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Livestock Cars on Your Layout

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  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Wyoming, where men are men, and sheep are nervous!
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Posted by Pruitt on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:56 PM

doctorwayne
I'm guessing that most responders to this thread are already "in their cups", so it's likely that no one has checked-out the link which I provided.  There was a reference in it about alcohol, but it was in regard to beer, rather than whiskey.

Wayne 

Some of us aren't so much "in our cups" as in our dotage, maybe...

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Posted by 7j43k on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 5:05 PM

My official modeling location is Lyle, WA.  There used to be stock pens there for sheep.  I've decided to assume that the animals were being transported to/from different pastures.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Moving to the other subject, I do appreciate the recipes that have been put forward.  They do sound delicious.  Being the lazy slug that I am, I just make Martinis (Tanqueray 10).

 

 

Ed

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Posted by woodone on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 5:09 PM

Just remember to park thoes cattle cars down wind of any passenger station!

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Posted by BATMAN on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 7:10 PM

NP Eddie
the BN offered unused stock cars to grain brokers to haul grain. All they had to do was to steam clean the cars and board up the sides.

I was wondering why my grain never made it to the coast, I missed the board it up part.Dunce

 

 

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by PC101 on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 7:20 PM

I have a good bunch of the Bowser PRR K11 40' and K9 50' Livestock cars.

One BLI "mooing" Livestock and one Athearn ''smoking'' stock car, the Athearn car has a DCC decoder and a smoke unit in it, just enter up the car number and turn up the throttle. I guess somehow a smoldering fire got started, so that Train will need to go into a siding and call the local FD. Of course there are no animals in that car.    

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Posted by doctorwayne on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 9:41 PM

PC101
I guess somehow a smoldering fire got started, so that Train will need to go into a siding and call the local FD. Of course there are no animals in that car.

What??  No Smokey the Bear, disguised as a version of Lionel's giraffe car.  I  betcha smoke and mirrors could likely pull it off.

Wayne

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Posted by angelob6660 on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 10:27 PM

Railroads never delivered cattle to slaughter houses. They will transport them to other pens. In which farmers will buy the animals to fatten up and take them to slaughter. 

There's a Union Pacific meat promotion video on YouTube that I watched two -three years ago.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IR9cMEMd-To&t=37s

 

Modeling the G.N.O. Railway, The Diamond Route.

Amtrak America, 1971-Present.

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Posted by dehusman on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 10:36 PM

angelob6660
Railroads never delivered cattle to slaughter houses.

While that is technically correct, they did deliver cattle to pens that were immediately attached to a slaughter house, the cattle went directly from the car to a pen to the slaughter house.   Everything being within a couple hundred yards. Those types of plants were all over the midwest.

For example Omaha Stockyards, rail lines on one side, stock pens in the middle and slaughter houses on the other.  Scroll down an there is a picture of the Armour slaughterhouse, rail cars and stock pens all within a stone's throw of each other.

Employment - Invisible Histories - Omaha Public School (ops.org)

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

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Posted by John-NYBW on Thursday, November 25, 2021 7:19 AM

dehusman

 

 
angelob6660
Railroads never delivered cattle to slaughter houses.

 

While that is technically correct, they did deliver cattle to pens that were immediately attached to a slaughter house, the cattle went directly from the car to a pen to the slaughter house.   Everything being within a couple hundred yards. Those types of plants were all over the midwest.

For example Omaha Stockyards, rail lines on one side, stock pens in the middle and slaughter houses on the other.  Scroll down an there is a picture of the Armour slaughterhouse, rail cars and stock pens all within a stone's throw of each other.

Employment - Invisible Histories - Omaha Public School (ops.org)

 

I grew up in Omaha and I remember those warm, humid summer days when the breeze was out of the south and it got quite pungent at our house on the near north side. The nickname of Omaha South High School was the Packers. Go figure. This was at a time when Omaha had replaced Chicago as having the largest stockyards in the world. The stockyards and slaughterhouses have left as they went west to be closer to where the cattle was raised. 

The Rise and Fall of the Omaha Stockyards (livinghistoryfarm.org)

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, November 25, 2021 9:35 AM

John-NYBW

What would be the purpose then of all the meat reefers? 

I remember I worked at an ice house in the summer of 1970 and we also did a small cold storage business. I remember unloading a reefer of frozen meat. It had been boxed up and I think it was beef but I'm not positive about that. 

 

My layout is in the upper Midwest, not a large city.  While slaughterhouses in NYC would deliver or ship locally, my little town would more likely ship the meat products out of town.  Oh, and don't tell anyone that I squeezed the whole slaughterhouse scene into a small space, and there is no road access to the building at all.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by Bayway Terminal on Thursday, November 25, 2021 9:43 AM

Basil Heyden Kentuckey Bourbon / straight up

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, November 25, 2021 9:43 AM

There are a few Livestock Cars in my fleet, mainly for variety. I also have a Meat Reefer or two.

However, I have never modeled a cattle pen, meat packing plant, slaughterhouse, or anything else like that. They don't fit into my fantasy world.

All the cattle cars run empty on my layout.

I prefer to model my cows just happily hanging out on the green grass and enjoying the day. The only thing they need to worry about are natural predators.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by Bayway Terminal on Thursday, November 25, 2021 10:00 AM

At +- $60.00 I highly recommend Red Breast Single Malt Irish Whisky, smooth as silk, and i have tried them all including Middelton Reserve at $300 per bottle, Bayway Terminal NJ

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Posted by Bayway Terminal on Thursday, November 25, 2021 10:10 AM

Have you tried Allagash White from Portland Maine, Bayway Terminal NJ

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Posted by mbinsewi on Thursday, November 25, 2021 10:30 AM

No stock cars on my layout, but while train watching, you will find a bit of Crown Royal Black, or perhaps J Henry bourbon, or maybe some Buffalo Trace bourbon.

While living in Iowa as kid, the owner of the farm my step dad worked, leased a lot land for soybeans and corn.  One the farms he leased, there were 2 old stock cars, sitting on concrete slabs, that were used as corn cribs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mike.

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Posted by Shock Control on Thursday, November 25, 2021 10:32 AM

SeeYou190

I see that you model the reptile-to-mammal transition era! 

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Thursday, November 25, 2021 11:19 AM

John-NYBW
My fictional railroad is based loosely on the NYOW and in the first half of the 20th century they carried quite a few Jewish passengers to the Catskills

You mean the Kaatskills, otherwise known as the "Jewish Alps". There were Jewish owned resorts that kept kosher and had services on Saturdays. And a tremendous number of Hollywood stars of the Golden Age got their start as vaudeville performers on stage in the "Borscht Belt"

"Borscht Belt humor refers to the rapid-fire, often self-deprecating style common to many of these performers and writers. Typical themes include:

  • Bad luck
  • Puns: "Sire, the peasants are revolting!" "You said it. They stink on ice." (Harvey Korman as Count de Money (Monet) and Mel Brooks as King Louis XVI, in History of the World Part I)
  • Physical complaints and ailments (often relating to bowels and cramping): "My doctor said I was in terrible shape. I told him, 'I want a second opinion.' He said, 'All right, you're ugly too!'" "I told my doctor, 'This morning when I got up and saw myself in the mirror, I looked awful! What's wrong with me?' He replied, 'I don't know, but your eyesight is perfect!'" (Dangerfield)
  • Aggravating relatives and nagging wives: "My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." (Dangerfield). "Take my wife—please!" (Henny Youngman); "My wife drowned in the pool because she was wearing so much jewelry." (Rickles); "My wife ain't too bright. One day our car got stolen. I said to her, 'Did you get a look at the guy?' She said, 'No, but I got the license number.'" (Dangerfield) "This morning the doorbell rang. I said 'Who is it?' He said 'It's the Boston Strangler.' I said 'It's for you dear!'" (Youngman)"

Borscht Belt - Wikipedia

If I remember correctly, the O&W would lease CNJ commuter coaches that would otherwise be sitting idle for the weekend to handle the multitudes on Summer Friday and Sunday nights.

Oy vey!

 

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, November 25, 2021 7:03 PM

Whoops. Double Post.

Living the dream.

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    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, November 25, 2021 7:04 PM

SeeYou190
The only thing they need to worry about are natural predators.

Shock Control
I see that you model the reptile-to-mammal transition era! 

Whistling

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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    February 2018
  • From: Flyover Country
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Posted by York1 on Thursday, November 25, 2021 7:54 PM

If any of you ever visit me at my house, don't expect too much.  The most expensive thing I can give you to drink is Busch Light.

 

York1 John       

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Posted by hon30critter on Thursday, November 25, 2021 11:49 PM

I have a small fleet of stock cars, four of which are models that were assembled beautifully in the early 1950s (not by me in case you were wondering). They required a few repairs (who doesn't when you get to 70 years old?) but now they look and run beautifully.

I will have a small stock yard, but the cattle will be quite safe because there won't be a meat packing plant on the layout. The cattle will be picked up from the stockyard, make a few laps around the oval layout, and then be brought back to the pens for water and feeding. Since the cattle are plastic they won't grow old or have hoof problems. They will remain healthy forever. I don't have space for a pasture so that is as humane as I can get.Smile, Wink & GrinLaughLaugh

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

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