Cattle for Your Stock Car

[Keith Hayes]

For a while, I have been pondering the idea of a silhouette of cattle to place in stock cars to simulate a loaded car. Seems like you would not see much of the cattle, and a silhouette would not add much weight.

Someone on an O scale page posed a question about this, so I photographed some Aspen cattle and developed the attached image:


Have at it. It make take 2-3 of these to fill a car.

[Todd A Ferguson]

I'm no expert but I suspect that the bovines were packed fairly tightly into the cars in a manner that would leave one viewing the north end of a southbound bovine or the south end of a northbound bovine when looking at the car from the side view.

Why not take some real photos of cows and do a little Photoshopping and make real looking cows rather than just a dark view.
Seems like it could be done with sheep too...

Best,
Todd Ferguson
Harrisburg, NC

[South Park]

  Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder where those shoe leather
skinny steaks and hamburgers come from ???  

[Keith Hayes]

A good point, Todd. Though my Dad worked for an agribusiness and I recall seeing a cattle truck loaded a couple times, I don't recall how the cattle were positioned. The whole operation does not exactly attract you to stand closer, if  you know what I mean.

The point of the silhouette is to provide a view block and imply a loaded car. Cattle standing end to end are visually both more interesting and perhaps more understandable than the bunch of legs standing side-by-side. Likewise, I suspect the effect would not detract should the car be billed as an empty headed for loading, or, more likely, detailed for lumber, mine prop or coal loading.

I suppose I could travel up to Kersey, drive in a feedlot and take a photo of the wrong end of a row of steers from across the pen as they feed. That would be the most opportune moment. But it was a lot easier to pose my model cattle and do some Photoshop work and let the imagination do the rest.

[Todd A Ferguson]

Keith,

I may have to play around with your idea myself and see what I can come up with too.

Best,

Todd Ferguson 

Harrisburg, NC 

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 17, 2016, at 9:45 PM, Keith Hayes [via C&Sng Discussion Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

A good point, Todd. Though my Dad worked for an agribusiness and I recall seeing a cattle truck loaded a couple times, I don't recall how the cattle were positioned. The whole operation does not exactly attract you to stand closer, if  you know what I mean.

The point of the silhouette is to provide a view block and imply a loaded car. Cattle standing end to end are visually both more interesting and perhaps more understandable than the bunch of legs standing side-by-side. Likewise, I suspect the effect would not detract should the car be billed as an empty headed for loading, or, more likely, detailed for lumber, mine prop or coal loading.

I suppose I could travel up to Kersey, drive in a feedlot and take a photo of the wrong end of a row of steers from across the pen as they feed. That would be the most opportune moment. But it was a lot easier to pose my model cattle and do some Photoshop work and let the imagination do the rest.

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[Jeff Young]

Either way, I think this is a fantastic idea.

I do think end-on is more likely correct, so I’ll wait with bated breath to see if Todd can improve on Keith’s idea….

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Keith Hayes]

All--you had some good ideas about how the woolies and beef were packed in. So, I got the camera phone out, lined up the animals and took some photos. I brought the photos into SketchUp and created a thin silhouette of cattle and sheep. I also made some short extensions so the silhouette will stand up on its own.


I started with the HO part, and then increased the size to S and O. These are posted in the Poverty Flats store for you to purchase(https://www.shapeways.com/search?q=Poverty+Flats&type=). I set them up to be made in a less expensive black plastic (they are silhouettes, after all). One cattle part should fill a 30' stock car, and one sheep part will fill two decks of a sheep car.

I suggest placing them on a slight angle if they fit tight. Plus, if you don't get the piece quite on the center the car will not lean.

Thoughts?

[South Park]

  You could have had a corner office on the top floor with
the C&S if you had presented this idea to mgmt. in 1910.
Shipping livestock flat, you could move 1000 head in a single
two-car train !  

[Don Gustavson II]

Nice work Keith.
If I tried this out. I think I would paint most of them black. And a few a light black. Umm. Dark gray.. Just to add a little variation.
This comic by Gary Larson immediately came to mind after reading the last post.

[Todd A Ferguson]

Keith,

Good work! My one comment would be to consider reducing the support structure. I think 3-4 round to tubes going between the Cow bodies maybe 1/3 of the way up from the floor would hold them the desired distance apart and not show at all in the car if painted black or brown.

Maybe gluing cutout photos to them would be an interesting experiment too. Might need to unsharpen the photos to reduce the detail level.

Best,

Todd Ferguson

Harrisburg, NC 

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 23, 2017, at 9:56 AM, Don Gustavson II [via C&Sng Discussion Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Nice work Keith.
If I tried this out. I think I would paint most of them black. And a few a light black. Umm. Dark gray.. Just to add a little variation.
This comic by Gary Larson immediately came to mind after reading the last post.

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[Keith Hayes]

Todd, I created some 'feet' by extending some of the hooves to allow the flat cattle to stand on their own. Once I had the part made, I flipped it to create a second part so Shapeways only charges you for a single part instead of two.

Don, thanks for the cartoon: we need more Gary Larson! I was sorry that Shapeways does not offer a dark grey, but after some consideration I selected the black plastic, as pretty much all the detail will be hidden in the shadows of the car. I considered running the sheep in white, and may still do so. You can go to whatever trouble you choose and paint up different animals, but I bet it will not make a lick of difference. Just remember it is YOUR railroad!

[Keith Hayes]

The flat cattle (and sheep) arrived today!

They are so cool. More when I have some time this weekend.

This visitor also showed up in Leadville over on the Dangerous and Rapidly Growing Worse.

[Chris Walker]

Wow, never seen that before, Cows on Flatcar (COFC)     

...down here we do GOFC.




ps wasn't the Sal-Lead 3-rd rail pulled some 5 years before the #490's were built?

[Robert McFarland]

They loaded it on a couple  of SG flat cars.

[Keith Hayes]

The third rail is safely in place.

[Keith Hayes]

Here are some better images of the flat cattle and flat sheep:



The goo used by Shapeways is white in the middle and black on the surface. The white is visible where the parts were nipped. The black flexible material is the least expensive and has a texture, which should not be a factor inside the car.

A dab of black paint will hide the white spot. If you want to paint the animals different colors, go crazy.

Here is an image of one set of cattle in a Phase III car:

I confess it is harder to see the animals than I anticipated, but they are there. Also, these are light, so should not impact the weight of a heavier car.

[Chris Walker]

Keith,

As I'm rather loathe to show non-C&S examples to illustrate, in this case I know of no other examples so here goes, especially when it comes to Sheep.
40 years ago when I started out firing we were on the last legs of hauling livestock, I can't remember any loaded stocktrains but sure remember shifting rakes of Mty's though.  I can only relate to seeing loaded trucks shifting stock and they packed them in a lot tighter than the rail did.  


NZR Publicity Picture

D&RGW loading Sheep at Cimarron, Colorado  Download the 100 tif and view the detail.

Russel Lee photograph, Library Of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/fsa2000018806/PP/

[Rich Townsend]

Realistically, you do see the colors of the animals in the stock cars, at least those up against the sides of the cars. I think it only makes sense to paint the animals, unless you're shipping Aberdeen Angus cattle. I would paint the cattle's faces an off-white, as well as some of their feet and chests. And add pink noses and black eyes. The rest I would paint a Tuscan red, like that used on Union Pacific sg box cars in the 1950s.

And I would paint the sheep a dirty off-white, too, with darker noses and eyes. Maybe a little pink on some of the ears, too.

[Rich Townsend]

I just stumbled onto these sheep that look like they would work well in a double deck stock car:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/6U3YPGRW6/sheep-ho-wagon-load-groups-x-4?optionId=57706359&li=related-items

[Chris Walker]

Keith,
you'll need to add those extra Stringers to get -36's across that lightly built trestle, safely. +