Trains.com

Reviving old discussion of cattle on rail

9505 views
73 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, August 27, 2022 11:20 AM

54light15
I knew that Clint was on that show, but I didn't know about Martin Milner. Also featuring the ever-sinister Dan Duryea. I miss all those Westerns from my childhood and there were so many. 

Many of the Westerns are being shown on cable channels - Charge, METV, FETV and others.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, August 27, 2022 9:38 AM

I knew that Clint was on that show, but I didn't know about Martin Milner. Also featuring the ever-sinister Dan Duryea. I miss all those Westerns from my childhood and there were so many. 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, August 27, 2022 9:29 AM

Flintlock76
Anyone care for a flashback of moving cattle in the old days?  Cowboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rHrLHIeyI

FETV (Family Entertainment TV on cable) Broadcasts Rawhide at 2 PM & 3 PM Eastern daily.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, August 27, 2022 8:34 AM

Anyone care for a flashback of moving cattle in the old days?  Cowboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rHrLHIeyI

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Saturday, August 27, 2022 12:19 AM

Does Australia still have livestock trains on some routes?  

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Friday, August 26, 2022 9:57 PM

Overmod
I don't see why anyone would waste time arranging to ship cattle on the hoof when the same amount of money applied to handle strategic packaged meat products could be far more lucrative and far less risky.

We've had whole threads on how to go about doing that.

When you don't have the technology to handle a packaged meat product, you do what you have to do with the product and technology you have.

Refrigeration suitable for shipping butchered meat products didn't exist until well after WW II.  My early years as ATTM at Bayview Yard in Baltimore Esskay Meat Packing (Schluderberg Kurdle ) was getting two or three loads of hogs per night in the early 1970.  Upon arrival, the cars would be pulled into a track known as 'The Wye'  where a water stantion where the Car Dept would 'hose down' the hogs and the Yard Engine crew would go on down the the Esskay plant and deliver the load of hogs and pull the empties from the prior day.  By 1975 or thereabouts the movement of hogs stopped.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,020 posts
Posted by tree68 on Friday, August 26, 2022 7:42 PM

BaltACD
Effective Refrigeration.

That's what killed the East India spice trade (and the clippers that carried it).

Based on what I've read, a prime use of the spices was to cover the taste of rancid butter.  Once the refrigerated boxcar came into being, that need ceased to exist.  The butter could be churned in remote areas and shipped to the cities.

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
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, August 26, 2022 4:50 PM

I don't see why anyone would waste time arranging to ship cattle on the hoof when the same amount of money applied to handle strategic packaged meat products could be far more lucrative and far less risky.

We've had whole threads on how to go about doing that.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Friday, August 26, 2022 4:12 PM

Effective Refrigeration.

Before it, livestock had to be LIVE arriving the slaughter and distribution area, otherwise it would spoil and rot before it could be sold and used.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    August 2022
  • 3 posts
Posted by oldmancat on Friday, August 26, 2022 3:42 PM

The project I've been working on for the past three years is about an experimental cattle car. It was an 85-foot Ortner Steer Palace modified with feed and water facilities to allow cattle to eat and drink while the train was under way. The objective was to see how cattle fared on long-distance rail trips.

Most of the experiments were done by researchers at Texas A&M. The government (ICC or USDA, forgot which) approved the experiments as meeting the feed-water-rest requirements of the 28-hour law.

Between 1977 and 1984 the car made 10 trips. The first was a trial run on the Union Pacific between Idaho and Nebraska. The rest terminated in Amarillo from sources in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. Other than UP, no Western railroad provided transportation.

Participating Eastern roads included the Louisville & Nashville, Norfolk Southern, and Seaboard Coast Lines. Burlington Northern and possibly the Rock Island handled the car west of the Mississippi. The last trip in 1984 was a move from Iowa to Pennsylvania via the Miwaukee Road and Conrai.

Most of the information I have comes from agriculture scientific journals, and unfortunately the authors were not railfans. Their reports documented the condition of the cattle, not the rail line they were on. I've inquired of archives holding corporate records, and historical societies, but so far the pickings have been slim.

That's a little surprising. In at least 3 trials in 1982, NS provided the business car Royal Arch to house scientists and their instruments. The car was coupled between the Ortner car and a flat car with a highway trailer modified with food and water. Has to be one of the oddest consists to ride the rails. Surely some railfan took note.

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,901 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Friday, August 26, 2022 3:05 PM

Don't forget many years ago meat packers were more consolidated in the large cities, like Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City.  Eventually much of the meat production moved closer to where the livestock was produced.  Livestock didn't need to move as far, which just gave trucks more advantage.

Livestock had to be unloaded for feeding, watering and rest every 28 hours.  A shipper could sign a release to increase the time to 36 hours.

Jeff 

  • Member since
    May 2022
  • 101 posts
Posted by anglecock on Friday, August 26, 2022 2:49 PM

Last load was Pigs on Conrail Autoracks heading to Oak Island Yard in New Jersey to be turned into Nathans Hot Dogs in the early to late 1990s. Someone at the Conrail Historical Soceity has info on this

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 599 posts
Posted by azrail on Friday, August 26, 2022 2:38 PM

Plus livestock by law had to be taken out of the car, rested in pens, fed and watered after a certain number of hours. Which increases shipment time, unlike trucks which took less time to ship cows to the stock yards and meat packers.

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,754 posts
Posted by diningcar on Friday, August 26, 2022 2:20 PM

I'll allow greyhounds to answer your question. 

The advent of trucks with their versality and capacity eliminated the need for railroads to haul livestock. 

  • Member since
    August 2022
  • 3 posts
Reviving old discussion of cattle on rail
Posted by oldmancat on Thursday, August 25, 2022 5:07 PM

Attn: greyhounds. Several years ago there was a discussion: "Why did the railroads stop cattle trains?"

You noted that you had met a gentleman named William Gentleman. He is a prominent figure in a history I'm writing, and you are the first person I've found who actually met him.

I'd like to talk with you. What is the best way we can get together?

Thank you

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