Western Railroad Discussion > SP Sheep on the Jawbone

I think we have all heard about how stupid sheep are but listen to this:
Headed towards Trona with a good sized train, somewhere a little west of Cantil.
Now this happened  TWICE!
Sheep covering rail and on both sides of ROW. Looked like well over a hundred head.
Ran smack dab into the middle of them. Miraculously the sheep parted as we entered the herd. Didn't
hit a one of them! I couldn't believe my eyes.
And this happened again on this stretch of rail, again not hitting one!
Go figure!
Any ideas?
Maybe sheep have some innate vision that allows them to have 9 lives!
Making between 45 and 50mph, so they didn't have a lot of time to make a decision.

Sounds like they are more aware than most of us railfans, for some of us chairs, cameras and coolers would be flying!   Phone broken on ballast with a twisted ankle and a tweaked knee!
Let's just say it worked out for everyone thanks for sharing!

Thought that was posted for 40, and what are sheep doing out there? Grazing on the remnants of the alfalfa?

Out 

What, no video? That’s OK your story is like a 1000 pictures.
My story took place about 50 years ago while working as a brakeman on the ATSF Illinois Div. Another brakeman & I were working a thru local from Chillicothe, IL to Chicago in the middle of the night. The train had two live stock cars loaded with sheep for La Rose, IL top out in the train. We had a message that no one was going to be there so we had to unload the sheep without wranglers. Sounds fun right? Neither one of us had any experience with livestock, but we had both just returned from Vietnam. We can do this.
So after getting the first car door lined up with the chute into the small pen I tried going in the door to coax these traumatized animals out. No way. I waved my Conger lantern and yelled. They jammed themselves together. They wouldn’t head for the door.
OK being a ATSF modeler I had read about the ATSF stock cars having an end door for that purpose and loading long lumber. So I climbed up on the end ladder swing over and opened the small door. Now I was still only 22 and in good shape so I slithered thru that small door in behind those sheep and it was like pulling the plug on a drain. Those scared critters emptied the car in seconds. Ditto for the 2nd car. We coupled back up to our train and out of there.
I think by 1975 (?) ATSF got the OK from the ICC to stop shipping all livestock. It was fun while it lasted.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/23 02:08 by railscenes.

Going back 30 years to our visit to the Isle of Man.  Highight of the trip was running Manx Electric Railway 5 from Ramsey to Laxey as a student motorman (one of the Year of the Railways events).  At one point I had to stop and sound the air whistle to encourage a band of sheep to vacate the permanent way.
Photo 1: We also rode the Snaefell Mountain Railway, and found this critter at the summit, with its wooly coat very useful in that chilly spot.
Photo 2: MER 5 and two Snaefell cars at Laxey.

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ApproachCircuit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think we have all heard about how stupid sheep
> are but listen to this:
> Headed towards Trona with a good sized train,
> somewhere a little west of Cantil.
> Now this happened  TWICE!
> Sheep covering rail and on both sides of ROW.
> Looked like well over a hundred head.
> Ran smack dab into the middle of them.
> Miraculously the sheep parted as we entered the
> herd. Didn't
> hit a one of them! I couldn't believe my eyes.
> And this happened again on this stretch of rail,
> again not hitting one!
> Go figure!
> Any ideas?
> Maybe sheep have some innate vision that allows
> them to have 9 lives!
> Making between 45 and 50mph, so they didn't have a
> lot of time to make a decision.

Not quite sure about sheep decision making powers, but years ago, we went through a flock of sheep between Phelan and Hivolt on the SP Colton-Palmdale cutoff and killed 264 of them.  We had a fairly short train, so we were clicking right along and the caboose stopped right in the middle of the carnage.  We had one of the old EMD SD9's on the point, and the head brakeman had to pull several sheep off the front of the engine so we could continue.
When we got to Colton, we had to take a water hose and hose down the front of the engine to get the remaining remains off.  You should have heard the switchmen at the east end of the yard, since this was all right by their shanty.
I couldn't look a lamb chop in the face for some time after that.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

callum_out Wrote:

> ... what are sheep doing out there? Grazing on the remnants of the alfalfa?

Probably grazing on the native desert vegetation, like the flock of sheep that crossed in front of the Santa Fe freight I was working on somewhere between Edwards and Barstow in July of 1966.  We must have been moving around 60 mph and the last of the sheep crossed the tracks maybe 20 seconds before we reached the location, thank goodness.
 

If you paint rocks green sheep will try to graze on it.