Yea, Yea, I know that stock trains went out years ago on railroads, but I have Mohawk Packing Company on my contenporry BNSF layout. Would it be too outlansish to run a livestock train to the packing plant?
Its your RR....do whatever works for you. If you are freelancing, you can assume you have a special situation where you have stock cars coming based on a special arrangement you have with a stock yard nearby. I don't know the rules but I think the Gov stepped in many years ago and rquired the stock cars to stop after a certain amount of time to water the stock. Your "supplier" would need to be within that time frame.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
One of the last stock runs in the modern era was a Union Pacific high priority freight, that carried hogs to a Los Angeles slaughterhouse. The stock cars were placed directly behind the locomotives, with intermodal trailers behind the stock cars. This ran well into the 90's with a few photos showing widecab locomotives lugging the stockcar/intermodal car mix: http://www.railpictures.net/photo/396185/So with some reasonable logic, you could base your stock car operations off the late era Union Pacific practice.
The trick might be coming up with modern stock cars.
The closest might be the old AHM 50' stock car. It was double decked. It didn't have a roof walk, so it looked kind of modern. Several of those might look good. And sorta modern.
Here's a photo:
You might find more information at Hoseeker.com.
Someone once had a great site for AHM cars, but I can't find it.
Ed
why not just service the packing plant with trucks in and rail refers out.
Trucks in, reefers out means less traffic for my railroad. Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
Or... if your layout does not have any era distingushing features like modern vehicles, buildings, landmarks etc, you could call it _'s era day and run them then. That way, you could almost run early 1900's one day and 2018 the next!
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
caldreamer Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
Stock cars with cattle and sheep as well as hog cars means a lot more trains to run.
Sheep and hogs go in two deck cars. Cattle go in single deck cars. The ones I suggested are two deck cars.
I think AHM also did a convertible car. New York Central, as I recall. But they would have been pretty old, I think.
Here they are:
That horizontal "pipe" at the bottom of the side was used to lift and lower the deck. You can see 4 vertical chains going up the side. The chains wrapped around the pipe. But these cars are, as I assert, too old for modern times.
Here's a place with some very good detail photos of the 50' car:
http://www.icollector.com/HO-SCALE-AHM-Stock-Car_i13856196
7j43k The trick might be coming up with modern stock cars. The closest might be the old AHM 50' stock car. It was double decked. It didn't have a roof walk, so it looked kind of modern. Several of those might look good. And sorta modern. Here's a photo: You might find more information at Hoseeker.com. Someone once had a great site for AHM cars, but I can't find it. Ed
Pratt truss stock cars, I like it Ed. I may be looking for a few of those cars myself. In fact I know I will. I hope they come in N scale.
My favorite Bridge (Pratt). Working on one now. Never mind that temporary railroad board Mach up underneath, that's just to keep things straight where my columns go.
Actually in a modern era, it would be pretty rare for beef to be shipped out by rail. Most probable prototype situation is cattle in by truck, beef out by truck.
I know chicken processing plants ship frozen chicken out (chickens in by truck).
If you look beyond the standard modeler traffic, you have other options. You can have boxcars of packaging inbound. You can have a rendering plant adjoining the packing plant and ship tallow (edible and inedible), offal, bone meal, etc.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusman Actually in a modern era, it would be pretty rare for beef to be shipped out by rail. Most probable prototype situation is cattle in by truck, beef out by truck. I know chicken processing plants ship frozen chicken out (chickens in by truck). If you look beyond the standard modeler traffic, you have other options. You can have boxcars of packaging inbound. You can have a rendering plant adjoining the packing plant and ship tallow (edible and inedible), offal, bone meal, etc.
according to the info i have the NP had the last stockcars built in the US in 1966 , some roads redid box cars into stock like in link http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-stock-m.jpg
If you wanted to get creative, it would be an interesting project to build a "what-if" modern stock car. Maybe something in the 60' range with sidewalls like a stock trailer has. Could be pretty neat looking.
I model in N scale. I was thinking of 4 0 foot stock cars for cattle, the 50 foot AHM cars for sheep and the Atlas 85 foot pig pen cars for hogs. What I have is a small scratch built packing plant building, It was an excellent idea to have a small number of cars brougth in on the head end of a train and delivered to the packing plant. Tallow, out in tank cars, Offal and meat in mechanical reefers and hides out in 40 foot box cars. The plant is adjacent to a small yard, so the local brings the cars up from the main yard and then delivered to the packing plant.
Deleted
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
caldreamer I model in N scale. I was thinking of 4 0 foot stock cars for cattle, the 50 foot AHM cars for sheep and the Atlas 85 foot pig pen cars for hogs. What I have is a small scratch built packing plant building, It was an excellent idea to have a small number of cars brougth in on the head end of a train and delivered to the packing plant. Tallow, out in tank cars, Offal and meat in mechanical reefers and hides out in 40 foot box cars. The plant is adjacent to a small yard, so the local brings the cars up from the main yard and then delivered to the packing plant.
On this forum, if you don't say otherwise, you're in HO. Since you didn't say that at the beginning, you are now in HO. So. You MUST get rid of all your N scale. Sorry. That's the rules. NOW you can search for the most excellent cars I suggested.
OK.
If you had a slaughterhouse that brought in three different kinds of animals, it would likely be the size of a large county. You don't. I suggest you pick one.
You could, of course, respond that when there's no stock cars parked at the plant, no one can tell which type of animal goes there. Thus arguing that, as long as the cars are delivered by animal type, it doesn't matter. OK.
In the real world, there are no more stock cars. Undoubtedly, there's a reason. I applaud your rejection of the reason, whatever it is. But I do urge you to make the rejection as believable as possible. Thus, stock cars would have to be "modern". And you should spend some time daydreaming (using logic and reason) WHY this particular plant bucks the system and pulls it off. Might be fun.
Rule 1. This is MY railroad.
Ruel 2. Any questions or conscers refer to rule 1.
Since I hve a slaughter house on my layout, assume that what you see is only part of the plant, small thought it is. All three types of livestock are handled thus creating more traffic for the railroad which is the ultimate goal. I checked and the siding is 39 inches from fouling point to end of siding. Enough for a number o fstock cars at one time.
caldreamer Rule 1. This is MY railroad. Ruel 2. Any questions or conscers refer to rule 1. Since I hve a slaughter house on my layout, assume that what you see is only part of the plant, small thought it is. All three types of livestock are handled thus creating more traffic for the railroad which is the ultimate goal. I checked and the siding is 39 inches from fouling point to end of siding. Enough for a number o fstock cars at one time.
"Would it be too outlansish to run a livestock train to the packing plant?"
So, you want to ask the question, but ignore the answer. Hmmmm.
Ed:
There were some great answers, but the sarcastic reply got a sarcastic answer. I am always open to reasonable suggestions.
Ira
I will have the five or six stock cars placed on the head end of my Z train, so the livestock will get to their destination as quickly as possible. My only other question is did the packing plants get stock cars every day? I need to figure out how often to have the stock cars moved on my railroad.
Regarding Stock Train operations, you might want to do some research on that, I'm sure you'll find the answers.
Even a contemporary railroad allows for the occasional exception. What road is your stock train? From where is it traveling to?
caldreamerMy only other question is did the packing plants get stock cars every day? I need to figure out how often to have the stock cars moved on my railroad.
Well technically the current answer is they don't get stock cars any day.
Since you aren't modeling anything real, then the answer to your question is moot. You can have stock cars spotted every 4 hours if you want.
You have said you are modeling a very large packing plant. Very large plants need a lot of cattle. Small plants need a small amount of cattle. How many cards do you want to spot?
I model the BNSF from Richmond, California up to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The stock train would run from Klamath Falls down to my hump yard (major yard) at Sacramento, where the stock cars would be cut off the Z train and put on a local and run directly up to the Bieber yard which is adjacent to the packing plant. The stock cars would be immediatly taken to the packing plant and the other cars would be left in the yard for the Beiber local to deliver later that day. Outbound cars would be returned to the hump yard for sorting and put on the appropriate outbound trains. The Z train would proceed to the intemodal yard as soon as the stock cars are cut out and power is put back on the train.
HOGX car 1990's
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Model of car built by Ortner 1966
dehusmanknow chicken processing plants ship frozen chicken out (chickens in by truck).
Russell
csxnsChickens has to eat and the chicken food around here comes by unit train.
But that's not even close to what he's modeling.
The largest poultry farms get unit trains, several in Arkansas and N Texas got them.
If you are getting several cars at a time, the livestock would likely first get unloaded into outdoor holding pens rather than going directly into a slaughter house. The several hundred animals will need to be inspected after the trip for health before entering the food chain. I also suspect there are valid health reasons for keeping separate holding pen areas for each type of livestock, with very thorough cleaning required if the use changes.
Stock cars would get unloaded as soon as possible on arrival at destination. That is why they would often be handled on the head end of a train; the yard engine would be standing by, ready to spot them for unloading as soon as the road power cut off. Stock traffic required precision scheduled railroading, something the railroads used to do quite well. Now it is an empty buzzword.
John
Your suggestion about the se[erate pens for the different types of animals is a good one. As I said in a previous post the yard engine will move the stock cars immediat;y to the packing plant upon arrival (See my prior post, about 3 posts back from this one).
There is an interesting discussion on TrainOrders a few years ago which stated when the real railroads ran stock trains. D&RGW, my RR ran them into the late 1970's or early 1980's - can't remember exactly when the last train was. So my time frame being around there I could protypically run a stock train but the hard part would be finding stock cars that work for that time period.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3216919
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have been trying to get the address of the Perdue chicken plant in Salisbury MD with no luck I want to Google Earth it to see if it is rail served.
Joe Staten Island West