Omaha until it was annexed early in the 20th century. I was amazed to learn the stockyards extended west of 72nd street because when I grew up there, that was near the west edge of the city. There was some development west of there but not much. KETV is the ABC affilate and they save Omaha's Burlington Station from the wrecking ball by refurbishing it and making it their news studio. Amtrak still runs by the Burlington Station but they built their own small station to handle the one daily train in each direction.
I grew up in Omaha but I learned a few things from this story. South Omaha was at one time a separate city from Omaha until it was annexed early in the 20th century. I was amazed to learn the stockyards extended west to 72nd street because when I grew up there, that was near the west edge of the city. There was some development west of there but not much. KETV is the ABC affilate and they saved Omaha's Burlington Station from the wrecking ball by refurbishing it and making it their news studio. Amtrak still runs by the Burlington Station but they built their own small station to handle the one daily train in each direction.