Railroads try to avoid deadheading their equipment. Therefore they have always looked for other cargoes for their stock cars. In 1906 the Santa Fe designed some stock cars which also had 16 Caswell side dump doors in the floor and 8 long roof hatches. These cars carried livestock east and returned west with the industrial fuel coke. The SK-H, K, L, N, and P classes had this feature. However, coke usage was replaced by fuel oil and natural gas by the early 30s, and the dual use feature was no longer needed. Most of these cars were rebuilt, but about a thousand remained in service as late as 1950. View a roof view of an SK-K supplied by Jon Miller. At least 3 different roof hatch configurations existed.

The actual number of live stock carried in a car depended on the weight of the animals and length of the car.

Texas law required that a railroad provide double deck cars for the shipment of sheep, goats, hogs, and calves, and that these cars be the same exterior size as single deck cars. The law was intended to protect the shipper from having to pay for two cars when one was sufficient. The law also prevented railroads from charging more for the use of a double deck car. If double deck cars were not available, the railroad had to provide two single deck cars at half price.

40' Stock Car Capacities
Stock or feeder cattle (500 pounds) - 46
Fattened cattle (750 pounds) - 35
Hogs (350 pounds) - 60 per deck
Feeder sheep (60 pound) - 150 per deck
Fattened sheep (90 pounds) - 125 per deck

Recommendations were that the top deck of a double deck car have 8-10 fewer animals than the lower deck, but records show that they were usually loaded equally. The issue was one of space, not weight.

If a bull was shipped with cows, it was to be tied and smaller stock partitioned from it. If multiple size animals were shipped in the same car, they were to be partitioned also. Hogs were to have sufficient room to lie down.

Horses should only be loaded in cars with 8' of headroom.

A charting of 42 days of stock traffic through Purcell, OK, and another set of records from San Bernardino can show the variation in stock car loads.

1955 National Car Loadings for Stock Cars

Commodity	Loads	%
Cattle & Horses	261,100	61%
Hogs	102,600	24%
Sheep & Goats	58,400	14%
Watermelons	1,600
Brick and Tile	1,400
Sorghum grain	800
Ceramic sewer pipe	600
Tomatoes	300
Railroad ties	300
Total	427,100

For more information, see Pamphlet No. 19, Association of American Railroads, Methods for Loading and Handling Live Stock, Revised January, 1942, provided by John Moore.

After the end of stock transportation in the early 70s, many of the cars ended up in MOW and Store use as storage units for materials. On the Howard branch, 2 were kept at the limestone crusher near Moline as storage for wood and supplies to repair composite gondolas. Santa Fe lined some stock cars and used them as sugar beet cars with small dump doors in their sides. Others were lined and used in grain service.

Stock Yards

Compiled by J. Stephen Sandifer