Livestock Operations: Part 7: Stock Extra

 Livestock loads are the most expedited commodity carried by steam era railroads. Excepting safety concerns, livestock shipments took priority over passengers.

The Stock Extra was correspondingly expedited and it did only one thing. It picked up livestock loads and forwarded them to their destination. 

Railroads insisted on absolute minimal handling of livestock loads so cars were picked up by the engines and set against the train. 

Since livestock loads were LIKELY billed to a union stock yard there was no blocking. The union stock yard divided up the animals to the  slaughter houses, they did all the local work.

On my layout it is likely that livestock billed for the Union Stock Yard of Richmond, VA went in one train, while loads billed to the Union Stock Yard of Baltimore, those loads I would hand off to the WM, would go in another train. So no Re-blocking required.

Times were recorded upon pick up of loads, and the railroad was relieved of the burden of the 28 hour rule once the train was turned over to the stock yard or connecting road.

So with this added information the switching of the Stock Extra got a lot less complicated, but probably more dramatic.

My friend Al keeps asking me why I don’t make my livestock operations more complicated. Livestock operations are just a feature of my layout. It’s not a layout about livestock operations. So the relatively simply operation, moving livestock loads East is good enough.

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