Cattle Cars/Loading Docks

[doctorwayne]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MR_Paul

Leighant:

I think you're right. But, there are a lot of really big ranches further southwest from Kingsville & all the way to about Raymondville along 77, and a whole lot of other places! The one shown in DoctorWayne's last photo is really the prototype I'm after, but I think I'll have to scratch build it, since I'm working in N-scale.

My wife & I stopped by the Amon Carter museum in Ft.Worth last Sunday, to see the "Bird's-Eye View" Exhibit. This is a display of 19th-century lithographs of Texas cities, and we really enjoyed it. What was really interesting was that just about all of them showed a railroad, or 2, or 3! Check it out at:

http://www.birdseyeviews.org/

The one that caught my eye, though was the one of Denton in 1883. If you look in the center-foreground you'll see a quad-stockpen, that is basically a double version of DoctorWayne's & capable of loading 2 cars simultaneously.

While that's really cool, it's probably way too ambitious for me.

All of the stockpens in my photos are scratchbuilt, although they're HO scale. I used strip styrene, .030" x .080" for the boards and .080" x .080" for the posts, all with "wood grain" added with a razor saw. While the lumber is probably oversize, the pens are quite sturdy, which is important if I ever need to move them, as all of the gate- and corner-posts are inserted into the "ground". Construction was pretty simple: I built mine to suit the sites, so I drew suitable post positions on a sheet of paper, after first pinning the paper to a long, wide sheet of 1/4" balsa wood. After pinning the posts in place, the slats were placed using blocks of styrene as spacers, with plenty of pins to hold everything in place. To maintain the structural integrity, gates were built as part of the sides, with the diagonal braces added later. When everything was in place, it was quick work to touch each joint with a little lacquer thinner on a brush. I worked on two different sheets of balsa, allowing the glue joints on one to set while I assembled another. Ramps and platforms were also built over sketches on paper pinned to the balsa sheets. The individual sides were assemble together directly on the layout to create the pens. After the glue had thoroughly set, they were lifted from the layout and airbrushed to suit. The only difficulty was trying to get the proper configuration for the double-deck ramp shown in the first photo: I originally wanted one that could be raised or lowered, but couldn't come up with a suitable mechanism. What I finally did build was based partly on a photo in one of the sources mentionned, and partly on what seemed logical.

Wayne

[orsonroy]

Paul,

I can't think of a single large cattle operation that had its own loading pens, at least not "on paper". Even the biggest of them all, King Ranch, used other loading pens, although they were part of the greater King Enterprises corporate structure.

Virtually all cattle ranch operations used outside brokers to sell their cattle. Even the mega ranches like King used "outside" brokers, even though they were on the corporate payroll. The stok pens too were "independently" owned; in most cases, they were either small private pens, co-op pens, or chain brokerage pens. Large pens around mega ranches would basically serve no one but that one ranch, but they were still not part of that ranch...at least in name.

It's amazing what we have to go through to avoid the tax man and liability cases...

[MR_Paul]

Leighant:

I think you're right. But, there are a lot of really big ranches further southwest from Kingsville & all the way to about Raymondville along 77, and a whole lot of other places! The one shown in DoctorWayne's last photo is really the prototype I'm after, but I think I'll have to scratch build it, since I'm working in N-scale.

My wife & I stopped by the Amon Carter museum in Ft.Worth last Sunday, to see the "Bird's-Eye View" Exhibit. This is a display of 19th-century lithographs of Texas cities, and we really enjoyed it. What was really interesting was that just about all of them showed a railroad, or 2, or 3! Check it out at:

http://www.birdseyeviews.org/

The one that caught my eye, though was the one of Denton in 1883. If you look in the center-foreground you'll see a quad-stockpen, that is basically a double version of DoctorWayne's & capable of loading 2 cars simultaneously.

While that's really cool, it's probably way too ambitious for me.

[doctorwayne]

Thanks, MR_Paul, for the compliment. Leighant, you're probably right about the covered stock pens not being that common for shipping cattle. I based the covered part of mine on one of the articles mentioned and a photo of a similar one here in southern Ontario, taken in the '50s. As you can see, mine is suitable for servicing double deck stockcars and I use it mainly for hogs, which are susceptible to sunburn. It's also part of a larger stockyard which ships and receives livestock by rail or truck. Additionally, I occasionally spot a horse express car here, to be used for shipping various types of livestock to major exhibitions in large cities. Around here, these would include the Canadian National Exhibition and the Royal Winter Fair, both held in Toronto. Here's a photo of the car, although not at the stockyards.



Wayne

[leighant]

"I'd be especially interested in photos showing how a large ranch would set-up their loading operations."
I believe it was usually the railroads that provided stock pens at trackside for livestock to be shipped on their lines, not the ranches. The same kind of principle as a team track, where the customer would move the freight a short distance locally to the rail facility. But where the freight was livestock, the freight could move itself locally a short distance! There was a standard sign Santa Fe had that said, this pen for use only by customers of ATSF Rwy. etc.
The last photo from doctorwayne looks very similar to a standard Santa Fe stock pen. A pen would not necessarily be located at any one ranch, but at a neutral site along the line where it could be used by several livestock shippers.
I remember seeing pens in the late 1960s equivalent to several city blocks on the Missouri Pacific between Bishop and Kingsville, Texas, near the giant King Ranch. A historical marker saying that was once "the largest cattle shipping point in the world" or whatever.

Campbell's stock pen is typical, as seen at walthers
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/200-437

Life-Like's is somewhat smaller and probably "plasticy", but still generally typical.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1378

Walther's Cornerstone kit has parts that are usable. Their kit as shown in their photo looks more like a setup at a meat packing plant receivers lot. I have not usually seen much in the way of covered shelters on a railroad pen used for shipping stock from the ranch--- only in places where cattle might have to stay some time, such as a feedlot.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3047

[leighant]

CATTLE GUARD
general layout, _Mod RRer_ Dec48 p.914
cattle crossing main rr track w fences, gates, guards etc at
packing plant, _Mod RRer_ May50 p.10

STOCKYARD
Auction arena & barn by E.L.Moore, _RMC_ May66 p.34
Fort Worth stockyards, pix 1910,1915,1990,
Texas Hwys Jan93 p.24
Fort Worth Stockyard, drivings calves to sale pens.
_Texas, Our Heritage_ (1962 Texas State history textbook) p.292
Los Angeles Union STOCKYARDS aerial ca 1950 Warbonnet 3Q 03 p.11
Meat packing plant & stockyard w neat cattle drive crossing over
RR line, by Ellison. _Mod RRer_ May50 p.10
Sioux City stockyard: plans, pix, construction,
_Mod RRer_ Apr83 p.81
Stockyards, N product list for building & detailing
_N Scale_ JulAug98 p.34

STOCK FACILITIES (especially of Santa Fe Rwy)
Stock fence & stock guards, std plans. _Mainline Modeler_ Mar87 p.66
Stock loading facility, review Taurus Products kit
_Prototype Modeler_ June80 p.56__
Stock pens, construction article
_Santa Fe High Iron_ MarApr73 p.5
_Santa Fe Modeler_ 1Q89 p.12
__stock pens in background of train runby 1950 pix at Wooton, Colo,
_Warbonnet_ 1Q99 p.7
stock pens at Clovis _Warbonnet_ 4Q2000 p.8
stock pens at Marcelline MO 1930 _Warbonnet_ 4Q 2001 p.22
Stock yard water facility, tanks, pumps, windmills, etc.
_Santa Fe Modeler_ 1Q90 p.33
__stock pen #3, standard plan 1925 _Warbonnet_ 3Q 2001 p.18

("Warbonnet" is the current quarterly publication of the Santa Fe Rwy Historical and Modeling Society. Some of this Santa Fe info may be at www.atsfrr.net )

Also see the book Stock Cars of the Santa Fe Railway for scale drawings, etc.of pens as well as cars.

[MR_Paul]

Thanks, DoctorWayne, for the good "steer", and for your really nice photos of your layout!

I found the reference you mentionned in the Nov.'86 Mainline modeler. But what was really interesting was to use the "stock pen" keywork to search the Hundman website. This turned up 5 additional references in Mainline modeler, and 2 others in N-Scale.
Not to be outdone, a search on the trains.com index gave me 12 references for stockpens, (including 3 of the Mainline modeler reference).

Talk about information overload! May take me a while to sort this all out!

[doctorwayne]

Thanks, ebriley. Not trying to take over this thread, so here are just a couple more shots.

In this one, at least you can still see the stockyards in the background of the photo.




And this one shows the opposite end of the same bridge. This is supposed to represent the area where the river empties into Lake Erie, so there is not meant to be anything in the background except sky.



Sorry that the stockyards are not visible, but in the era that I model, the '30s, there would have been a lot of run-off from them in the river itself, so they're here "in spirit".

Wayne

[Anonymous]

Wayne, that looks like some good modeling to me. Keep up the good work and please share some more layout pics!

Cheers,

[doctorwayne]

If you have access to older magazines, there's an article with photos and plans in the June 1987 RMC, more in the December '92 RMC, and an article on covered stockpens in the February 2004 RMC. Mainline Modeler has an article on stock pen ramps in the November '86 issue and if you check the Model Railroader indexes here, you'll undoubtedly find more.

Here are a few shots of a stockyard that I built using information from some of the sources mentioned.



And these are from a different angle.





Finally, this is an aerial view of a smaller pen used by local farmers for shipping or receiving livestock.



Sorry I don't have any prototype photos to post, but I hope this will be of some assistance.

Wayne

[MR_Paul]

Anyone have photos of rural cattle-loading during 1940's thru about 1970? I'd be especially interested in photos showing how a large ranch would set-up their loading operations.