Rob, most of the major meat packers owned soap making companies, so byproducts were shipped to those plants. Or they were sold to third party concerns who had use for them. Nothing was wasted. Nationa

I can’t answer that question. My interests focused on what cars came in and out of a slaughter house, and what did they contain or what was their function, mostly so I could fill out waybills. Additio

Oh you will regret. A prime use for hog urine was cleaning lanolin from raw wool. Think of that the next time you wear a wool sweater. It is also used in fertilizer. Most blood was dried before shippi

Claus thank you. You are correct that is a Decker tank car, used for various fats, like lard, and for blood and hog urine. The tank cars were gone by the early 30s, replaced by leased units. You cite

To cite an example of a retouched photo. Attached is a photo scanned from a company brochure published by the Decker & Sons Meat Company, circa 1930. The photo shows the loading area, but what stands

No dimensional data, no reporting marks, no other required lettering for interchange service. Very likely a photo or negative that had lettering applied. Was a common technique for advertising photos.

It was also home of the Toad Suck Inn, a catfish restaurant. And the town celebration is focused on toads, with a giant toad painted on the main intersection in town. Of course none of this has anythi

Looks to be C&NW Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Good work Tom. Palace and Stable are certainly names affiliated with stockcars. The Arms Palace company being a builder. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

They are early CMSTP stockcars, perhaps as early as the 1880s. See attached photo taken at Murdo SD shows car with roof hatches. And a photo of double deck car 8327, the caption mentions the cars have

Notice the hogs in the pen with the hog shed. What is the white octagonal building? A phone booth? It’s up on cribbing and it looks like a tool boxes and other supplies around it. There are work crew

Claus the “sand car” is probably for hauling/storing locomotive sand. Appears to be a homemade single bay covered hopper. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Jim an interesting detail, which I had not noticed before when looking at the photo. Thanks for pointing it out. I don’t recall seeing steel diamond plate used on ice hatches. Doug Harding www.iowacen

No, it is a standard two axle truck. Here is another photo of GE-25 in weed sprayer service. You can see the two wheels outlined by the shadows underneath. And a photo of GE-25 at the Cedar Lake shops

The M&StL converted a gas electric, GE-25, to weed spray duty in the late 50s. They added a control booth in the rear of the body with extra windows, spray arms, etc. The unit towed one or two tankcar

Here is an excellent explanation on HO stockcar models. https://sfrhms.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/stock_car_models.pdf Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Peter, I think you misunderstood. All the 71000 Swift cars had four doors, one for each level on each side. Photo evidence shows the 72000 series was single deck cars. Again the NISX reporting mark wa

The link given is for the Kohr’s meat packing plant in Davenport. I believe taken while the building was being expanded. This plant later became Oscar Meyer. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Peter, yes SLSX 71548 is a 40’ double deck car with a door on each level. The 71000-71199 were all double deck stockcars, and unless a photo shows otherwise, all had four doors. As far as I know Swift

I note two of those route cards are for the M&StL and the MILW, indicating this car was traveling in the upper Midwest. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org