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Hi, another stupid question from me! It is crazy how very simple things from the past can quickly become big mysteries when you never witnessed them.

My question is about cattle pens operation. I've often remarked that cattle pens in small towns are often located directly on passing track that otherwise are used for scheduled trains to meet. That means it is unlikely a stock car was spot on these tracks for days. Given cattle had to be moved swiftly before losing too much fat and that mandatory rest stop existed, I'm a little bit at loss figuring out how operations went in such small places. I've found information about large stock yards but almost nothing about the smallish ones. Doctorwayne had a few of these small cattle pens on his layout, most of them on the main line.

How railroads di operate such stock pens (generally small ones, not the large stock yards)? Would the cattle be loaded only when the freight train stopped in town?

Matt
Matt, I have one stockpen on the mainline, and not very prototypically-placed, as it's very close to a tunnel, just out of the frame to the upper left...

[Image: Layoutviewsetc005.jpg]

...and pretty-close to downtown Elfrida, too. Crazy

It was inspired (sorta) by one which existed on the CNR line at Park Head, Ontario. I have only vague recollections of it from my childhood, but I seem to recall that it was more of a loading ramp, with no holding pens. The real Elfrida had stockpens, too, but as far as I know, they were solely for service by trucks. From the period I remember, Elfrida had a church, a gas station, and a couple of houses, in addition to the stockpens. Nowadays, that area is a shopping centre and totally built-up with houses and other commercial development.

I may move the one in my version of Elfrida, and replace it with a simple loading ramp. A farmer wishing to ship livestock would inform the local freight agent, and arrangements would be made for a suitable car in a train headed in the proper direction. My line isn't so busy that a train stopped on the mainline would cause disruption, and I suspect that the case at the Park Head ramp was similar, with perhaps only a train or two per day.

If I do move the Elfrida pens, they'll likely end up in Shallow Lake, on my layout's upper level. It's on the main line, but will have a separate siding for the stockpens, along with a sugar beet loader and a team track ramp. Park Head (my version, also on the upper level), will also get stockpens, likely on their own spur, and hopefully not right in town. Stockpens can also receive livestock, and I use the stockyards at Lowbanks for both shipping and receiving, as the facility there includes an auction house for livestock...

[Image: Foe-toesfromfirstcd235.jpg]

Wayne
Here in the San Juan mountains, cattle were driven to an isolated line with pens and a collecting point each fall, and loaded onto cars for the journey to the stockyards.

It was no problem to leave cars there for a day in order to load them, and the loading was completed within a single day.
Thanks for the precision Wayne. It seems my fears weren't founded. I like the idea of on-demand service.

BTW, how is the second level progressing?
Thanks for asking, Matt, but no progress whatsoever on the upper level...too busy with other stuff at the moment.

Wayne