Trains.com

Does any railroad still transport livestock?

11061 views
23 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: Northern Illinois
  • 130 posts
Does any railroad still transport livestock?
Posted by Trailryder on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:16 PM
I was just reading a old issue of trains Mag (11-1984) and they mentioned a carload of cattle killed during a derail. What a mess, had to wonder if anyone still transported Livestock this way. I have never seen a livestock car.

Anyway....
Later Bill
If You Don't know where your going, Any Road will Take you There.
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:48 PM
HOGX cars still out there on UP
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,439 posts
Posted by dknelson on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 7:49 AM
Sure ..... ever see high school kids take Amtrak?
Dave Nelson
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,020 posts
Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 8:43 AM
There was a thread not long ago that discussed this. IIRC, the restrictions (water, food, breaks to 'stretch their legs') were/are quite daunting and would make any Wall Streeter more than anxious to turn livestock transport over to trucks.

There were other considerations as well, regarding location of processing facilities, etc.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Omaha, NE
  • 10,621 posts
Posted by dehusman on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 9:08 AM
The UP no longer has any livestock moves.

Dave H.

Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Ely, Nv.
  • 6,312 posts
Posted by chad thomas on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 9:43 AM
I think 1992 was when UP stopped running the HOGX cars. If memory serves they went to Farmer Johns in LA. I shot a bunch of black & white pix of the cars in there last days on Cajon Pass. They would usualy be in a 20-25 car blocks at the front end of the train.
  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Van Halens Van.
  • 215 posts
Posted by Clutch Cargo on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 9:58 AM
IIRC there was a cooling station at the south end of the las vegas yard.

They would turn on the sprayers and the block of HOGX woud creep by.
Cooling the hogs before the ride through the desert.

This was in the 70s and 80s though.

Kurt.
Next to Duluth....We`re Superior. Will Rogers never met an FBI Agent.
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin TX
  • 4,941 posts
Posted by spbed on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:22 AM
While I can not answer your question I will say try at all costs to NEVER get behind a truck hauling livestock as the odor coming from the truck is quite unpleasent. [:o)][:D]


Originally posted by Trailryder
[

Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Phoenix
  • 128 posts
Posted by rockisland4309 on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:52 AM
A friend of mine has a slide he shot of a three car HOGX train being pulled by a UP Dash 8 around 1992 just outside of Yermo. I would assume Farmer John was paying big bucks just to have three stockcars of hogs hauled to L.A.!
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 11:20 AM
Conrail ran a couple of PIG cars behind a intermodal to Oak Island. They no longer do that. They were double decker. I saw a picture of them in Barnes & Noble on Freight Trains
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 11:50 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

There was a thread not long ago that discussed this. IIRC, the restrictions (water, food, breaks to 'stretch their legs') were/are quite daunting and would make any Wall Streeter more than anxious to turn livestock transport over to trucks.


Do these restrictions not apply to livestock being transported by truck?
  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Van Halens Van.
  • 215 posts
Posted by Clutch Cargo on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 12:06 PM
Yes.

The changing face of agriculture in the US favors trucks.

Transportation costs are a HUGE portion of your Grocery bill.

Kurt
Next to Duluth....We`re Superior. Will Rogers never met an FBI Agent.
  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Antioch, IL
  • 4,371 posts
Posted by greyhounds on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 12:12 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by addax61024

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

There was a thread not long ago that discussed this. IIRC, the restrictions (water, food, breaks to 'stretch their legs') were/are quite daunting and would make any Wall Streeter more than anxious to turn livestock transport over to trucks.


Do these restrictions not apply to livestock being transported by truck?


No they don't. The Federal regulations regarding humane livestock transport were enacted before truck transportation became an option. They only apply to livestock transported by rail and water. They were never extended to motor freight.

Agricultural interests had enough clout to keep their products free from Federal motor freight economic regulation ( and some other regulations). Regulation served primarily to protect the truckers from competition, not to protect the consumers of transportation.

Interstate motor freight rates on livestock, lettuce, other produce, grain, etc. have never been subject to economic regulation by the US Federal Government. In contrast, rail rates were strictly regulated. This was "A" cause, if not "The" cause for the shift of much of this freight from rail to motor movement.
"By many measures, the U.S. freight rail system is the safest, most efficient and cost effective in the world." - Federal Railroad Administration, October, 2009. I'm just your average, everyday, uncivilized howling "anti-government" critic of mass government expenditures for "High Speed Rail" in the US. And I'm gosh darn proud of that.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 3:56 PM
From reading some Maritime trade publications, there is a market for livestock being shipped from Austrailia and New Zealand to the Middle East....I can't imagine the smell on a ship for serveral weeks in transit from OZ to the Middle East with with 100,000 head of sheep....I wonder if livestock gets motion sickness like humans...especially in heavy seas?

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 7:33 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dehusman

The UP no longer has any livestock moves.

Dave H.


OK - What was westbound at Laramie/ Rock River in a junk freight less than two weeks ago that smelled so bad?
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 7:48 PM
I would venture a guess that meat processing is a lot more centralized these days and long shipments of livestock probably don't happen anymore. Baltimore once had at least two meat packers receiving livestock by rail in addition to a union stockyard but its probably been forty years since any stock cars came to Baltimore.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 8:08 PM
The "Meat Triangle" bounded by Ft. Morgan Colorado, Dumas TX and on past Liberal KS thru to Omaha in the United States processes beef for the east and west coasts.

Trucking can deliver the cattle for slaugter from the feedlots in less than a day, and the cattle processed into boxes and loaded and rolling by the third day. It should reach the west in 2 days or less and the east in 3.

IMHO Railroads cannot keep up with trucking regarding beef. Im sure historically solid trains used to run both livestock and beef products to and from the packing plant. But time is money in this industry.
  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: Northern Illinois
  • 130 posts
Posted by Trailryder on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 8:36 PM
Thanks to every one who responded to my question.

Later Bill

If You Don't know where your going, Any Road will Take you There.
  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Antioch, IL
  • 4,371 posts
Posted by greyhounds on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:34 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by HighIron2003ar

The "Meat Triangle" bounded by Ft. Morgan Colorado, Dumas TX and on past Liberal KS thru to Omaha in the United States processes beef for the east and west coasts.

Trucking can deliver the cattle for slaugter from the feedlots in less than a day, and the cattle processed into boxes and loaded and rolling by the third day. It should reach the west in 2 days or less and the east in 3.

IMHO Railroads cannot keep up with trucking regarding beef. Im sure historically solid trains used to run both livestock and beef products to and from the packing plant. But time is money in this industry.


Highiron,

If I ever figure out how to begin to put this all together, I'm going to ask several people on this forum to partner with me. You're quoting "rail friendly" schedules for beef movement. Double stack economics with those delivery times will work. Existing rail transit times do what you say needs to be done for the processed beef.

All I gotta' do is "Getter' Done".

Which is easier said than done.
"By many measures, the U.S. freight rail system is the safest, most efficient and cost effective in the world." - Federal Railroad Administration, October, 2009. I'm just your average, everyday, uncivilized howling "anti-government" critic of mass government expenditures for "High Speed Rail" in the US. And I'm gosh darn proud of that.
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:55 PM
Having had to head for the ditches in the before mentioned triangle more than once due to cattle truckersand had to deal with Amtrak vs. Bullhauler on two occasions, AgBiz is virtually untouchable. Bullhaulers are the bottom of the barrel in trucking's hierarchy and have got to be the least safe thing you will encounter on the highways.
Railroads will never be able to compete here on a level playing field.
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, June 16, 2005 3:15 PM
I understand Queensland Railways in Australia still do some livestock movements, but I do believe they are nearly finished. Most livestock in the northern and western parts of Australia now move on triple road trains - ie. prime movers pulling 3 trailers of stock.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, June 16, 2005 4:46 PM
Greyhounds, If it is possible for railroads to fan out into the many small farms all over the triangle at a phone call's notice then go for it.

Many Bull Haulers running hammer down and hat on the mirror will keep the beef plants going. You gotta stand back when they come thru.

The beef plants are places that are not happy. There are at any time many reefer drivers corraled in the bullpen usually a few steps from security. The security is under a great deal of pressure from the drivers demanding when the loads are ready, dispatchers demanding time frames so they can make a schedule and cattlemen demanding cattle right heah right now from the bull haulers.

After having waited anywhere from an hour for a trailer that is LOADED and wasting time.... to 3 days waiting on a load to be loaded on the trailer... no one is going to waste any time. You got to go.

There are probably 4 bullhaulers an hour coming to the plant and at any time several hundred truckers waiting on loads during peak times. How fast is the work?

He he.. the left lane of the interstate is considered the Monfort Lane. (Used to be long ago) because only $1.00 trucks capable of 100+ mph with beef boxed or swinging would lord it over the rest of us.

One saturday I left Garden City in the morning and was in Bakersfield CA at 8 am monday with another half day to go before Salinas who have been riding the telephones to my company DEMANDING that load ASAP or they will find someone else who can. The demands grow strident by the hour. By the time you are on the customers property your team has been threatened with anything from ternimation, execution to starvation wages hauling unimportant cargo with open ended delivery times.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 19, 2005 3:19 AM
HighIron, I know exactly what you mean! When the boats need loading at docks on the other side of the country, we get 48 hours to load 6 decks of cattle and race 4500 km across the country. All by ourselves! Any wonder why I gave up that life for a nice little driving job, where I'm home every night!
  • Member since
    November 2020
  • 1 posts
Posted by Quilpie on Saturday, November 14, 2020 5:25 AM

As mentioned above in 2005, Queensland Rail in Australia were still transporting cattle in that large state.

 

In 2020, pleasingly, there are contracted to government cattle trains regularly run in season by Aurizon (a publicly listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange) and new entrant Watco Australia that is owned by a USA company.

 

The cattle trains run from Quilpie in southwestern Queensland to Brisbane, and also a meatworks along that line at Oakey is served with a new rail siding, while there are also numerous CattleTrains operating down the main North Coast Line from inland Queensland.  The QR rail network is 1067mm (narrow gauge).  

 

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy