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Post by josef on Oct 9, 2019 13:18:20 GMT
With my father raising Angus and pigs, there were several alternatives to selling them. Take them to an auction yard, have the packing plants buyers come to the farms along with a livestock semi-trailer and buy, or packing house come to the farm, buy, give receipts and tag. With the later, we would have to get up early and take them to a small holding pens were an agent would check the receipt and pigs or cattle and make payment after they are put in the pens. By 5AM the Milwaukee Rd would have a switcher come to the spur and animals loaded on appropriate cattle cars to be shipped to Chicago or the Iowa packing plants. I built a small pen as what we had off a mainline spur. Are there any pens or cattle cars on your layout? Its one thing I don't see much on layouts, pens, nor cattle cars, yet I remember seeing on the NYC tracks 20+ cattle cars go by weekly, sometimes daily. 
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Post by 4dogsinjersey on Oct 9, 2019 14:36:08 GMT
Interesting. It seems some rural depots had pens. They were also located at different locations as livestock had to watered every so often.
Some cities had huge stock yards like Chicago and Buffalo. It was a big business back then.
In England, pretty much every rural station has pens. They are fixtures at every station like water columns and signal boxes.
Your pen look great. Livestock pens would make a great line-side business....
Tom
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Post by ptc on Oct 9, 2019 15:05:01 GMT
One of my favorite accessories as a kid was the Lionel Cattle Car and matching base. Sure like this addition.
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Post by Country Joe on Oct 10, 2019 16:48:53 GMT
Josef, your pen looks great. I don't have room for a livestock pen but I would include one on my layout if I could. I don't have any cattle cars yet though I've been looking to add a couple. At a recent show I found this double deck pig livestock car.  |
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Post by josef on Oct 10, 2019 18:06:27 GMT
Josef, your pen looks great. I don't have room for a livestock pen but I would include one on my layout if I could. I don't have any cattle cars yet though I've been looking to add a couple. At a recent show I found this double deck pig livestock car. Be surprised how little room one takes. I used a Plasticville set and repainted same, still need to weather the boards. |
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Post by josef on Oct 11, 2019 9:51:18 GMT
Josef, We share a similar background. My Grandfather raised Heifers on a his farm in Maine. My Brother also has a farm in Maine and I recreated his property on my layout. This was one of my first scratch building efforts.
There's something about farming that give's one pleasure in the work done at the end of each day. Even though I had a full time job working for Amoco, I owned 50 acres and leased 500 more. My days off and my time after work were devoted to tilling, planting and harvesting. Waking up with a cup of coffee sitting on the tractor or combine seat waiting for a hint of daylight to start the day, or finishing up as the sun set over the fields with its golden glow and being able to say I did that gives and gave me pride. Nothing like farming, and I had many occupations, many with more richness, but never the satisfaction and pride as farming. |
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