# What type of cows did the D&RGW move on the narrow gauge



## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Hi

I'm currently building an Fn3 D&RGW stock car and I'd like to add some cows. What type of cows did the D&RGW move on the narrow gauge system? Were they black and white, brown, white, dairy, beef....

Any tips would be great.

Thanks
Alan


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Beef. Dairy cows had to be milked every day. The ranchers would ship the cattle to pastures in the mountains in the spring and bring them down to the valleys in the fall. They were probably Herefords. 

Chuck 

Added:

According to Mallory Hope Ferrell in the SILVER SAN JUAN, in the early part of the last century the cattle were longhorns and toward the end of operations 40s and early 50s sheep was the live stock being shipped. He doesn't mention the breed of cattle between the longhorns and the sheep. Probably the breeds mentioned by Andre in the next post.

They added a second floor for the sheep.

In addition to going to ranches, most went to stock yards in Denver and other cities. Ferrell states that they had to be fed and watered every 28 hours, which meant taking them off the cars and then reloading them. Hence the need for wranglers to accompany the train.


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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

Greetings, 

They would have been beef cattle, or sheep. Not saying that a few dairy cows did not get moved when they had passed their prime but primarily it would have beef. Most of the stock traffic was in the spring and fall when stock was being moved to and from the high pastures for grazing. The primary breeds of cattle would have been either Herefords or Angus with some Texas Long Horn thrown in for good measure. The Texas Long Horn was or had fallen out of favor due to the long horns causing trouble with shipping and the fact that there were other breeds of cattle that produced better beef. A typical stock train could of had a box car or two, 15 to 30 stock cars and maybe a passenger car or a second caboose. The box cars were to carry saddles and other supplies that the drover might need to care for the cattle, the passenger or second caboose was for the drovers (cowboys). A caboose was preferred as then the stock-men could watch the train for problems with the cattle or sheep also there were bunks in the caboose that the cowboys could use when the trip was going to take several days.. Some times even a flat car to haul a chuck wagon. One or two of the stock cars could also have had horses on board. The other thing to remember is that cattle had a time limit as how long they could be kept in a car until they had to unloaded so they could be fed, watered and rested. The stock pens at Chama New Mexico are a good example of this kind of cattle pen while the pens at Lizard Head were used mainly for short time storage of cattle waiting to go back down to lower pastures in the fall. I hope this gives you some kind of picture as to how cattle and sheep were moved on the narrow gauge.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

Thems not cows! thems steers then.
The Schleich brand make a very good range of bovine in many breeds, about the right scale for 1:20.3 but they seem to be mainly bulls, cows and calves. 
This one from CollectA brand is about 75mm high (about 5' in 1:20.3) and looks the part as a steer. He is not too bulked up and has no obvious nackers. 










Andrew


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

When I was in Colorado in the 50s/60s, almost all cattle being raised were herefords. There was practically nothing else.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

I understand they were MOO COWS.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

They may have sounded like MOO COWS, But they were mostly steers so that may explain the higher pitch of the MOO. Chuck


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Sheep seem to show up in livestock photos more then cattle. But beef cattle is what they shipped via rail.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Matt, my guess is that there were more cameras later than earlier. According to Ferrell over time there was a transition from beef to sheep. Chuck


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

What type of cows did the D&RGW move on the narrow gauge system? 

The really ugly ones that no man would go near.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Was this a ''loaded'' question? 

D


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

Chuck, That sounds logical. 
So perhaps as a rough guideline the majority through the eras would be: Earlier on, Texas longhorns. Later Herefords and later again sheep. 

Andrew


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Andrew, that is my spin. Makes sence to me. Chuck


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

I've got them both on the layout, sheep and cattle. Although I'm not 100% happy with the Preiser cattle (bulls), but the scale is right.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Matt, love the picture. A little BS (Bulls and Sheep) never hurts the discussion. Chuck


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Thanks for the info, I actually did find a Schleich dairy cow in a toy shop yesterday, but just one. While I was driving home I got thinking, is it the right type of cow. Today I popped into a couple more shops but they had nothing. No farm animals at all, what do kids play with these days!

The Schleich cow looks nice and very close to Fn3, maybe a tad to big when I put her up against an Fn3 person. Also it weighs a bit, about 180 grams each, buy the time I fill the stock car it will be more than a kilo of cow!

Really guys, great to learn something and have a bit of banter too, I guess it was a loaded question









I once put sheep into an HO sheep van and someone said I didn't put enough in. They explained they had to pack lots of sheep in so they couldn't fall over. Is the same with cows?

Alan


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

I was going to say, "what kind of cows?"... Delicious ones. - but that doesn't really help does it.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

Hey Matt. Do your sheep use a ladder to get up to the top floor?









Andrew


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Garratt on 24 Jun 2013 08:25 AM 
Hey Matt. Do your sheep use a ladder to get up to the top floor?









Andrew 









Maybe they are flying sheep


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## Budd (Mar 22, 2008)

CollectA brand, mmm, does that make it a CollectaBull?

Wayne


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