Railroaders' Nostalgia > Stock Movements

I thought I would share some info/tales of late stock movements by rail.

I got this from Dave Stanley: "On the WP, we pulled UP stock cars from the Stockton Livestock Market until about 1980. If I recall correctly, they were shipping sheep. I think they were single deck cars but may have been doubles".

My reply to him:

Wow, stock into the 80’s. I thought UP was the only one moving stock in California that late.

[I hired out on the SP]

On one of my very first pay trips I was on a westbound out of Yuma and we had to spot 3 cars of cattle at a big feed lot at Thermal. As you know, spotting stock for loading/unloading you had to put the doors right on the shoot. You couldn’t be off by maybe 6 inches. This was off a mainline train so just to add to the challenge I probably had at least 3 or 4 units to work with. My conductor was concerned, as was I [concerned is a under statement for me], that the greenhorn on the head end could handle it. [Not enough to have the swing man ride up there to help out]. I did just fine on the first try and felt really proud. My old head hoghead even gave in a verbal pat on the back with “good job kid", or something to that effect. Boy did I strut into the yard office at Indio at the end of the trip. I felt like I was a real rail. I had no idea how much I still had to learn.

Later I spotted stock at Somis on the Coast for unloading. I also remember setting some live loads of hogs somewhere in the Soledad Canyon area, Rowen, Acton? Phueeeeee, after spotting I had to climb up on the cars to tie the hand brakes I thought I would hurl. Cows were bad but hogs on a hot summer day!!!

I don’t know when the last stock movements were on the SP at least on the greater LA Division but it would probably been in the very late 60’s? Maybe later in Texas or to some of the big feed lots in the Central Valley? This would be a good SP trivia question.

Pat

I was a Fireman for Charlie Rorabough on a westbound out of Santa Barb in 69. We had the west peddler. We had 2 cars for the Hollister Ranch, at San Augustine MP 331.0. By then the siding or spur was gone and you spotted the car on the main. They had to roll the chute over to the train, over where the siding/spur used to be and then to the side of the car. Just cows and it didn't take more than 40". After everything was done, MofW put the chute back and we took off to Surf. We set the cars out there along with our regular Surf set out. The cattle cars went back to LA. I don't know who owned them, never thought to look.

Even though that chute remained there for years, I was told that was the last cattle unloaded on the Coast. There were still a lot of cattle pens at a lot of stations through the 70s.



Nudge

Cabhop Wrote:
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> I thought I would share some info/tales of late
> stock movements by rail...... <much snipping>....

> On one of my very first pay trips I was on a
> westbound out of Yuma and we had to spot 3 cars of
> cattle at a big feed lot at Thermal. ...... <more snipping>....
>
> I don’t know when the last stock movements were
> on the SP at least on the greater LA Division but
> it would probably been in the very late 60’s?
> Maybe later in Texas or to some of the big feed
> lots in the Central Valley? This would be a good
> SP trivia question.

I never got involved with spotting stock in my time on the SP but referring to my LA Div. special instructions of October 30, 1966, there
is an item; "13. Location Of Stock Yards" that lists several (13) on the Colton Sub. between Indio and Yuma-East Yard. The stock yard at Yuma was
the largest on the division with a capacity of 117 cars. As might be expected, given the agricultural nature of the territory, 11 of the yards were
spread along the Calexico, Sandia and Westmoreland branches the largest of which was at Brawley with a capacity of 43 cars.
The stock yard at Thermal was not listed at the time. On the Santa Barbara Sub.,(Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo), there were 5. San Luis Obispo was the
largest with a 27 car capacity. All of the yards, both east and west of LA had watering available.

Even though Somis, where you unloaded stock, is not on the listing of stock yards in this edition it's apparent that loading/unloading went on
at other locations and as Nudge points out stock pens were still around at least into the 1970's.

Charlie

DRGW hauled stock off the Craig Branch until 1976

I never saw any movement of livestock during my SP career, but finally saw a lot not too long ago in a movie. If you can find it, the 1948 Republic Pictures film "Night Time in Nevada" has numerous scenes of a solid train of stock cars powered by SP steam.

If I recall correctly, the sheep routed UP-WP to Stockton were sheep brought to California's Central Valley for wintering and then taken back in the late spring. There was a similar move BN-Spokane-UP to the UP's Condon Branch, but only round trip per season as a special train whereas the Stockton move was multiple shipments in regular train service.

I believe SP ended livestock traffic in 1969. As noted, WP ended about 1980.

BN handled it through the 1970s, but in steadily declining volumes each year. Coal got in the way so the cowboys gave up on the BN.

UP still had strong livestock traffic through the 1970s. Cattle moves were mostly in regular train service from the PNW to auction yards and feedlots in the Midwest. In the fall the were cattle stock specials from the PNW to Midwestern points (especially Columbus, NE). Hottest trains on the railroad, even passed up Amtrak. The Clougherty hog move to LA lasted until 1994, when Clougherty changed to raising hogs in Arizona. Cattle traffic died sometime in the 1980s.

Milwaukee Road's last year of stock traffic was 1974, except for some government-sponsored one-time trials sometime later that did not pan out.

General issue: The revenue per carload was very high, and except for the Clougherty moves the stock business was highly seasonal and labor-intensive. The cars were sitting around 3/4s the year. Meanwhile, taxes were being paid on loading pens and rolling stock.

Best regards,

Rob L.

When my brother lived in Pittsburgh in the late '80s, he told me that he would sometimes see a single stock car on a Conrail freight heading east. He was told that it would contain cattle headed for a kosher slaughterhouse in New York.

colehour Wrote:
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> When my brother lived in Pittsburgh in the late
> '80s, he told me that he would sometimes see a
> single stock car on a Conrail freight heading
> east. He was told that it would contain cattle
> headed for a kosher slaughterhouse in New York..

Yeah there was a TOFC train that had two or three cars on the head end every day.  I think they were bound for Philadelphia or Morristown though.

spnudge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was a Fireman for Charlie Rorabough on a
> westbound out of Santa Barb in 69. We had the west
> peddler. We had 2 cars for the Hollister Ranch, at
> San Augustine MP 331.0. By then the siding or spur
> was gone and you spotted the car on the main. They
> had to roll the chute over to the train, over
> where the siding/spur used to be and then to the
> side of the car. Just cows and it didn't take more
> than 40". After everything was done, MofW put the
> chute back and we took off to Surf. We set the
> cars out there along with our regular Surf set
> out. The cattle cars went back to LA. I don't know
> who owned them, never thought to look.
>
> Even though that chute remained there for years, I
> was told that was the last cattle unloaded on the
> Coast. There were still a lot of cattle pens at a
> lot of stations through the 70s.
>
>
>
> Nudge

In addition there was a cattle shute at old Strathern on the land side of the tracks. Also on the Santa Paula branch between Saugus and Piru at old Camulus. It was standing long after the rails were removed from abandonment of the line. The chute was visible from the Highway 126.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/17 06:33 by SanJoaquinEngr.

Southern Pacific was setting out car loads of sheep in Dixon, CA. in 1968 and 69.. Also the slaughter house in Berkeley,CA was getting few cars as late as 1969. It was located just north of Gilman St on 2nd Street lead.

rob_l Wrote:
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>
> BN handled it through the 1970s, but in steadily
> declining volumes each year. Coal got in the way
> so the cowboys gave up on the BN.
>

The last stock movement I saw on the BN (or anywhere else for that matter) was two or three cars of cattle tacked onto the front end of train 86 leaving Missoula one evening in summer or fall of 1979.