   #copyright

Stock car (rail)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   In railroad terminology, a stock car is a type of rolling stock used
   for carrying livestock (not carcasses) to market. A traditional stock
   car resembles a boxcar with slats missing in the car's side, and
   sometimes end, panels for ventilation; stock cars can be single-level
   for large animals such as cattle or horses, or they can have two or
   three levels for smaller animals such as sheep, pigs, and poultry.
   Specialized types of stock cars have been built to haul live fish and
   shellfish and circus animals such as camels and elephants. Until the
   1880s, when the Mather Stock Car Company and others introduced "more
   humane" stock cars, loss rates could be quite high as the animals were
   hauled over long distances. Improved technology and faster shipping
   times have greatly reduced losses.
   Missouri Pacific Lines all-wood stock car #52967, photographed at
   Pueblo, Colorado in March, 1937.
   Enlarge
   Missouri Pacific Lines all-wood stock car #52967, photographed at
   Pueblo, Colorado in March, 1937.

Initial use and development

   Rail cars have been used to transport livestock since the 1830s. The
   first shipments in the United States were made via the B&O Railroad in
   general purpose, open-topped cars with semi-open sides. Thereafter, and
   until 1860, the majority of shipments were made in conventional boxcars
   that had been fitted with open-structured iron-barred doors for
   ventilation. Some railroads constructed "combination" cars that could
   be utilized for carrying both live animals as well as conventional
   freight loads.
   Stock cars make up part of an eastbound Santa Fe freight train in
   March, 1943.
   Enlarge
   Stock cars make up part of an eastbound Santa Fe freight train in
   March, 1943.

   Getting food animals to market required herds to be driven distances of
   hundreds of miles to railheads in the Midwest, whereupon they were
   loaded into stock cars and transported eastward to regional processing
   centers. Driving cattle across the plains led to tremendous weight
   loss, and a number of animals were typically lost along the way. Upon
   arrival at the local processing plant, livestock were either
   slaughtered by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butcher shops
   for retail sale, smoked, or packed for shipment in barrels of salt.

   The suffering of animals in transit as a result of hunger, thirst, and
   injury were considered by many to be inherent to the shipping process,
   as were the inevitable loss of weight during shipment. A certain
   percentage of animal deaths on the way to market was even considered
   normal (6% for cattle and 9% for sheep on average, according to a
   congressional inquiry), and carcasses of dead animals were often
   disposed of along the tracks to be devoured by scavengers, though some
   were sold to glue factories or unscrupulous butchers. Increased train
   speeds reduced overall transit times, though not enough to offset the
   deleterious conditions the animals were forced to endure.

   When the railroads and cattle industry failed to act quickly enough to
   correct these perceived deficiencies, the government and even the
   general public went into action. Claims were made that the meat of
   neglected animals was unfit for human consumption. In 1869, Illinois
   passed the first laws requiring that limited the animals' time on
   board, and required them to be given 5 hours' rest for every 28 in
   transit. Other states such as Ohio and Massachusetts soon followed with
   similar legislation, though effective federal laws would not be enacted
   until the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
   A Union Pacific wood stock car fitted with metal ends.
   Enlarge
   A Union Pacific wood stock car fitted with metal ends.

   Alonzo Mather, a Chicago clothing merchant who founded the Mather Stock
   Car Company, designed a new stock car in 1880 that was among the first
   to include amenities for feeding and watering the animals while en
   route. Mather was awarded a gold medal in 1883 by the American Humane
   Association for the humane treatment afforded to animals in his stock
   cars. Minneapolis' Henry C. Hicks patented a convertible boxcar/stock
   car in 1881, which was improved in 1890 with features that included a
   removable double deck. George D. Burton of Boston introduced his
   version of the humane stock car in 1882, which was placed into service
   the following year. The Burton Stock Car Company's design provided
   sufficient space so as to allow the animals to lie down in transit on a
   bed of straw.

   Certain costly inefficiencies were inherent in the process of
   transporting live animals by rail, particularly due to the fact that
   some sixty percent of the animal's mass is composed of inedible matter.
   And even after the humane advances cited above were put into common
   practice, many animals weakened by the long drive died in transit,
   further increasing the per-unit shipping cost. The ultimate solution to
   these problems was to devise a method to ship dressed meats from
   regional packing plants to the East Coast markets in the form of a
   refrigerated boxcar.

The advent of the refrigerator car

   An early Pullman Palace Car Company livestock car design from the late
   1800s.
   Enlarge
   An early Pullman Palace Car Company livestock car design from the late
   1800s.

   A number of attempts were made during the mid- 1800s to ship
   agricultural products via rail car. In 1857, the first consignment of
   dressed beef was carried in ordinary boxcars retrofitted with bins
   filled with ice. Detroit's William Davis patented a refrigerator car
   that employed metal racks to suspend the carcasses above a frozen
   mixture of ice and salt. He sold the design in 1868 to George Hammond,
   a Chicago meat-packer, who built a set of cars to transport his
   products to Boston.

   In 1878, meat packer Gustavus Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to
   design a ventilated car, one that proved to be a practical solution to
   providing temperature-controlled carriage of dressed meats, and allowed
   Swift & Company to ship their products all over the United States, and
   even internationally. The refrigerator car radically altered the meat
   business. Swift's attempts to sell Chase's design to the major
   railroads were unanimously rebuffed, as the companies feared that they
   would jeopardize their considerable investments in stock cars, animal
   pens, and feedlots if refrigerated meat transport gained wide
   acceptance.

   In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then
   — when the American roads refused his business — he contracted with the
   Grand Trunk Railway (who derived little income from transporting live
   cattle) to haul the cars into Michigan and then eastward through
   Canada. In 1880 the Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by
   ACF) delivered to Swift the first of these units, and the Swift
   Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created. Within a year the Line's roster
   had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of
   3,000 carcasses a week to Boston. Competing firms such as Armour and
   Company quickly followed suit.
   Sheep are unloaded from the upper level of a Wisconsin Central stock
   car in Chicago, Illinois in 1904.
   Enlarge
   Sheep are unloaded from the upper level of a Wisconsin Central stock
   car in Chicago, Illinois in 1904.

   Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York ( tons):
            (Stock Cars)  (Refrigerator Cars)
     Year   Live Cattle      Dressed Beef
     1882      366,487           2,633
     1883      392,095          16,365
     1884      328,220          34,956
     1885      337,820          53,344
     1886      280,184          69,769

   The subject cars travelled on the Erie, Lackawanna, New York Central,
   and Pennsylvania railroads.

   Source: Railway Review, January 29, 1887, p. 62.

Specialized applications

Horse cars

   For many decades, racehorse owners regarded the railway as the
   quickest, cheapest, safest, and most efficient medium of equine
   transport. The horse express car allowed the animals (in some
   instances) to leave home the morning of a race, theoretically reducing
   stress and fatigue.
   AT&SF #1996, a "palace-style" horse express car, lays over in San
   Diego, California on July 28, 1935. The unit most likely arrived as a
   part of one of Santa Fe's passenger train consists.
   Enlarge
   AT&SF #1996, a "palace-style" horse express car, lays over in San
   Diego, California on July 28, 1935. The unit most likely arrived as a
   part of one of Santa Fe's passenger train consists.

   As early as 1833 in England, specially-padded boxcars equipped with
   feeding and water apparatus were constructed specifically for
   transporting draft and sport horses. In the United States, however,
   horses generally traveled in conventional stock cars or ventilated
   boxcars. Early on, the need for improved methods for tethering horses
   in boxcars, while at the same time allowing a horse enough room to
   maintain its balance while in transit, was recognized.

   Racehorses, and those kept as breeding stock, were highly-valued
   animals that required special handling. In 1885 a livery and stable
   operator from Toledo, Ohio by the name of Harrison Arms formed the Arms
   Palace Horse Car Company to service this market niche. Arms' cars
   resembled the passenger cars of the day; they featured clerestory roofs
   and end platforms and came equipped with passenger car trucks (as they
   were intended for passenger train service). The units were segregated
   into two separate compartments, each containing eight individual
   stalls. By the late 1880s Arms had acquired two competing firms, Burton
   and Keystone. While the cars operated by George D. Burton closely
   resembled the Arms design, the Keystone Company's cars were much more
   utilitaran in design as they were intended for transporting animals of
   lesser value and inclusion in standard freight train consists. The
   Keystone fleet eventually grew to more than 1,000 cars.

   Many of the cars finished out their days in maintenance of way (MOW)
   service.

Circus use

   Many circuses, especially those in the United States in the latter 19th
   and early 20th centuries, featured animals in their performances. Since
   the primary method of transportation for circuses was by rail, stock
   cars were employed to carry the animals to the show locations.
   Animal car #RBBX 63009 from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
   Circus Train "Blue Unit" in July, 2002. The animal loading ramps stow
   directly under the doors on the underside of the car.
   Enlarge
   Animal car #RBBX 63009 from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
   Circus Train "Blue Unit" in July, 2002. The animal loading ramps stow
   directly under the doors on the underside of the car.

   The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, which still travels
   America by rail, uses special stock cars to haul their animals. When a
   Ringling Brothers train is made up, these cars are placed directly
   behind the train's locomotives to give the animals a smoother ride. The
   cars that Ringling Brothers uses to haul elephants are custom-built
   with extra amenities for the animals, including fresh water and food
   supply storage, heaters, roof-mounted fans and water misting systems
   for climate control, treated, non-slip flooring for safety and easy
   cleaning, floor drains that operate whether the train is moving or not,
   backup generators for when the cars are uncoupled from the locomotives,
   and specially-designed ramps for easy and safe loading and unloading.
   Some of the cars even have built-in accommodations for animal handlers
   so they can ride and tend to the animals at all hours.

Fish cars

   In the 1870s the railroads of America were called upon to transport a
   new commodity: live fish. The fish were transported from hatcheries in
   the Midwest to locations along the Pacific coast to stock the rivers
   and lakes for sportfishing. The first such trip was made in 1874 when
   Dr. Livingston Stone of the U.S. Fisheries Commission (which later
   became the United States Fish and Wildlife Service) "chaperoned" a
   shipment of 35,000 shad fry to stock the Sacramento River in
   California. The fish were carried in open milk cans stowed within a
   conventional passenger car. Dr. Stone was required to change the water
   in the cans every two hours when fresh water was available. The
   majority of the fish made the trip successfully and the result was a
   new species of shad for western fishermen.
   The 30-ton capacity "Stillwell Oyster Car," built by Pullman in 1897,
   was a wooden tank car designed by Arthur E. Stilwell for (as the name
   implies) transporting live oysters from Port Arthur, Texas to Kansas
   City, Missouri by rail.
   Enlarge
   The 30-ton capacity "Stillwell Oyster Car," built by Pullman in 1897,
   was a wooden tank car designed by Arthur E. Stilwell for (as the name
   implies) transporting live oysters from Port Arthur, Texas to Kansas
   City, Missouri by rail.

   In 1881, the Commission contracted and built specialized "fish cars" to
   transport live fish coast-to-coast for stocking. The technologies
   involved in hauling live fish improved through the 1880s as new fish
   cars were built with icing capabilities to keep the water cool, and
   aerators to reduce the need to change the water so frequently. Some of
   the aerators were designed to take air from the train's steam or air
   lines, but these systems were soon deprecated as they held the
   potential of reducing the train's safe transit; the air lines on a
   train were used in later years to power the air brakes on individual
   railroad cars.

   Fish cars were built to passenger train standards so they could travel
   at higher speeds than the typical freight trains of the day. Also, by
   putting fish cars into passenger trains, the cars were held at
   terminals far less than if they were hauled in freight trains. Fish car
   service, throughout their use, required that the fish keepers ride
   along with the cargo; a typical fish car crew consisted of five men,
   including a "captain" who would coordinate the transportation and
   delivery, several "messengers" who would serve as freight handlers and
   deliverymen, and a cook to feed the crew. The cargo's need for speedy
   transportation and passenger amenities for the crew necessitated the
   cars' inclusion in passenger trains.

   Fish car operations typically lasted only from April through November
   of each year, with the cars held for service over the winter months.
   The cars became a bit of a novelty among the public and they were
   exhibited at the 1885 New Orleans Exhibition, the 1893 Chicago World's
   Fair, and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. As
   fish cars became more widely used by hatcheries, they were also used to
   transport regional species to non-native locations. For example, a fish
   car would be used to transport lobster from Massachusetts to San
   Francisco, California, or to transport dungeness crab back from San
   Francisco to the Chesapeake Bay.
   The Thymallus, a "fish car" of the Montana State Fish Service, circa
   1910. The attendants are loading stainless steel milk cans filled with
   fish onto the car.
   Enlarge
   The Thymallus, a "fish car" of the Montana State Fish Service, circa
   1910. The attendants are loading stainless steel milk cans filled with
   fish onto the car.

   The first all-steel fish car was built in 1916. Fish car technology
   improved again in the early 1920s as the milk cans that had been used
   were replaced by newer tanks, known as "Fearnow" pails. The new tanks
   were about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) lighter than the milk cans and included
   integrated containers for ice and aeration fittings. One 81- foot (26.7
   metre) long car, built in 1929, included its own electrical generator
   and had enough capacity to carry 500,000 young fish up to 1 inch (2.5
   cm) long. Fish car use declined in the 1930s as fish transportation
   shifted to a speedier means of transport by air, and to trucks as
   vehicle technology advanced and road conditions improved. The US
   government operated only three fish cars in 1940, with the last of this
   fleet taken out of service in 1947.

   In 1960, Wisconsin Fish Commission "Badger Car #2" was sold to the
   Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, where it was restored and is
   today a part of the Society's collection of historic rolling stock.

Poultry cars

   Live poultry cars such as this were set low on the wheels, which
   allowed for a taller body and therefore provided more cargo space. This
   car could hold over 5,000 chickens, 2,000 geese, or 1,400 turkeys.
   Enlarge
   Live poultry cars such as this were set low on the wheels, which
   allowed for a taller body and therefore provided more cargo space. This
   car could hold over 5,000 chickens, 2,000 geese, or 1,400 turkeys.

   From about 1890 to 1960, shipping live chickens and other birds by rail
   in special "henhouses on wheels" was commonplace. The cars featured
   wire mesh sides (which were covered with cloth in the winter to protect
   the occupants) and a multi-level series of individual coops, each one
   fitted with feed and water troughs. A human attendant traveled on board
   in a central compartment to feed and water the animals along the way.
   The cars were also equipped with a coal stove that provided heat for
   the centre of the car.

   The concept is thought to been the brainchild of William P. Jenkins, a
   freight agent for the Erie Railroad. Jenkins collaborated with a
   Muncie, Indiana poultry dealer by the name of James L. Streeter on the
   design of a specialized car designed solely for transporting live fowl.
   The Live Poultry Transportation Company was formed about the same time
   that the first poultry car patent was issued ( August 24, 1884). By
   1897, the company had 200 units in operation.

   The Continental Live Poultry Car Company, a rival concern, was founded
   in 1890. Continental thought to dominate the market by offering larger
   cars, capable of transporting as many as 7,000 chickens in 120 coops,
   but the oversized cars failed to gain wide acceptance, and the firm
   closed its doors after just a few years in business.

Modern conversions

   Pigs receive fresh water during a stop at Dry Lake in the Nevada desert
   in July, 1994.
   Enlarge
   Pigs receive fresh water during a stop at Dry Lake in the Nevada desert
   in July, 1994.

   In the 1960s, the Ortner Freight Car Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
   developed a triple-deck hog carrier for the Northern Pacific Railway
   based on the design of 86-foot long "hi-cube" boxcar called the "Big
   Pig Palace." They later brought out a double-deck version called the
   "Steer Palace" that hauled livestock between Chicago and later Kansas
   City to slaughterhouses in Philadelphia and northern New Jersey until
   the early to mid 1980s on Penn Central and Conrail intermodal trains.

   The Union Pacific Railroad, in an effort to earn more business hauling
   hogs from Nebraska to Los Angeles for Farmer John Meats, converted a
   large number of 50-foot auto parts boxcars into stock cars. Originally
   built by Gunderson Rail Cars in Portland, Oregon for the Missouri
   Pacific Railroad, the conversions were done by removing the boxcars'
   side panels and replacing them with panels that included vents that
   could be opened or closed. The tri-level cars featured built-in
   watering troughs.

   Strings of 5-10 of these "HOGX" cars were, until recently, hauled twice
   weekly at the front of double-stack intermodal freight trains. In spite
   of the technological improvements in these new car designs, they were
   unable to overcome the advantages of highway transport of livestock.
   The units have since been scrapped.
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