Login
or
Register
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Home
»
Model Railroader
»
Forums
»
Prototype information for the modeler
»
Livestock Trains
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="Dave-the-Train"][quote user="orsonroy"] <p>[quote user="Otto Ray Sing"]I heard that towards the end of passenger service that some of the railroads actually ran livestock cars at the end of passenger trains. I find this quite hard to believe[/quote]</p> <p>I've heard that rumor too, but have never seen any real evidence to back it up. I suppose an occasonal mixed local could pick up a stock car or three along its route, but that would be about the only time livestock and passengers would occupy the same train.</p> <p>[quote]but I suppose there's a prototype for everything.[/quote]</p> <p>No there isn't.</p> <p>[/quote]</p> <p>Great material Orsonroy! Thanks! [:D]</p> <p>Stock cars would not travel in anything other than a slow mixed passenegr/freight train (as distinct from a freight train of mixed loads/cars) because of the different draft gear, suspension and brake ratings. It is much more likely that frieght and passenger of all kinds would mix in earlier periods when everyone was happy to be moving without walking and being there before you left was less in demand. People used to enjoy travelling as an adventure!</p> <p>Before the age of the tractor horses were four footed tractors for everything. Whereas a tractor gets built in a factory and shipped on a flat car horses could be "built" or rounded up from wild locally. Until the rail system really developed locomotives were made locally and originally on the company's property from exactly the same practice.</p> <p>A very few horses and stud animals would travel in passenger rated cars. These were valuable animals owned by rich people. For most of history owning a horse worth carrying anywhere has been more like owning a Rolls Royce. Ordinary horses were cheaper to hire or to buy on arrival and sell on departure for most people. Due to the length and operational use of US passeneger cars there were relatively few purpose built passenger rated cars for animal transport - there's an awgul lot of 60' car for one horse. I suspect that horses may have been carried in baggage cars but have no evidence of this at all. I do have a drawing somewhere of a combined horse and carriage and groom car. These would have been run in private trains or as a private addition to a scheduled train. Imagine the bill!</p> <p>Some early box cars could be converted to stock cars. In the 1880s some of these were classed as farm moving cars and could carry not just stock, implements and fodder but the families as well. They were an improvement on walking west behind an ox hauled cart all day every day for months. (More wagons were ox hauled than horse hauled... oxs are tougher).</p> <p>As time moved on horses (and maintaining them) was a lot more expensive and more effort than the modern keeping of an auto. this is why Interurbans, trolleys and the rest did so much business... and why they died out.</p> <p>It occurs to me that circus trains carried animals in passenger rated stock... this might be a lead on baggage cars being adapted for horses. A related place to look would be the horse racing world.</p> <p>Moving to pigs and sheep...</p> <p>Double deck cars required double deck chutes at both ends. you wouldn't want to throw 60 hogs up into the upper deck... and they won't jump... they're just plain 'ornery and unhelpful.</p> <p>Did the UP Hog Palaces have three decks? I would still like to find a model of one of these.</p> <p>As far as I recall John Allen's G&D had a double chute... can anhyone confirm this?</p> <p>During WW1 unbroken horses were shipped to US and Canadian ports in anything that they would survive in for delivery to ships to Europe.</p> <p>I must disagree on your last point though... for a thing to exist there must be a thing... therefore there is a prototype for every thing [(-D]</p>[/quote]<br><br>While it was preferential to move hogs and sheep in double-deck cars it wasn't an absolute. The 1941 ICC statistics show that 1/3 of the hogs moved that year moved single-deck, and some of the calves did too.<br><br>The triple-deck Ortner "Pig Palaces" were built for NP. I never saw anything but double-deck cars on UP.<br><br>S. Hadid<br>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Users Online
There are no community member online
Search the Community
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter
See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter
and get model railroad news in your inbox!
Sign up