Stock Cars

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

Do the railroads still use stock cars today?

I have never seen one in use in Texas.

Any history?

Was curious if railroads still transport livestock today or when they stoped doing so.

Mark in Texas

[Eriediamond]

Mark, To be completely honest I can only answer I'm 99.9% sure the rail roads don't haul cattle any more. The shorter distances cattle need to be hauled now days and the locations of processing plants has eliminated the need for that. Trucks can haul the cattle more effiently with less stress on the animals then trains can. I may start something here but I think in the not too far future we will see the box car disappear also. As time goes on more and more specialty cars are being built to haul what box cars used to. The container is, I, believe, going to replace the box car eventualy. Just look at the trailer trains and container trains and you can see my reasoning.

[Hawks05]

ya i highly doubt that livestock are transported by train anymore. there are a lot more processing plants around and like Erie said its easier to haul by truck as you can get to places where trains can't.

[Dough]

I'm kind of curious about this too. I would like to know how long ago it was that any of them ran.

And as for the boxcar, you should read the Trains magazine from a few months ago. It talked about railcar production, and one of the things that went up recently was boxcar production. They may be fazed out one day, but they still have a prominent and actully growing use for the time being.

[dehusman]

The last stock movements in the western US were hogs from Nebraska to So. California on the UP back in the late 1980's, early 1990's. The UP built a several "new" stockcars (HOGX reporting marks) from MP boxcars and used them in this service. There were a dark green with white lettering.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

OFF TOPIC so I hope you don't mind me throwing this in...
If so let me know and I'll delete it

Dave H's post reminded me of a story my brother tells. He was backpacking around the US in the 80's. He wanted to go from Salt Lake City to Denver so he jumped a train. The the car he happened to jump was full of pigs. During the climb over the Rocky Mountians the train slowed way down then stopped. It was several hours later before it started moving again. During all this they had a snow storm. The temp got down well below freezing. He wrapped himself in his goose down sleeping bag and slept in the middle of the pigs. When they got to Denver the next day he read that the train he had hitched a ride on had lost nearly half of the pigs due the the freezing temps. He was lucky to have not froze to death and he hasn't jumped a train since.

[dknelson]

As use of stock cars waned some railroads, and I am thinking particularly of the Rock Island, sheathed the inside and used old stock cars to carry grain during the fall grain rush.
I hope and assume they cleaned the cars first -- care for another piece of toast, by the way?
Dave Nelson

[Eriediamond]

Dough, I didn't read the article you speak of in Trains. Purhaps I went a little overboard in stating I believe boxcars will eventually disappear. I based my theory on the observations I see every day doing my job as a truck driver for the past 44 years. If you look at the average number of boxcars that made up trains, say, twenty years ago and compare that average to todays trains, what do you see? Also observe todays industries. With a few exceptions, most have done away with warehousing material and depend on "on time delivery" by truck. Look at todays trade and you see a world trade with goods being shipped over seas and those sea ports no longer have thousands of box cars waiting to be loaded or off loaded, you see containers now. I haul products into and out of industries that ship by rail and have large loading docks that were used for loading box cars, but now sit idle as their commodities are now being loaded into containers to be transfered onto container cars at the railroad. Look at the auto industry, and you see the parts coming in by container and automobiles leaving on special "auto rack" cars. Not too many years ago those new autos left in boxcars. Boxcars may never fully disappear, but they'll be on the endangered species list.

[Eriediamond]

Dave, I thought that sandwich I ate yesterday tasted a little funny[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[Dough]

Well you won't belive what I found listed in a 2001-2002 Car & Locomotive Guide. On page 38 is a Gunderson/Greenbrier: Special-Purpose Livestock Car. It says that they are tri-level and used for shipping hogs. They have converted old 60 foot, 70 ton box cars by adding ventilation and a watering system. The one in the picture carries HOGX markings.

So apparently they are still out their in a very limited quantity. I would be interested in seeing any recent pictures of the 60 footers.

Also, scroll all the way to the bottom of this article with pictures from just ten years ago of the 50 footers:
http://www.trainweb.org/nrmrc/taprototype.html

[cacole]

Practically all livestock is now moved by truck to the nearest feedlot or slaughterhouse, and railroads no longer own livestock cars for cross-country movements. The Chicago stockyards have even been closed down, from what I have read. I remember when the SP hauled livestock to and from Yuma, Arizona in the early 1970s, and there was a huge stockyard complex on both sides of I-8 through Yuma. Today, about all you see on the former SP Sunset Route through Southern Arizona are stack trains. I think one reason the railroads gave up on hauling livestock was because the trains were required by law to stop every few hours so the livestock could be unloaded for feeding and watering, and today's management prefers to run long trains with no stops except for crew changes.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole

The Chicago stockyards have even been closed down, from what I have read.

Um.....the Chicago stockyards have been gone since about 1970. The Ampitheater was torn down in the early 1990s, and the entire area is quickly being turned into townhouses. The only thing left is the main gate.