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The UP move of the CLS train in the HOGX cars lasted till, possibly, as late as 1994, but that's it. I saw cars being loaded in Schuyler, NE and Marysville, KS (I heard that was the very last active rail livestock location in KS, NE had a few) in Feb., 1990. I used to do an AAR trace of random #'rd HOGX cars back then and they were moving into 1992-93. By '94 though, they were either in storage or being scrapped. The remaining active stations that UP had in the early 90s had one thing in common - all on very active mains (except I heard one in Gill, CO???). Once the cars were loaded, a few hours later a mainline train picked them up and it was off to the races to L.A. Because of automatic watering and feeding troughs in the newer HOGX cars, I don't think these hogs were ever taken off the train. They ran thru a "car wash" of sorts in Dry Lake, NV, just before Vegas, but that was it. As far as processed meat going by rail, don't believe there is very much of that. It may be growing however due to brand new mechanical reefers being built by both UP and BNSF. There is definetly still some frozen chicken moves going to southeastern ports for export though. Much of it going to Russia. This moves in traditional mechanical reefers, and possibly cryogenic cars. Frozen fish also goes by rail, but often not for human consumption; often it is going to pet food processing plants. Believe a big fear for the railroads in hauling meat for example is the the enormous liability if there is a claim. Once spoiled, that's 3 tractor trailer loads of meat to dump. What's worse - what if it looks good, transit was fine, but the reefer unit was erratic... Sometimes stopped for a few days, got a good hit in the yard, and restarted...? At the destination however it was temp reading looked good, and the meat was frozen - or refrozen... Takes a lot of consumers to eat 3 tractor trailer loads of meat... That's a lot of sick people calling their lawyers... Many of the reefers today, if not brand new, have been upgraded though. UP's "ARMNs" for example, with their new Carrier units, satellite tracking in them that constantly monitors temperature, and know if a door was opened anywhere enroute, etc. This does make rail a lot better than it was even just 10 years ago, but old habits are hard to break. Diesel fuel approaching $3.00 a gallon however, is helping to break them :-) RR Ray~
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