Cattle Car description


GDSmith

GDSmith

Member
When I go to search for a "cattle car", what should I be searching for in terms of model railroad car types? I tried a generic "HO Scale cattle car" but didn't find anything of use. Obviously if I go to a train show (next one for me is Mid-April in Hickory, NC) I will "know it when I see it" but I'm not sure what to search for. (Length, description, wheel type?) I don't care about road-name.

Thanks

(edit - pictures are from Model Railroader magazine)
Example of what I want:

P2260606_zpsij16ryvb.jpg


Close-up of the car:

P2260605_zps5vlqpls6.jpg
 
Try searching or asking for "Stock Cars" instead of cattle cars.

Check Walthers on-line Reference Guide for a wide selection of stock cars. The ones in your photographs are outside braced cars. There are also double deck cars that were used for pigs, sheep and other small critters. Most were 40 footers. Some constructed out of wood and others steel like your photographs.

Walthers.com

Hope this helps.

Greg
 
Thirty-six feet 7 inches, referred to as a 36 foot car, was another popular length for stock cars. Stock trains frequently used a special caboose known as a drovers car. It had accommodations for the crew that tended the animals. ICC rules required that livestock be given a 5 hour "rest" outside the car for every 28 hours in the car. This caused the railroads to prioritize stock trains to get them to their destination in under 28 hours.
 
Yeah Googling stock car or livestock car lands multiple pages about stock car racing. According to the information I found Mather's car company produced the majority of livestock cars. So you might want to research them. Doing research for a local industry, Lancaster Stockyards, I found out they were only the largest stockyard East of the Mississippi river. Over 10,000 head per day were auctioned off. I have one stockcar currently. Guess I eventually need more of a fleet and maybe an extension of the spur serving the auction. I have to decide how much of that traffic my railroad takes from the PRR. A picture shows about 8 stockcars in front of the stockyard. Which seems low to me.

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Sirfoldalot said:
I would have to guess: ATSF? Without looking it up?
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And you would be exactly right. The Union Pacific started it with Cheyenne of course as well as Kearney (the first), Ogallala, and the like. But the Santa Fe cut them off to the south and was responsible for most all those famous "cow towns" at the end of the trail from Texas north - Kansas City, Topeka, Newton, El Dorado, Wichita, Great Bend, Dodge City, Enid, Garden City. Of the really famous ones, only Abilene, Hays, and Ellsworth were on the Texas & Pacific. Frisco got to Ellsworth a bit late to capitalize on the cattle rush.
 
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I was kind of surprised the PRR was that low on the list. Although they were mostly taking cattle into NYC. Apparently the cattle business was not that desirable that they felt like dominating it. Even for the railroad it was a labor intensive operation. And it competed for priority with passenger trains.

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RBMNfan said:
I was kind of surprised the PRR was that low on the list. Although they were mostly taking cattle into NYC. Apparently the cattle business was not that desirable that they felt like dominating it. Even for the railroad it was a labor intensive operation. And it competed for priority with passenger trains.
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So here were large slaughter houses in NYC? In the west it was all the cattle going to Chicago to be butchered, packed in reefers and shipped to the end market. Today the slaughter houses have spread across the country so that shipping the cows a long distance isn't necessary. Much easier to ship cut meat.
 
Iron Horseman said:
So here were large slaughter houses in NYC? In the west it was all the cattle going to Chicago to be butchered, packed in reefers and shipped to the end market. Today the slaughter houses have spread across the country so that shipping the cows a long distance isn't necessary. Much easier to ship cut meat.
Click to expand...
I found a basic description of the cattle operations in NYC. The PRR built a barge operation and tunnel under a city street to move cattle to a 2 story stock yard. There they sold cattle to butchers and slaughterhouses. I think my railroad will only deliver incoming cattle. I assume most of the outgoing traffic from Lancaster Stockyard was heading to NYC. We're maybe 4 hours away at most by train so plenty of time to schedule trains during overnight or lower traffic times.

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