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I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I model in N scale. I was thinking of 4 0 foot stock cars for cattle, the 50 foot AHM cars for sheep and the Atlas 85 foot pig pen cars for hogs. What I have is a small scratch built packing plant building, It was an excellent idea to have a small number of cars brougth in on the head end of a train and delivered to the packing plant. Tallow, out in tank cars, Offal and meat in mechanical reefers and hides out in 40 foot box cars. The plant is adjacent to a small yard, so the local brings the cars up from the main yard and then delivered to the packing plant.
If you wanted to get creative, it would be an interesting project to build a "what-if" modern stock car. Maybe something in the 60' range with sidewalls like a stock trailer has. Could be pretty neat looking.
according to the info i have the NP had the last stockcars built in the US in 1966 , some roads redid box cars into stock like in link http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-stock-m.jpg
dehusman Actually in a modern era, it would be pretty rare for beef to be shipped out by rail. Most probable prototype situation is cattle in by truck, beef out by truck. I know chicken processing plants ship frozen chicken out (chickens in by truck). If you look beyond the standard modeler traffic, you have other options. You can have boxcars of packaging inbound. You can have a rendering plant adjoining the packing plant and ship tallow (edible and inedible), offal, bone meal, etc.
Actually in a modern era, it would be pretty rare for beef to be shipped out by rail. Most probable prototype situation is cattle in by truck, beef out by truck.
I know chicken processing plants ship frozen chicken out (chickens in by truck).
If you look beyond the standard modeler traffic, you have other options. You can have boxcars of packaging inbound. You can have a rendering plant adjoining the packing plant and ship tallow (edible and inedible), offal, bone meal, etc.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
7j43k The trick might be coming up with modern stock cars. The closest might be the old AHM 50' stock car. It was double decked. It didn't have a roof walk, so it looked kind of modern. Several of those might look good. And sorta modern. Here's a photo: You might find more information at Hoseeker.com. Someone once had a great site for AHM cars, but I can't find it. Ed
The trick might be coming up with modern stock cars.
The closest might be the old AHM 50' stock car. It was double decked. It didn't have a roof walk, so it looked kind of modern. Several of those might look good. And sorta modern.
Here's a photo:
You might find more information at Hoseeker.com.
Someone once had a great site for AHM cars, but I can't find it.
Ed
Pratt truss stock cars, I like it Ed. I may be looking for a few of those cars myself. In fact I know I will. I hope they come in N scale.
My favorite Bridge (Pratt). Working on one now. Never mind that temporary railroad board Mach up underneath, that's just to keep things straight where my columns go.
caldreamer Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
Sheep and hogs go in two deck cars. Cattle go in single deck cars. The ones I suggested are two deck cars.
I think AHM also did a convertible car. New York Central, as I recall. But they would have been pretty old, I think.
Here they are:
That horizontal "pipe" at the bottom of the side was used to lift and lower the deck. You can see 4 vertical chains going up the side. The chains wrapped around the pipe. But these cars are, as I assert, too old for modern times.
Here's a place with some very good detail photos of the 50' car:
http://www.icollector.com/HO-SCALE-AHM-Stock-Car_i13856196
Or... if your layout does not have any era distingushing features like modern vehicles, buildings, landmarks etc, you could call it _'s era day and run them then. That way, you could almost run early 1900's one day and 2018 the next!
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
Trucks in, reefers out means less traffic for my railroad. Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
why not just service the packing plant with trucks in and rail refers out.
One of the last stock runs in the modern era was a Union Pacific high priority freight, that carried hogs to a Los Angeles slaughterhouse. The stock cars were placed directly behind the locomotives, with intermodal trailers behind the stock cars. This ran well into the 90's with a few photos showing widecab locomotives lugging the stockcar/intermodal car mix: http://www.railpictures.net/photo/396185/So with some reasonable logic, you could base your stock car operations off the late era Union Pacific practice.
Its your RR....do whatever works for you. If you are freelancing, you can assume you have a special situation where you have stock cars coming based on a special arrangement you have with a stock yard nearby. I don't know the rules but I think the Gov stepped in many years ago and rquired the stock cars to stop after a certain amount of time to water the stock. Your "supplier" would need to be within that time frame.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
Yea, Yea, I know that stock trains went out years ago on railroads, but I have Mohawk Packing Company on my contenporry BNSF layout. Would it be too outlansish to run a livestock train to the packing plant?