Slaughterhouse

[Anonymous]

For a cool operation I'd like to have a slaughterhouse where cattle cars are dropped off and reefers picked up carrrying frozen steaks. A bit of dark humor . Anyone know of N scale models available for this?

Don

[Jetrock]

Try this one:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/322-681

[Anonymous]

Try looking at: http://www.the-n-arch.com/ for structures, etc. Stock cars are common, Atlas offers them.

One industry on my layout that's not related to logging or mining is theTofu packing operation. Herds of white, wafer-thin tofubeast range the clearcut woodlots, fattening up for their trip to the packing plant. Hey, it's a vegetarian's layout, ok?

I'm still working on the designs for the buildings which will be laser-cut basswood

Wayne

[cacole]

Something you must have if you model a slaughterhouse is a couple of open gondolas to haul the intestines and other waste products to a rendering plant.

My brother-in-law was an engineer for the Saint Louis Terminal Railroad. He said the worst turn he ever handled was one night in mid-summer when the switching list called for them to pick up two gondolas from a slaughterhouse outside East Saint Louis, Illinois, and take them across Eades Bridge to a rendering plant in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Because it was hot and humid, and the gons had been sitting for a few days while they were being filled up, you can imagine what the smell must have been like. He said they were full of maggots already, and had to be handled very gently to keep the contents from spilling out over the sides or ends of the gons.

Sorry if you were getting ready to sit down to a meal. I've probably spoiled your appetite. He said this trip spoiled his appetite for a couple of days.

[rrinker]

And here I'm thinking this topic is goig to have something to do with Kurt Vonnegut.... [:D]

[JerryZeman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker

And here I'm thinking this topic is goig to have something to do with Kurt Vonnegut.... [:D]

The first thing I thought about was:

"Crops could be grown, livestock could be raised, and slaughtered"

What a classic.

regards,
Jerry

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Muddy Creek

Try looking at: http://www.the-n-arch.com/ for structures, etc. Stock cars are common, Atlas offers them.

One industry on my layout that's not related to logging or mining is theTofu packing operation. Herds of white, wafer-thin tofubeast range the clearcut woodlots, fattening up for their trip to the packing plant. Hey, it's a vegetarian's layout, ok?

I'm still working on the designs for the buildings which will be laser-cut basswood

Wayne

Are you a fan of "The Far Side"?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
Are you a fan of "The Far Side"?

It's my inspiration for the tofu operation and for most things in life. [:)]

Wayne

[Anonymous]

If your pressed for space on your layout you could allways just depict a few mutalated cows out in the field with a scratch built ufo hovering above Could be the worlds first Alien slaughterhouse.Sorry just couldn't help myself. I wi***he one made by the N scale arch.was made in ho very nice .

[krump]

they are back in fashion --- after all the scares with crazy chickens, mad cows, swine flu,
a rendering plant for the animal byproducts (guts and gore stuff) is big business in this area
(just model it without the stench, and visitors will come)

[Anonymous]

You also need tank cars to haul off the blood - 85 GALLONS per cow. Hide cars are also needed.

Note:
Meat freezer cars are different then veggie reefers. Meat reefers hang the meat from the ceiling and produce is stacked on the floor.

Bob

[dknelson]

Like the saying goes, in beef slaughtering they use everythng but the moo
Hooves and bones to the glue factory. Some use was also used in the geletin desert industry.
Hides to the tannery in old old boxcars. Bits of hide and flesh are used in fertilizer
Some waste meat is processed by other food makers, such as tongues and livers and brains (oh my)
guts and other offal to the pet food and fertilizer companies. When the customer was close to the slaughter house, open gons were used.
Hair to felt manufacturers. Years ago insulation was made from animal hair.
tallow has both food and nonfood uses -- the tank cars are usually marked edible or inedible tallow. Yum!.
Dried blood is used for fertilizer. It is also usd to deter chipmunks.
I second Cacole's posting about the awful smell and flies associated with "gut cars." Switching these cars was said to be one of the worst jobs on a summer day. And from time to time gasses would build up and the cars would just overflow, leading to slippery conditions. I remember gut cars being delivered to a local siding where both a glue works and a fertilizer works were located. The flies were unbelievable. These were usually short hauls -- all the above industries tended to be located near each other. This traffic stayed on railroads rather than trucks well into the 1980s by the way.
You could have an entire layout devoted to cows and the various byproducts. And it would be a prototypical situation to have loads and empties going to industries that are rather near each other.
Dave Nelson

[jrbernier]

Packing house operations are quite complicated, and very interesting. One of my more memerable summer jobs was shoveling cow guts into a hopper at teh Swift Plant. The 'inedibles' were pumped into tank cars - I never saw gondolaa with raw guts in them. The 'smell' was bad anyway.
The worst job was working the 'maggot pit', where the hides were put before loading them into old 'rough' boxcars to be sent to tanneries.
I am adding a 'Swift' plant to my layout, and it will be a 'smaller' plant with a 3 car dock for the typical 36' meat reefers. I will also have an ice dock/pre-cool track and a supplies track for things like salt, hide loading, etc. I have a 'grey' Milw boxcar ready for 'hide service only' just for that track!

Jim Bernier

[Anonymous]

Although I am a "city boy" I worked in rural areas for years and married a "farmer's daughter". I sometimes laugh when I see and hear what "city people" think. A few years ago on the TV show Providence a cow escaped from the packing plant. The cow was a Holstein( not sure of spelling, pronounced WHOLE steen), which is a breed that is strickly used for dairy, not for steaks. My wife and I laughed through most of the episode, expecially since Sid's dad in the show was supposed to be a veteranarian. You'd think he'd know the difference ;-). I've seen modelers make similar errors. One of the most common is cattle on the layout near the track with no fences. I saw that on the layout of a nationaly known modeler.

I also remember a cover scene on an issue of MR years ago that featured a tractor trailer rig as well as trains. An issue or two later a modeler who happened to be a professional truck driver had a letter in RPO explaining how that semi could never have backed into that loading area, etc. We all have gaps in our knowledge so a formum like this can be very helpful.

Also, via la Far Side!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ebriley

Although I am a "city boy" I worked in rural areas for years and married a "farmer's daughter". I sometimes laugh when I see and hear what "city people" think. A few years ago on the TV show Providence a cow escaped from the packing plant. The cow was a Holstein( not sure of spelling, pronounced WHOLE steen), which is a breed that is strickly used for dairy, not for steaks.

Don't laugh too hard about Holsteins at the packing plant. Raising Holstein steers for beef production is increasingly common. Figuring that the dairy farmer needs far fewer bulls than cows, and the birth rates of calfs are about 50/50 each, those unwanted bulls have to go somewhere. Also, few cows that are at the end of their milk production years have a pension plan to support them in their old age and also find their way to the packers.

A year ago, it was a Holstein from Washington State that was found to have been infected with Mad-Cow disease after being processed at a slaughterhouse.

Just another reason I swore off meat.

Wayne

[dknelson]

There is a product known as "utility beef" that probably uses any kind of cow that comes along including milk cows. I am not sure if utility beef is used for human consumption but remember there is a lot of cat and dog food out there -- also high school lunch programs :). Mmmmm beefy mac cassarole.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Model Railroad Craftsman magazine had a 2 part series on modeling a meat packing plant and its operations ........October and November issues. I forget what city the prototype was in .......midwest somewhere.

Don't forget to have the "death march" ramps that the cattle and the Porky Pigs take from the pens to the killing house. Hehe.

I've spent some time in a leather factory ...... Seton Leather in Newark, NJ. Huge, heavy bins of hides would come in. Skin and hair on one side of the hide, rotting flesh on the other side. Everywhere you went in this plant, everything was covered with a thick, slippery paste of rotten flesh and dirt/grease. The workers, none of which spoke English, all wore rubber knee boots because of it.

How those guys sat there and ate their lunch on hot, humid days in that stench I don't understand.

Jim

[rrinker]

Probably the same way all those workers could sit there and eat their lunch at the mushroom houses near where I used to live. Don't forget to roll up your windows before you get there!

--Randy