A simple question about stock cars. Most of the time I always associate them with cattle. However, did they also use them to move pigs, chickens, and other farm animals to slaughter houses? Thanks.
Tom
Tom,Stock cars was used for cattle,horses,pigs,sheep and goats.
I know chicken was ship by rail in cretes but,not sure of the type of car used.
Thanks, Larry. That’s kinda what I thought.
Yea, I wasn’t unsure about the chickens, either. Although the larger animals wouldn’t necessarily have a problem, those stock cars would seem a little too “breezy” to safely transport chickens in.
Tom
And watermelons. From Texas (SP, T&NO, MKT).
Can you imagine trying to get chickens out of a stock car? What a great scene for the Three Stooges!
Ed
[8D] Years ago I remember seeing Union Pacific stock cars with the car number and then either a D or T next to it. I asked and found out that the letter designated the car as eiter a double or triple level car. Triple level were used for either hogs or sheep Just a thought hopes this helps Larry
This wikipedia article has something on poultry cars.
also watermelons,pig iron,bricks, etc.
Single deck stockcars and double deck seem to be the most common. As noted, hogs for example could use the double deck ones. Although cattle would be the most common in single deck, horses sometimes would be transported in stock cars. 100+ years ago logging in the Great Lakes area was done in winter, so farmers would sometimes hire out with their draft horses to pull logs out of the woods. Both the farmer / logger and his horses would go by train.
Also, though primarily used to bring cattle to market, stock cars sometimes were used to move animals from one grazing area to another. I seem to recall the D&RGW used to move cattle from their winter range to the summer range in the spring for example.
the Pig BrakeIIRC, one of the Ambroid “1 of 5000” car kits was a poultry car. I acquired one as part of a batch buy, then quickly sold it off (unbuilt) as trade goods.
One of my oddballs is a JNR four wheel double deck livestock-brake. I consider assigning that to some poor freight conductor as cruel and unusual punishment. (It’s referred to, informally, as, the Pig Brake.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
since most stock cars were used seasonally, many lines and shippers (shippers owned many stock cars) were anxious to lease stock cars for other uses. One off label use for stock cars was for moving petroleum products in barrels (and later in drums). Such uses lasted well into the 1940s.
Some years ago, the GM&O Historical Society Newsletter ran a photograph of Alton stock cars being used by the stores department to ship parts and supplies to outlying car and locomotive shops. The photo, IIRC, was taken at the Alton’s Bloomington (Illinois) shops.
The Wikipedia article is nicely detailed and shows various desings, including a 2-level car for sheep and the Stillwell Oyster Car - used to transport live oysters! And there is a secotion on poultry cars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_car_(rail)
–Randy