Livestock Operations: Part one

 If you are considering including livestock operations on your layout you need to contact one of these two people, or both. Doug Harding ( who I correspond with regularly and consider a friend, but I cannot speak for Doug!) and Steve Sandifer. Once you have established contact with either of these two men, your problems are mostly over.

The AIR1 was primarily a coal hauling road, but I wanted to add  a small bit of agricultural traffic, and part of that was livestock. As I previously said, I “supposed” that hogs would be my primary livestock commodity from West Virginia. I model 1952 and beef did not start to supplant pork as the primary meat of choice in the United States until after World War Two, so I felt safe with hogs as my choice.

As I subsequently found out very few hogs are actually produced in West Virginia in my era. It turns out it’s sheep. I will rectify that mistake on AIR 2 but in any case…

On AIR 1 I had an industry named “Hog Spur” that contained three walthers cattle pens, a feed barn, some bedding bins, and a spot for manure loading. Additionally located around the layout I had cattle chutes spotted on several team tracks as well as one located at Newsome’s Agricultural supply up in Webster Springs.

Every session stock loads would be collected from these points and make their way off layout eastbound. MTY stock cars were returned westbound, usually cycled through the main clean-out tracks located in Littlerock and finally billed to on-layout locations for loading or off-layout toward their home roads.

That’s about it.

Since that time I have learned a great deal more about livestock operations and plan greatly expanded, yet limited livestock operations for AIR2.

At this point I will recommend the Kalmbach book on Livestock operations. I do not off hand know the full title, but what could go wrong? Get that book, read it, and you’re off!

After reading that book, Droges book on railroad operations, and many conversations with Al Daumann and Doug Harding I developed the following plan for livestock operations.

I knew of the 28/36 hour law regarding livestock, but never implemented it. There never seemd to be a way to do this with out it becoming a nuisance.On Al’s layout he uses an action bill that reads something like, “Stock must be rested before 300pm”, this gives the crews options, they can set the car out now, or rush it to an off layout connection with either the SP, ATSF, or GN and stick them with the headache! Now I actually like that. If I am the Redding YM I can look at the stock loads in my yard and make a call based on the clock.

This played a major part in my plans. Resting stock.

I did not want to build an entire slaughter house operation, but a rest station seemed like a good idea.

A railroad livestock rest station was a facility where stock shipments reaching their 28/36 hour time limits could be set out, unloaded, fed, watered, and “Rested”. A rest station requires more stock pens, but otherwise is organized on the same lines as my freelanced “Hog Spur”. Pens for holding animals, buildings for feed storage, some sort of structure for holding clean bedding sand, and some way to remove collected manure. (note: Sand was the bedding material of choice. One would think stray, but stray or hay promoted pest infestation. Sand was cleaner, and when wet cooled the livestock. It was relatively easy to clean as well). Additionally there will be one or two storage tracks to hold MTY stock cars.

One other note right now, the 28/36 hour rule. Livestock could only be confined in a car for 28 hours, or 36 hours with written permission by the shipper, before being unloaded for “Rest”. There is a place on livestock Waybills for the shippers signature giving permission for 36 hour confinement.

My plan is for carloads of stock to enter the layout from staging with waybills that either carry them across the layout, or action bills* that direct them to the rest station. Loads that arrive at the rest station are spotted at loading chutes, where the stock is “Unloaded”, the waybill is removed from the car and placed in that pen’s bill box. The car is them moved to the clean-out track.

At this point I think it’s important to note the waybill represents the load of stock itself, so the bill stays with the stock, not the car.

Next session loads of rested stock are reloaded into clean cars, either the car they came in or a HOME ROAD stock car, and the load of livestock continues on its way

Here is a good time for another note. Loads of rested livestock often did not finish the trip in the car they started in, railroads where cattle were rested would often capture some of the line haul revenue by loading the stock into THEIR cars and returning the MTY stock cars to the road from whence they came. Livestock Waybills have a space for multiple car numbers and prototype Waybills often show multiple car reporting marks and numbers listed on them for just this reason.

So the switch crew working the rest station will have loads to spot, Waybills representing livestock loads to file in bill boxes, MTYS cars to switch to the clean-out track, cleaned cars to remove from the clean-out track and spot on the storage tracks, MTY cars to spot for loading, Waybills of rested stock to put into car cards, and loads of rested stock to pull and send on their way.

Around the layout at team tracks, stock spurs, and a few agricultural businesses there will be stock chutes where livestock loads may need to be picked up. MTYS will have to be spotted, as well. To perform this I plan a “Stock extra” to negotiate the layout working all the pens and chutes along the way and eventually arriving at the rest start on to pick up and set out loads. Finally the stock extra will exit the layout heading to slaughter houses near Richmond, Va.

Livestock is so time sensitive that livestock is usually loaded in the presence of the train picking them up. It usually only takes drovers a few minutes to load the animals into the car, and to simulate this I plan to have the stock waybill to be separate from the car card, the crew of the Stock Extra will, upon stopping place the way bill in the card pocket and continue on his way. 

The stock extra will start a session with a switch list telling him which pens have a load to pick up. Finally loads from along branches will be brought to Jct.s by the trains working the branch, where they will be set out and await either pick up by the stock extra, or forwarding by another means to the Rest Station.

I have wondered whether loading times, written by the stock extra’s crew are necessary. This would be very Railroady, but I’m wondering if it will become a nuisance? Also, and this actually isn’t a major concern for me, this would necessitate a waybill that can be written on, and would then, once the trip is complete, be disposed of. The net effect of this is I would have to print new bills each session. 

If I were to do this what would need to be on such a bill? 

1) lading description 

2) time picked up

If from a jct. and diverted to the rest station:

3) time unloaded at the rest station

Let’s leave this here for now and pick up again with the consumer side of livestock operations, dressed meat.

Do you simulate livestock operations? How do you simulate this industry? Do you implement the 28/46 hour rules? How do you implement that? 

I’m very interested to learn way I can improve my operation procedures, so let me know what you do.

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*Action bills are temporary way bills that redirect a car from its primary course to perform some sort of necessary action like icing, the RIP track, weighing, cleaning, coopering, or “Rest”.