I recently purchased a copy of the IC Rules for Receipt, Handling,
Stowing, Bracing and Delivery of Less then Carload Freight Issued in Feb
38 and revised in Oct of 49. There are two illustrations of methods of
blocking car doors open to provide for ventilation one for a wood door
car and one for a steel door car.

I am guessing that they were hauling livestock like crated poultry. I
never heard of using a closed car for this before.

From: Jeffrey White <jrwhite@...>
I recently purchased a copy of the IC Rules for Receipt,
Handling, Stowing, Bracing and Delivery of Less then
Carload Freight Issued in Feb 38 and revised in Oct of 49. 
There are two illustrations of methods of blocking car
doors open to provide for ventilation one for a wood door
car and one for a steel door car.
I am guessing that they were hauling livestock like crated
poultry. I never heard of using a closed car for this before.

I've got four photos of this sort of thing: prize heifers being unloaded from a Wabash steel auto box into a DC-3; a giragge being loaded into a Pennsy X31, a giraffe being loaded into an ACL auto box, and zebras being loaded into an unknown boxcar.

So while it probably wasn't common, it wasn't unheard of, especially for specialty animal moves.

Ray Breyer
Elgin, IL

Sounds like they'd do it when no giraffe car was available. :-)

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Thanks for the info, Ray. Would love to see the photo of the "giragge," must be some wild Southern Hemisphere beastie. As for the giraffes, how did they load their necks, must have been pretty tight in there. Reminds me of the old Lionel box car with a giraffe neck and head sticking out of a hole in the top.

John S.

To: STMFC@...
From: rtbsvrr69@...
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 19:49:23 -0700
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Livestock in closed cars?




























> From: Jeffrey White <jrwhite@...>

I recently purchased a copy of the IC Rules for Receipt,

Handling, Stowing, Bracing and Delivery of Less then

Carload Freight Issued in Feb 38 and revised in Oct of 49.

There are two illustrations of methods of blocking car

doors open to provide for ventilation one for a wood door

car and one for a steel door car.

I am guessing that they were hauling livestock like crated

poultry. I never heard of using a closed car for this before.

I've got four photos of this sort of thing: prize heifers being unloaded from a Wabash steel auto box into a DC-3; a giragge being loaded into a Pennsy X31, a giraffe being loaded into an ACL auto box, and zebras being loaded into an unknown boxcar.



So while it probably wasn't common, it wasn't unheard of, especially for specialty animal moves.



Ray Breyer

Elgin, IL

What makes you think blocking the car doors open was for transport of
livestock? Do the rules specifically state anything about livestock? While
we can document specific or unusual shipment of livestock in boxcars (I too
have the photo's Ray mentioned), I suspect this rules were to accommodate
those loads that typically were shipped in ventilated boxcars, ie
watermelons. The IC served portions of the south. Many southern railroads
had ventilated boxcars. These rules may have been a way to compete when a
ventilated boxcar was requested and the IC could not provide it.



Doug Harding

www.iowacentralrr.org

What makes you think blocking the car doors open was for
transport of livestock? Do the rules specifically state
anything about livestock? While we can document specific
or unusual shipment of livestock in boxcars, I suspect
this rules were to accommodate those loads that typically
were shipped in ventilated boxcars, ie watermelons. The IC
served portions of the south. Many southern railroads had
ventilated boxcars. These rules may have been a way to
compete when a ventilated boxcar was requested and the IC
could not provide it.
Doug Harding

I sort of doubt this Doug. The IC made a deliberate decision to eliminate ventilated cars from their roster by 1933 (going from 1120 of this type of car in 1911 to zero in 1933). Any ventilated traffic they might have generated could easily have been transported in one of their stock cars. And since the IC served most of the "hog belt" (Iowa and IL) that stock traffic was FAR more important, so I can see plain boxcars being used for this traffic over occasional loadings of melons.

Most of the photos I have of the IC's South Water Street terminal in Chicago show LOTS of deep south ventilated cars, but no IC ventilated cars after 1910 or so. The couple of good IC VM photos that I have (pulled off LoC downloads) were taken in 1903, and show cars that were also equipped with heaters.

Regards,
Ray Breyer
Elgin, IL

Because the illustrations are under the heading of "livestock". It's
rule H-59. " Livestock should have plenty of air, and if in closed cars
during warm weather, they should be placed adjacent to doorways and
doors cleated open for ventilation. See illustrations Nos. 65 and 66."

Those are the illustrations I mentioned 65 is for wood door cars and 66
for steel door cars.

Jeff White
Alma, IL

Jeffrey White wrote:

<<I recently purchased a copy of the IC Rules for Receipt, Handling,
Stowing, Bracing and Delivery of Less then Carload Freight Issued in Feb
38 and revised in Oct of 49.>>

This is The AAR's Rules for LCL distributed to carriers and shippers.

<< There are two illustrations of methods of
blocking car doors open to provide for ventilation one for a wood door
car and one for a steel door car.>>

To expand on your answer to Doug Harding's inquiry:

Closed cars used for LCL Livestock shipments were to have the doors cleated open a width of 12". If closed cars were utilized for perishables such as melons the doors were to be cleated open between 6 and 8 inches. Closed Car Rules contain illustrations and instructions for securing doors in this fashion for the following designs; top hung wood door, bottom hung wood door, steel corrugated door and paneled steel doors.

<<I am guessing that they were hauling livestock like crated poultry. I
never heard of using a closed car for this before.>>

Not all LCL livestock was crated (packaged), though partitions would have confined the animals within close proximity of the door opening. Annual CL and LCL claims figures were broken down between freight "in package" and freight "not in package". A random look at figures for livestock (1929-1950) in LCL shipments is always dominated by claims filed on loss, damage or theft to livestock "not in package".

Regards,

Guy Wilber
Reno, Nevada








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