I would like to scratch build an HO scale stock pen as a destination for my stock car. What materials could I use to construct the pen? I am drawing a blank.
Earl
Strip basswod.
Balsa wood
Strip styrene.
Strathmore board
Dave H.
Strip wood is often sold by its equivalent scale size. Stock pens were strongly built so I would look for 6x6 for posts and 2x6 for the fence boards.
I believe that there have been articles and plans in MR and RMC in the past. You may want to do a forum and web search.
Good luck,
-John
A 1600 lb cow would make short work of any 1 by board so boards are usually 2 by material - a 2 by 6 would be a pretty good size and they don’t leave too much of a gap between the slats. These restraining fences are usually seven or eight feet tall; I am 5 ft 8 inches tall and I was rarely able to reach to the top of the top slat.
Occasionally one would find posts of finished lumber but my rememberance is that they were usually round posts approximately 6 inches in diameter. They are generally spaced relatively close together; 8 foot apart would be about the largest separation between posts that I recall…
Remember one thing: if you’re restraining fence is going to be double sided - have cows on both sides - you are going to need slats BOLTED to both sides of the posts.
I have never seen a loading pen constructed but I have seen a corral constructed; of course corrals are put together with poles and instead of bolts they use rawhide. In this case it took about fifteen men the better part of a month to corral in about half an acre.
[:-^]
Hi Earl,
Just a reminder, a very simple one that I am sure you probably know already. But in the haste to get building sometimes these simple things get overlooked.
The Posts go on the outside of the pens or corrals and the horizontal planks go on the inside so the catlle can’t push them off.
Keep those dooggies happy.
Johnboy out…
Thank you for your replies.
All of the stock pens I have seen first hand were made out of steel pipe. That’s what I had in mind. I could use solid wire, but I am not fond of soldering. I would rather use wood, or something like it, and paint it silver to simulate steel pipe. I’m just not sure where I could obtain something that small that looks like pipe.
Earl
Hmmm, all the stock pens served by railroads I’ve seen (mostly photographs) were built of wood. Of course, that kind of activity pretty much ended by the 1970s. Modern-day pens are frequently made of steel pipe, but that’s nowadays. Has anyone seen a contemporary railroad stock car?
Mark
Such a structure is on my To Do list, too. [:)]
Wolfgang
Please forgive me for my ignorance, but I’ve never seen a steam era stock pen made of welded silver pipe… Maybe you’re wanting to build one that’s more modern (?).
I’m an N scaler, and my stock pen is made with balsa wood posts and strips of poster board for the rails. It would be about 60 X 60 in real life, and has a gate on one side and a ramp and gate at the other side near the tracks for loading. The whole thing is painted black. Besides about ten cows, there’s also a water trough and a bail of hay that they’re feeding on. I even added cow patties to the ground… I use to work on a dairy when I was a kid so I know a little about cattle.
Good luck to you.
Tracklayer
[:-^]
Hi again Eric,
Don’t get too fancy with this, it won’t look right.
For your poles or pipes just dress up all the old sprues you have left over from kit building. If they are to be pipes (which I don’t think they should be) paint them silver with a dot of black on the end of them to show they are hollow. Then weather for rusting. If it is to be round timbers, paint them various shades of brown/grey with a good smattering of manure. They then should look proper and well used.
Johnboy out…
Scale drawings of SANTA FE standard stock pens in the book Stock Cars of the Santa Fe Railway, by Frank M. Ellington, John Berry, and Loren Martens. Originally published by Railroad Car Press. 1986 second printing by Santa Fe Railway Historical Society, Inc. Los Angeles, Cal. 134p.
Also articles, photos and plans of SANTA FE stock facilities in Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society publications including Warbonnet and its predecessor Santa Fe Modeler
std stock yard #1, scale drawings, model constr. article Warbonnet 1Q-2007 p.19
Stock fence & stock guards, std plans. Mainline Modeler Mar87 p.66
Stock loading facility, review Taurus Products kit Prototype Modeler June80 p.56__
Stock pens, construction article
Santa Fe High Iron MarApr73 p.5
Santa Fe Modeler 1Q89 p.12
__stock pens in background of train runby 1950 pix at Wooton, Colo,
Warbonnet 1Q99 p.7
stock pens at Clovis Warbonnet 4Q2000 p.8
stock pens at Marcelline MO 1930 Warbonnet 4Q 2001 p.22
Stock yard water facility, tanks, pumps, windmills, etc.
Santa Fe Modeler 1Q90 p.33
#2 stock yard prize model/diorama Warbonnet 3Q-2007 p.35
__stock pen #3, standard plan 1925 Warbonnet 3Q 2001 p.18
I used strip styrene to build my stockpens, as the work goes as fast as you can assemble the pieces. I built each wall as a sub-assembly, working directly on a drawing pinned to a sheet of 1/4" balsawood, then assembled them into the completed pens right on the layout. The corner posts and a few intermediate ones on the longer sides are inserted into holes drilled into the scenery. When the glue was dry, I removed the completed pens for painting and weathering. Be prepared to use a lot of material, even for a medium-size pen: the boards (I’ve never seen one made of pipe, although my layout is set in the '30s) are on all sides of the posts that an animal can come in contact with, both to prevent them from pushing the boards off the posts and to prevent them from injuring themselves. Pens and runways between pens have boards on both sides of the posts.
Wayne
Walthers sells one for $4.98 including cattle ( Unpainted) All that it needs is some distressing and weathering of the wood. It can be seen on page 42 of their May catalog. (Or is it their cattle log? )
Peter Smith, Memphis