# Stock cars for chicken?



## McTrain (Jan 13, 2008)

Hello everybody,

can anybody tell me how chicken were transported by railroad? Were they transported in cages inside a stockcar or did the railroads use special stockcars for the chicken? If yes, how did they look like? 
Thank you for any information and maybe pictures!

Greetings from germany!

Jurgen


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

This is what they used around here:
 
www.rr-fallenflags.org/tc/lptc779acdm.jpg
www.rr-fallenflags.org/tc/lptc779bcdm.jpg


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Burl, you beat me to it.  Burl's area of TN was known for chicken farms back in the day.

I would love to know two things:

1. What was all the data on the side of the car covered by the door in the first pic, you can see it in the second photo.  I am betting it is chicken, not railroad related?

2. What is the story on the raised running board?  Also notice the mounts for it are solid over the center, and open on the ends.

I bet this thing smelled great in August....


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## SlateCreek (Jan 2, 2008)

Dougald's got a photo of a poultry car used on the local train .... each time it stopped farmers could add chickens to it.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

*So there really was a prototype for Lionel's version.*


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

You could get a pair of the LGB chicken dance cars (red and blue versions) and have music too.


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## McTrain (Jan 13, 2008)

Hello everybody,

I have a used LGB Stock Car. I will cut out several of the boards to have a better look through the car.
Then I will glue some insect-nets inside the car to simulate cagewire. I will add hens from Playmobil
and use some real feathers (cut in little pieces) to simulate feathers.

Thank you for the pics and the input!

Greetings!


Jurgen


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

Garrett: 

If memory serves, from the plans I've seen of similar cars, there's a walkway down the middle. Maybe the roofwalk is raised to allow for a vent here? 

I've never seen a good enough photo to know what all the data on the door is... maybe it's the dimensional data for the chickens? 

Burl


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I'm reading a book right now on the Lancaster, Oxford & Southern, which carried a ton (tons, actually) of poultry every year. They used either regular box cars or "market cars," which were box cars with end doors and windows. I haven't read yet how the birds were carried, but I've seen photos of birds in cages being loaded onto trains in other photos. 

Later, 

K


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Many years ago, Ambroid offered an HO model of a "Poultry Palace"  as a part of their "1 of 5000" series.  I built one, but Lord knows where it is now.  Wish I still had the plans so I could build a large scale version.  Anybody out there have a picture or plans of that?/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/unsure.gif


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Baby chicks are still transported this way, went past a crate of them late one nite at a post office in Alabama 12+ years back, nearly freaked me out.

EDIT, was to be a reply to the comment about them being in cages above...../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif


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## Dean Whipple (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By digger on 01/15/2008 5:42 AM
Many years ago, Ambroid offered an HO model of a "Poultry Palace"  as a part of their "1 of 5000" series.  I built one, but Lord knows where it is now.  Wish I still had the plans so I could build a large scale version.  Anybody out there have a picture or plans of that?/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/unsure.gif

I also built the Amroid "Poultry Palace. complete with "cotton" chickens" I still have the model packed away...in the next few days I'll dig it out and see what shape it's in and post some pictures...I may even have the plans...


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Dean, that would be great!    This is just the kind of oddball project I'd like to get into.  The pix that Burl posted were intriguing, but I have some vague memories that the Ambroid car was a bit different.  There were some really unique cars in that Ambroid series, none of the likes of which I have ever seen done in large scale,  Maybe you remember things like the Pennsylvania Outside Braced Reefer, the Riverside Oil Tank Car with the corrugated iron sheathing, etc.  Getting a bit OT, but this post got me thinking.../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif

Of course, if I were to build one of these, I'd have to figure out how to model scale chicken feathers to scatter along the right of way.../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Ed, wash a load of socks, then clean the lint off the lint trap. Instant fuzz. I'd probably stick to socks that are the same color as chickens, mind you, unless you're transporting the rare and elusive "argyle" species. 

That, or plant a cottonwood tree upwind of the railroad.  

Later, 

K


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## Dean Whipple (Jan 2, 2008)

I haven't found the plans for the Ambroid "1 of 5000" series "Poultry Car" but I'll keep looking in the mean time Here are some pictures of the car complete with 'cotton' chickens....
Introduced in April, 1961, this is a model of a 1928 car. This car is one of the most unusual kits in the "5000" series. Half of the car was meant for poultry and half for refrigerated meet and dairy products. The color scheme was white body, green ends, roof and doors, and black underframe. About 600 Palace poultry cars were built. This particular model was designed for communities which did not have a full carload of poultry to ship. 









To take the pictures I placed the model in front of a Bachmann stock car...HO stuff sure is small..










The model has been in storage for over 25 years...notice the 1:1 dust I missed on the ladder....






























The chickens are made with a piece of cotton pinched at one end to represent the head....I added some red paint on the "head" to represent the comb...


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I read a newspaper account of a poultry train that derailed. It said the mainline was _fowled_ for hours. 

Later, 

K


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks, Dean!  Great pix, and certainly enough to get me going.  I've archived your shots to print them out for reference as I go to work.  This should be fun, and a potential showstopper!  It won't be an exact copy (since this car was standard gauge) but will evoke the "flavor", if not the "aroma"./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif

Ed


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## D-n-H - Kirkville Branch (Jan 14, 2008)

i personally like this idea too 

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49950

Just picked up the tractor trailer at Tractor Supply Company today to make one - 75% off 19 bucks = $4.60

The metal wheels will be more expensive then the rest of the build!


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## Ambroidkits (Jan 18, 2008)

Posted By digger on 01/15/2008 5:42 AM
Many years ago, Ambroid offered an HO model of a "Poultry Palace"  as a part of their "1 of 5000" series.  I built one, but Lord knows where it is now.  Wish I still had the plans so I could build a large scale version.  Anybody out there have a picture or plans of that?/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/unsure.gif
===============================================================================

Ed,

I may have the plans but I'm in the process of moving from Dallas to Southern California so they are buried for a while/ Send me your email address offline and I will check when I have unpacked around February first.

Ambroid made two Poultry cars: The one that has been mentioned here: *Speedy Poultry and Reefer Combination Car* which was in the first 1-of-5,000 series and issued in April 1961. It was followed by the *Livesay Poultry Car, *which came out in 1966. This was part of the original series of cars (that I call the K-series). This looks like it could be a model of the prototype car Burl showed.

If you are interested in the Ambroid cars, take a look at my website, I have them all described with pictures and text (well, the text is kind of short in some places  ) _www.trainweb.org/ambroidkits_ . I also have a few of the plans but far from all.

Per

Hmm, this is my first post and I managed to get it all inside the quote. Not bad


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks, Per,

I sent you an email.  Your website brought back a lot memories. Very interesting !

K - I've started collecting dryer lint....  Let me know if you need some./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif



Ed


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## Doug Tome (Jan 2, 2008)

If you are serious about wanting to get plans to build this Ambroid car or others. There is a seller on e bay selling plans for about 20 of the Ambroid cars. Included in the 20 cars is the #10 Poultry car. Cost of the plans are $3.75 plus $1.00 for shipping.
I went to ebay and HO trains. I typed in "Ambroid kits" and got a listing of various kits for sale and the person selling just the plans. I am not sure that the plans contain detail information such as the car measurements. However, you could take a ready made car and do a bit of cutting to convert the car to replicate the poultry car.


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the tip, Doug!  

I had typed in a search for just "Ambroid" yesterday and it didn't yield the listing for just the plan sheets.  Tried it your way a few minutes ago, and just used the "Buy It Now" feature to get me a set.  All I'm after the plans for is to get a better sense of proportions.  Since I'll be adapting the concept to a narrow gauge car in 1:22.5 scale, I'm going to have to do some "selective compression", but I should be able to keep the basic proportions.

I also did a Google search this morning for "Palace Live Poultry Car Co." and came across some interesting stuff in Wikipedia.  There was a link to an 1884  patent drawing and specs for the poultry car, which answered questions I had about how the critters were actually handled.  They were placed into individual cages, the height of a standing chicken, with provisions for food and water.  The racks and cages could also be sized to carry turkeys and geese.  Later cars had a passageway down the center, between the racks on each side, for an attendant to care for the birds in transit.  The cars were equipped with canvas panels, rolled up under the eaves, to be pulled down over the open outer sides in cold weather.  The shelving on which the cages were placed would obviously need to be cleaned after the cars got to their destination, not a very pleasant job I would imagine.  The whole thing sounds like a pretty labor-intensive process, which may have contributed to the fact that such cars disappeared from service by the late 1920's.  I suspect that by then, poultry was transported by truck, as most of it still is today.

The things you learn (and probably could live very well without) while pursuing this hobby..../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif

Ed


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## Dean Whipple (Jan 2, 2008)

Ed,
Glad you found some plans....
Look forward to see a LS Poultry car....


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## LocoLover (Jan 2, 2008)

I noticed the roof walk on the picture of Dean's HO model looks very close if not identical to the picture Burl linked us to.

I think I'd like to give this one a try as well.

Bill


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