“Early live poultry shipments were made by crating the live birds in small wooden crates loaded on to box cars or stacked on flat cars. Most didn’t survive the trip and those that did, illness and weight loss were serious problems that caused the poultry to get passed over at market. It was soon discovered that shipping live poultry requires an attendant to feed and water the birds, collect eggs, and dispose of dead birds. None of this was possible in a standard stockcar, hence the development of poultry cars in 1884, with improvements patented in 1885, 1888 and 1891.

WWII brought about a demise of live poultry shipments. Brought on by improved highways, trucks and housewives having access to electricity for refrigerators and freezers.

October of 1947, Poultry Transit Company was down to a mere 237 live poultry cars.

By 1950, only 15 cars remained active on the company’s roster.

The actual end of live poultry shipments has two dates. A survey by the American Poultry Historical Society states that the actual end of live poultry shipping was 1956. However, the Association of American Railroads continued to list very small poultry shipments as late as 1961.

The majority of live poultry was shipped to the eastern part of the country to communities with large Jewish populations, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, etc. Jewish dietary laws did not permit Jewish housewives to purchase dressed birds, they had to be live and then killed to adhere to proper dietary rules. This created a huge market for live birds in Jewish neighborhoods. Christians in general, especially protestants, did not have any such dietary laws and dressed birds purchased at the meat market were perfectly acceptable to serve to the family for Sunday dinner.

Turkeys were the only birds that did not ship well as live birds. They were killed, dressed, and frozen before shipping to market. Chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, and just about every other kind of bird consumed by humans was shipped live.

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

Railway Bull Shippers Group

https://groups.io/g/RailwayBullShippersGroup

PPKX 5588 carries the name "Turner". Notice the end door is covering part of the reporting marks.

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

Railway Bull Shippers Group

https://groups.io/g/RailwayBullShippersGroup