I was just reading a old issue of trains Mag (11-1984) and they mentioned a carload of cattle killed during a derail. What a mess, had to wonder if anyone still transported Livestock this way. I have never seen a livestock car.
Anyway…
Later Bill
HOGX cars still out there on UP
Sure … ever see high school kids take Amtrak?
Dave Nelson
There was a thread not long ago that discussed this. IIRC, the restrictions (water, food, breaks to ‘stretch their legs’) were/are quite daunting and would make any Wall Streeter more than anxious to turn livestock transport over to trucks.
There were other considerations as well, regarding location of processing facilities, etc.
The UP no longer has any livestock moves.
Dave H.
I think 1992 was when UP stopped running the HOGX cars. If memory serves they went to Farmer Johns in LA. I shot a bunch of black & white pix of the cars in there last days on Cajon Pass. They would usualy be in a 20-25 car blocks at the front end of the train.
IIRC there was a cooling station at the south end of the las vegas yard.
They would turn on the sprayers and the block of HOGX woud creep by.
Cooling the hogs before the ride through the desert.
This was in the 70s and 80s though.
Kurt.
While I can not answer your question I will say try at all costs to NEVER get behind a truck hauling livestock as the odor coming from the truck is quite unpleasent. [:o)][:D]
[quote]
Originally posted by Trailryder
[
A friend of mine has a slide he shot of a three car HOGX train being pulled by a UP Dash 8 around 1992 just outside of Yermo. I would assume Farmer John was paying big bucks just to have three stockcars of hogs hauled to L.A.!
Conrail ran a couple of PIG cars behind a intermodal to Oak Island. They no longer do that. They were double decker. I saw a picture of them in Barnes & Noble on Freight Trains
Do these restrictions not apply to livestock being transported by truck?
Yes.
The changing face of agriculture in the US favors trucks.
Transportation costs are a HUGE portion of your Grocery bill.
Kurt
No they don’t. The Federal regulations regarding humane livestock transport were enacted before truck transportation became an option. They only apply to livestock transported by rail and water. They were never extended to motor freight.
Agricultural interests had enough clout to keep their products free from Federal motor freight economic regulation ( and some other regulations). Regulation served primarily to protect the truckers from competition, not to protect the consumers of transportation.
Interstate motor freight rates on livestock, lettuce, other produce, grain, etc. have never been subject to economic regulation by the US Federal Government. In contrast, rail rates were strictly regulated. This was “A” cause, if not “The” cause for the shift of much of this freight from rail to motor movement.
From reading some Maritime trade publications, there is a market for livestock being shipped from Austrailia and New Zealand to the Middle East…I can’t imagine the smell on a ship for serveral weeks in transit from OZ to the Middle East with with 100,000 head of sheep…I wonder if livestock gets motion sickness like humans…especially in heavy seas?
OK - What was westbound at Laramie/ Rock River in a junk freight less than two weeks ago that smelled so bad?
I would venture a guess that meat processing is a lot more centralized these days and long shipments of livestock probably don’t happen anymore. Baltimore once had at least two meat packers receiving livestock by rail in addition to a union stockyard but its probably been forty years since any stock cars came to Baltimore.
The “Meat Triangle” bounded by Ft. Morgan Colorado, Dumas TX and on past Liberal KS thru to Omaha in the United States processes beef for the east and west coasts.
Trucking can deliver the cattle for slaugter from the feedlots in less than a day, and the cattle processed into boxes and loaded and rolling by the third day. It should reach the west in 2 days or less and the east in 3.
IMHO Railroads cannot keep up with trucking regarding beef. Im sure historically solid trains used to run both livestock and beef products to and from the packing plant. But time is money in this industry.
Thanks to every one who responded to my question.
Later Bill
Highiron,
If I ever figure out how to begin to put this all together, I’m going to ask several people on this forum to partner with me. You’re quoting “rail friendly” schedules for beef movement. Double stack economics with those delivery times will work. Existing rail transit times do what you say needs to be done for the processed beef.
All I gotta’ do is “Getter’ Done”.
Which is easier said than done.
Having had to head for the ditches in the before mentioned triangle more than once due to cattle truckersand had to deal with Amtrak vs. Bullhauler on two occasions, AgBiz is virtually untouchable. Bullhaulers are the bottom of the barrel in trucking’s hierarchy and have got to be the least safe thing you will encounter on the highways.
Railroads will never be able to compete here on a level playing field.