Livestock loading during Summer heat

Tue Jul 21 13:21:04 EDT 2020

Ken,
Thank you for confirming my childhood memory of the stock yards adjacent to Shaffers Crossing.
I thought I would share with the group a passage from a book about the hazards of transporting livestock.  Page 386 of the 2001 book "Merging Lines," lists several incidents of poor shipping service by the Penn Central.  One is particularly prescient: "At Syracuse, a carload of live hogs was left in the yards over a hot summer weekend, with no provision to water them.  Upon arrival, 54 of the animals were dead, the others unusable."
Bill KingArlington, VA

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From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tue, Jul 21, 2020 11:11 am
Subject: Re: Livestock loading during Summer heat

Vic
Unfortunately, the Archives only has a limited selection of the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER), one 1939 and a 1953 reprint, which can answer a lot of these type questions.
In the latter years, the basic stock car class was the SK, see the article in the January-Feb-March 2020 issue of the Arrow for photos and a modelers arrangement. The article was stated that it was not a detailed study of the cars.
The SK cars were built in 1939 from BL boxcars.
In 1939, the register still shows 299 of the Class SH cars, the 40 ton (80,000 lbs) cars, which were shorter cars, roughly 35 feet, with double decks. That is by the AAR designation of “SH” which indicated a two deck car, the “SF” was single deck. 
https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=52363
But, there is also a drawing that shows a double deck for the SK class cars:
https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=4921
Now, when you go to the 1953 ORER, there is 664 of the SK listed, all as “SH” cars.
By the time you get to the Janusry 1968 ORER, there are 232 cars listed as Class SK, all as single deck cars, the AAR designations had changed by this time.
Since we have no registers between the 1953 reprint and the 1968, it has hard to say if anything is in between that had a double deck.
If anyone had ORER’s that are collecting dust, we’d be glad to add them to the archives.
BestKen Miller

On Jul 21, 2020, at 9:42 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
Bill,Thank you for sharing your memories!  I am curious regarding the cars used to transport pigs, vs. cattle.  Were they the same single level variety?  I have seen a few photos of what appear to be two level cars.  Vic Chudoba  From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 8:31 AM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Livestock loading during Summer heat  BillYour memory is correct, but those belonged, if I recall the name correctly to the Roanoke Livestock Association, where they had sales weekly. They burned some years back, the gas pump you described was indeed there, very late as I recall, and only finally had the glass broken as late as about 1980. My grandfather bought and sold stock there. One of the things I have is a walking cane marked for them.  They were on the SW corner of 25th Street and Johnson Avenue, now a parking lot for CMC Supply.  The N&W Stock pens were, I believe originally located west of Shaffers in the yard, the number of pens were reduced over time.   Ken Miller    

On Jul 20, 2020, at 10:58 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:  This post jogged my memory, especially the reference to the "Boyce Livestock Pens."  I was a very young boy in the 1960s.  I have a vague recollection of a large, wooden livestock pen adjacent to Schaffers Crossing, between what would now be 24th and 25th Streets.  I also remember one of those old-time manual gasoline pumps at its street entrance.  The gasoline pump was long and tall with a large graduated sight glass at the top where the gasoline was hand pumped to determine the quantity before it was gravity-fed to a vehicle.   Are my childhood recollections correct?  Or am I all wet?  Bill KingArlington, Virginia  

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Subject: Livestock loading during Summer heatAttached is an order regarding livestock loading during Summer months.  I recall that during my Operations Training program I visited the Roanoke clean-out track at which boxcar dunnage and debris was removed.  1974 was well after the livestock era but I am wondering if during earlier years stock cars were taken there and the bedding was swept out, or if this was a responsibility of the local agent when a car was set at a loading location.  I suppose a livestock consignor would not have bothered to remove used bedding, thinking that it saved them from having to clean the car and provide new straw.  So, who and how were the stock cars cleaned?  Separately, I have not been able to determine when the Boyce livestock pens were retired and the spur removed.  If there is an information source, I will welcome that date.  Good morning,  Frank Scheerf_scheer at yahoo.com________________________________________
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