they ran primarilly into the 40's. many lingered into the 50's on the UP and NP. with the advent of on site slaughter house and truck movments, they virtually dissapeared by the very early 60's. If you remember Atlas's "pig palace" 85' stock cars, these were in service for only a few years. there was a ranch near salt lake city that used stock cars into the 70's. but this was the only exception.
Alan: The stock cars primarily were used up until the 1940's. Most were phased out in the 1950's. Abilene had one of the first rail heads in the west. The cattle were driven up to Abilene from the old Chisolm Trail in Texas to the rail head in Abilene.
The Pennsylvania Railroad was still moving stock trains into the mid-1960's. Schluderberg-Kurdle Co. (EssKay Brand) was still receiving live cattle by rail in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1966 in 50 ft. PRR stock cars rebuilt from X32 automobile boxcars. I worked for the PRR in Baltimore in 1966 and often saw the cars in Highlandtown Yard. Union Pacific continued to operate stock extras into the eraly 1990's, long after other railroads had ceased handling livestock.
The Milwaukee Road ran stock extras during the 1960's. I believe their last one was the early 1970's. Boxcab E50
Would late fifties early sixties be okay. Was thinking of building n-scale-archutectures meat packing plant with stock yard.
Railroad Model Craftsman ran a picture of one running behind a brand new EL SD-45. Mid 1960's. This was from upstate NY to a slaughterhouse in NJ. Shipments this late would be single line only. Frank
This time frame you suggested would be perfect for using stock cars and a packing plant. Good luck with your project. Bill
Welcome to Trainboard Frank. Hope you'll enjoy all your visits here. (How far "Upstate NY"........the west end"?) Bill
Hey Frank! Welcome to TB! I just returned from my annual family reunion up in the Catskills (up near Cairo). Where exactly are you? I ask because I have family up there, mostly near Delhi and also longtime friends up in Windham. Happy railroading! Russ
Stock traffic on eastern roads died out earlier than on western roads. For example, stock car traffic dwindled severely on the N&W by the 1960s. UP handled stock as recently as the 1990s. D&RGW ran them well into the 70's (last one was around 1980 covered in Trains magazine??). CP and CN shipped livestock into Toronto into the mid 1980s. Most of the above was gleaned from the The Freightcars List.
Stock car Tack Boards Does anyone know why stock cars did not have tack boards on the doors or ends? Most other cars of that era had tack boards to attach the routing slip which would show the train crew destination and lading.
The BN had stock come through Alliance at times durring 1978/1979. This was just a few head end cars. They ran some whole stock trains in the early 70s. Late one night when I was 18 working a midnight switch engine in Alliance yard. # 74 was in town and I was walking down 3 trk between cars on both tracks. It gets kind of scarry because your'e down ther all alone, or so I thought. I didn't realize I was walking by some stock cars (I should have smelled them) and a critter let out a low moo I jumed and turned my lantern to the right, the light shot between the slats of a cattle car revealing a huge eye looking at me about 2 feet away. Good thing I have blond hair as that's what I would have showed back up on the lead with.
--Also in the late 70s BN used old stock cars to haul ties and on one occasion I saw an old NP stock car lined with black plastic on the inside of the slats then 3/4 plywood nailed over that. They used them for hauling grain. That was when there was a annual shortage of grain cars every fall.
Conrail also handled stock cars into the late 1980s. Late stock movements like this, on the roads that ran them, were usually just a few cars at the head end of a train. In the ~1960 time frame, you can have substantially more stock traffic.
Stock came into Chicago on the CB&Q well into the 1960s. After the traffic died because of the decentralization of meat processing (the Chicago stock yards closed in 1971) the rail traffic died off. There were a few very late examples of stock movement (UP moving stock between Summer and WInter pasture lands, the East Coast examples cited above) but "regular" stock movement by rail pretty much disappeared by 1970. Charlie Vlk
Maybe they were afraid the use of tack boards would wake the sleeping , and startle the otherwise contented , but soon to be dead beasts . Another thought that came to me with a thought bubble , saying in a Homer Simpson voice , " Doh " , weren't most stock cars wood . That would make most of the car a tack board .
