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Livestock Cars on Your Layout

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Livestock Cars on Your Layout
Posted by Shock Control on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 10:10 AM

Are your livestock cars taking the animals to a slaughterhouse, or are they liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary?  

I am a gentle vegetarian who will enjoy a delicious tofurkey, along with an Old Fashioned or three, for Thanksgiving, my livestock cars are liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted by Pruitt on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 10:58 AM

Not sure any stock cars were ever used to haul animals to a wildlife sanctuary - no economic upside to that, and the use of the railroads were (is) all about economics.

On my layout the stock cars will be taking the imaginary meat animals to the slaughterhouses and meat packing plants for shipment out to markets. That's what the real railroads did, and that's what I simulate on my layout.

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Posted by NorthBrit on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:01 AM

My livestock cars are empty (at the moment).  Smile

 

David

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Posted by NittanyLion on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:05 AM

Pruitt
Not sure any stock cars were ever used to haul animals to a wildlife sanctuary - no economic upside to that, and the use of the railroads were (is) all about economics.

What does the railroad care about my end use?  If I ask to ship 30,000 cattle over some years to the hamburger mill, they'll do it if my check clears.  If I ask to ship 30,000 llamas to my eccentric billionaire llama ranch so I can listen to the gentle hum of 30,000 llamas, what do they care if my check clears.  If the shipper can pay the bill, there's all the economic incentive the railroad needs.

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Posted by doctorwayne on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:09 AM

While I have quite a few livestock cars, there are no abattoirs on my layout...after all, plastic is not all that tasty.

Here's a few photos of livestock on my layout (pictures will enlarge, if clicked-upon)...

 

 

If you're bored and have a little time to waste, there's a thread HERE that has some mention of moving livestock, but it's really just a narrative (amply illustrated with photos) on making-up a train and following it's progress through several small towns on my layout.

I was pleased with the reception it  got, so I hope that you'll enjoy it too.

Wayne

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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:12 AM

Shock Control

Are your livestock cars taking the animals to a slaughterhouse, or are they liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary?  

I am a gentle vegetarian who will enjoying a delicious tofurkey, along with an Old Fashioned or three, for Thanksgiving.  My livestock cars are liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary.  

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I don't deal with livestock cars on my layout, but the Old Fashioned or three has caught my attention. We need to know more about that.

Whiskey or rye?  Brand? Recipe?

You can't just leave us hanging like that. 

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by Ablebakercharlie on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:14 AM

Shock Control
Are your livestock cars taking the animals to a slaughterhouse, or are they liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary?  

Since you asked..... I specifically built a packing house on my pike so the livestock cars are definitely carrying cattle and pigs on their final trip or final anything for that matter.

On the beverage side for Thanksgiving I'll be enjoying something very similar to yours - Manhattans but with dry vermouth and luxardo cherries!

 

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Posted by rrebell on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:22 AM

Shock Control

Are your livestock cars taking the animals to a slaughterhouse, or are they liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary?  

I am a gentle vegetarian who will enjoying a delicious tofurkey, along with an Old Fashioned or three, for Thanksgiving.  My livestock cars are liberating the animals and bringing them to a wildlife sanctuary.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

So why did you get a flu shot or whatever, don't those things have a right to live, or did you call a pest control company etc.

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Posted by Shock Control on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:23 AM

richhotrain
I don't deal with livestock cars on my layout, but the Old Fashioned or three has caught my attention. We need to know more about that.

 Whiskey or rye?  Brand? Recipe?

You can't just leave us hanging like that. 

Rich

I prefer rye.  Jim Beam makes an excellent and affordable pre-prohibition rye.  

I place at the bottom a glass a full-width slice of a clementine or halo orange. A few dashes of bitters. I top this with two cherries, either Bada Bing or Luxardo.   I then muddle these together.  

Then, I place ice in the glass, and pour two oz. of Pre-Prohibition rye and stir. 

Instead of club soda, I top off the drink with unsweetend fizzy water, black cherry Bubly being my go-to.  I then stir again.

If it needs a bump of sweet, i sitr in a teaspoon of the cherry juice.

If I have demerara sugar on hand, I may put a little in with the orange and cherries at the muddling stage.  

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Posted by NorthBrit on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:28 AM

Shock Control

I prefer rye.  Jim Beam makes an excellent and affordable pre-prohibition rye.  

I place at the bottom a glass a full-with slice of a clementine or halo orange.  I top that with two cherries, either Bada Bing or Luxardo.  I then muddle these together.  

Then, I place ice in the glass, and pour two oz. of Pre-Prohibition rye and stir. 

Instead of club soda, I top off the drink with unsweetend fizzy water, black cherry Bubly being my go-to.  I then stir again.

If it needs a bump of sweet, i sitr in a teaspoon of the cherry juice.

If I have demerara sugar on hand, I may put a little in with the orange and cherries at the muddling stage.  

 

 
 
Too technical.
 
Jim Beam neat please. Yes
 
 
David

To the world you are someone.    To someone you are the world

I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought

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Posted by Shock Control on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:29 AM

Pruitt

Not sure any stock cars were ever used to haul animals to a wildlife sanctuary - no economic upside to that, and the use of the railroads were (is) all about economics.

On my layout the stock cars will be taking the imaginary meat animals to the slaughterhouses and meat packing plants for shipment out to markets. That's what the real railroads did, and that's what I simulate on my layout.

In the postwar era, both PRR and B&O were at the forefront of the animal rights movement.  Both railroads went to heroic lengths to steal livestock from slaughterhouses and transport them to wildlife sanctuaries.  On my layout, at least. Laugh

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:34 AM

I don't have stock cars on my layout. It doesn't make sense for my locale near New York City. Instead I have meat refers delivering product to my cold storage warehouse as well as to New York City represented by my east end staging yard. It's too late to save all that cattle, pigs, and fowl. 

As for my Thanksgiving feast, it will be real turkey with plenty of sides. I've never understood eating fake meat when the real thing tastes so much better. Burger King wants me to pay an extra dollar for their Impossible Whopper. Seems rather silly to me.  

 

 

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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:39 AM

Shock Control
 
I prefer rye.  Jim Beam makes an excellent and affordable pre-prohibition rye.  

I place at the bottom a glass a full-width slice of a clementine or halo orange.  I top that with two cherries, either Bada Bing or Luxardo.  I then muddle these together.  

Then, I place ice in the glass, and pour two oz. of Pre-Prohibition rye and stir. 

Instead of club soda, I top off the drink with unsweetend fizzy water, black cherry Bubly being my go-to.  I then stir again.

If it needs a bump of sweet, i sitr in a teaspoon of the cherry juice.

If I have demerara sugar on hand, I may put a little in with the orange and cherries at the muddling stage.   

Awesome! That's what I love about Old Fashioneds. There is no one way, no right way, no wrong way.

For me, I start with a half slice of orange and two Maraschino cherries that get muddled at the bottom of the glass. Add a mix of 3:1 Crown Royal:chilled water, a dash of Angostura bitters, and a bit of Simple Syrup. Add ice and top with the other half slice of orange and a Maraschino cherry.

Rich

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:42 AM

NorthBrit

 

 
Shock Control

I prefer rye.  Jim Beam makes an excellent and affordable pre-prohibition rye.  

I place at the bottom a glass a full-with slice of a clementine or halo orange.  I top that with two cherries, either Bada Bing or Luxardo.  I then muddle these together.  

Then, I place ice in the glass, and pour two oz. of Pre-Prohibition rye and stir. 

Instead of club soda, I top off the drink with unsweetend fizzy water, black cherry Bubly being my go-to.  I then stir again.

If it needs a bump of sweet, i sitr in a teaspoon of the cherry juice.

If I have demerara sugar on hand, I may put a little in with the orange and cherries at the muddling stage.  

 

 

 
 
Too technical.
 
Jim Beam neat please. Yes
 
 
David
 

Lately, I've become a Wild Turkey man. Usually straight up but sometimes mixed with a little ginger ale.

I learned a nice summer drink this past year. A double shot of vodka mixed with lemonade and a splash of cranberry juice. I know it sounds like one of those sissy drinks with the paper umbrellas but it tastes good and goes down real smooth on a hot day.

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:51 AM

John-NYBW
It doesn't make sense for my locale near New York City.

Actually, the reason the PRR had a large stock car fleet is the large Jewish population in eastern cities and the Jewish dietary laws that required the meat be consumed within a certain period after slaughter. And the NYC ran directly into the "Meat Packing District" on Manhattan for the same reason. So not having stock cars around New York City during the period animals were hauled by rail is unprototypical. Of course, what you choose to do is up to you, it's your railroad!

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Posted by Shock Control on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:57 AM

richhotrain
Angostura bitters

Forgot the bitters at the muddling stage!  I will fix it.

Try some Bada Bing or Luxardo cherries sometime.  They make a huge diffrerence.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 12:08 PM

I have one of those ancient Swift packing plants from my teenage years.  It's been fixed up with a new flat roof to replace the old warped cardboard, actual window glazing and illumination inside, although I used canopy cement to glaze the windows so you can't see inside.

There's one of those old yellow Athearn stock cars from that era, too.  Walthers was closing out its line of stock car kits, so I picked up several for $8 each.  Since some of the kits were for double deck cars, I chose hogs for the occupants of the livestock pens next door.

I also have a few packing company ice bunker reefers, and an icing platform to service them before shipment.  Even further down the line, I have two Hide Service Only boxcars to take that material over to the tannery.

 

I'm not a hard alcohol guy.  Thanksgiving for me will be served with wine.  And it will be a real turkey from a local farm, never frozen.

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

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 12:15 PM

So, there's dairy cows and calves in the pens, here. My scene is still being evaluated until I get it to my liking.

 Feedlot by Edmund, on Flickr

My stock car fleet is in serious need of weathering (soon!).

 Mather_stock by Edmund, on Flickr

Back in 1966, at the ripe old age of ten, my dad and mom brought me on a Thanksgiving weekend tour of Manhattan sponsored by our Cleveland newspaper and transportation was provided by the Erie-Lackawanna Lake Cities overnight.

A Thanksgiving dinner was included and in the ballroom of the Hotel New Yorker tables were being set up while the older folks "mingled". I found my place and saw a glass there with a golden liquid in it along with the orange slice and a cherry or two.

It took a few good gulps but I finally finished it. Embarrassed That was my first Manhattan!

My parents and the rest of the "grown ups" came around and figured out what I had done and got a good laugh over that.

I've always used sweet vermouth, tonight I'll try one with dry and see if I like it better. Crown Royal has been my whiskey of choice lately but I'm always experimenting with others. Sometimes Chivas is what strikes my tastes.

Regan's Orange Bitters #6 always adds a nice finish.

 Chivas by Edmund, on Flickr

My son and his wife are both vegetarians. We will be having dinner with them at their place tomorrow. I respect their choices and don't mind a meat-free meal now and then. It is always delicious.

Regards, Ed

 

 

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 12:20 PM

BEAUSABRE

 

 
John-NYBW
It doesn't make sense for my locale near New York City.

 

Actually, the reason the PRR had a large stock car fleet is the large Jewish population in eastern cities and the Jewish dietary laws that required the meat be consumed within a certain period after slaughter. And the NYC ran directly into the "Meat Packing District" on Manhattan for the same reason. So not having stock cars around New York City during the period animals were hauled by rail is unprototypical. Of course, what you choose to do is up to you, it's your railroad!

 

Did those NYC livestock cars come into New York from the north or by ferry from the Jersey side of the Hudson. My railroad is set in northern New Jersey and the connection is to NYC's West Shore line.

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 using trackage rights over the West Shore for part of their route. The modeled portion of my fictional road doesn't serve that area.   

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 12:24 PM

John-NYBW
Did those NYC livestock cars come into New York from the north or by ferry from the Jersey side of the Hudson.

Neat information here:

https://cityfarmer.info/historic-cow-tunnels-of-new-york/

Scroll down here to see photos of the W. 37th St. Cattle pens:

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/prr37.html

 

Good Luck, Ed

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 2:18 PM

gmpullman

 

 
John-NYBW
Did those NYC livestock cars come into New York from the north or by ferry from the Jersey side of the Hudson.

 

Neat information here:

https://cityfarmer.info/historic-cow-tunnels-of-new-york/

Scroll down here to see photos of the W. 37th St. Cattle pens:

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/prr37.html

 

Good Luck, Ed

 

That's good information. I don't model the New Jersey rail terminals. Those are represented by my staging yards. It looks like it would make sense to add some livestock cars as bridge traffic. I had always assumed processed meats would be shipped from slaughterhouses to New York City. It's too late to add a slaughterhouse and holding pens on my layout now without taking something else out.  

Now I'm going to have to research livestock traffic. I'm guessing it would be shipped in priority freights.

 

+

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 2:34 PM

Era is important for livestock shipments on railroads.  Live livestock needed to be housed and exercised regularly, so think about stock pens.  I would imagine that after the slaughterhouse, the meat would be distributed by truck rather than rail.

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

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Posted by caldreamer on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 3:14 PM

I will take a brandy snifter of 40 year old Pinwinnie scotch.  Warm the scotch by rolling the brandy snifter with your hands until the aroma rises. Sip it like it is Napolean brandy and get that smooth taste and warm feeling as it goes down. Makes Crown Royal taste like .50 muscatel wine. ENJOY!

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 3:55 PM

caldreamer
Makes Crown Royal taste like .50 muscatel wine. ENJOY!

I was given a bottle of eighteen-year old Oban Scotch ($170) OK, yes it was good but it really won't replace my everyday Crown Royal blended.

Maybe I just don't have the discriminating taste some are blessed with?

Cheers, Ed

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Posted by Pruitt on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:00 PM

NittanyLion
What does the railroad care about my end use?  If I ask to ship 30,000 cattle over some years to the hamburger mill, they'll do it if my check clears.  If I ask to ship 30,000 llamas to my eccentric billionaire llama ranch so I can listen to the gentle hum of 30,000 llamas, what do they care if my check clears.  If the shipper can pay the bill, there's all the economic incentive the railroad needs.

As long as you're not shipping anything illegal, I'm sure they didn't - and generally don't - care. If you paid them, they'd haul empty or full cars all over the country for you. All I said was that stock cars were probably never used to haul animals to wildlife sanctuaries. I will revise that to say that they probably did haul some animals to zoos, which I didn't think about before. But wildlife sanctuaries, per se, are a relatively new thing (unless you count national parks and such as wildlife sanctuaries) and stock cars were probably nearly out of use before sanctuaries began popping up.

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Posted by Pruitt on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:02 PM

Shock Control
In the postwar era, both PRR and B&O were at the forefront of the animal rights movement.  Both railroads went to heroic lengths to steal livestock from slaughterhouses and transport them to wildlife sanctuaries.  On my layout, at least. Laugh

Well there ya go! I stand corrected! 

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:05 PM

gmpullman

 

 
caldreamer
Makes Crown Royal taste like .50 muscatel wine. ENJOY!

 

I was given a bottle of eighteen-year old Oban Scotch ($170) OK, yes it was good but it really won't replace my everyday Crown Royal blended.

Maybe I just don't have the discriminating taste some are blessed with?

Cheers, Ed

 

One of these years I'm going to splurge on a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label. Last I checked it was $190 for 3/4 of a liter. I'd like to try it first to see if it's that much better than the Red Label but even if you find a bar that stocks it, it's going to cost you about $30 a shot. I tried the Black Label once and didn't think it was that much better than the Red. If I do end up buying a bottle of the Blue, I'll probably be too chincy to actually drink it. Wild Turkey bourbon is still my go to whiskey. 

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Posted by John-NYBW on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:11 PM

MisterBeasley

Era is important for livestock shipments on railroads.  Live livestock needed to be housed and exercised regularly, so think about stock pens.  I would imagine that after the slaughterhouse, the meat would be distributed by truck rather than rail.

 

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. 

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Posted by doctorwayne on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:42 PM

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 

 

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Posted by NP Eddie on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 4:55 PM

ALL:

As information, about 1971, 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. The downside was they could only load about 40 or so tons of grain in said stock car. Some open top hoppers were used also, sealing the bottom doors and covering the loads. After thw 1970 merger, the BN purchased thousands of large cover hoppers (C6's). I distributed my share of them over my career.

Ed Burns

NP BN BNSF clerk from Northtown Minneapoilis, MN

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