Livestock - photos from the NRM

[The Stationmaster]

Brian's post brought me back to this topic where Jon posted those fantastic links (which now seem out of action) at a time when I was wondering what happened to cattle at the other end of their final journeys. Where did the long distance cattle trains end up? Did they work into unloading docks at abbatoirs in the cities (I know that later on more were slaughtered in regional centres and transported as carcasses to market in insulated vans)? Are there any images showing unloading/holding around?

In some cases it was a short walk from the station or pens - I understand that in Trowbridge pigs destined for the local porkpie etc factory were walked the relatively short distance from the station - hardly surprising the business was lost to road fairly quickly.  In Reading the cattle pens and abattoir were on opposite sides of the GW main line but I'm not sure if cattle came in for slaughter in any numbers by rail and finally (but well over 50 years back) everything for slaughter definitely came in by road.

[AberdeenBill]

In Aberdeen, the unfortunate beasts were walked down George Street to the abattoir from Kittybrewster yard: scroll well down this page (also full of nostalgic streetscapes) for a picture: http://mcjazz.f2s.com/GeorgeSt.htm

 

Bill

[Andy Y]

In Aberdeen, the unfortunate beasts were walked down George Street to the abattoir from Kittybrewster yard: scroll well down this page (also full of nostalgic streetscapes) for a picture: http://mcjazz.f2s.com/GeorgeSt.htm

 

Bill

 

A great period snap Bill but it looks like a lorry load at best; so in such cases did a trainload of prospective beef get marched through streets between yards and abbatoirs. It sounds like it could be a bit messy. I'd imagine that there'd be quite a few cattle coming into west London for example in all those cattle vans the GW had. Continuing with London as an example which yards did the cattle end up at from each of the regions? I'm assuming they had a visit to the abbatoir before ending up at Smithfield?

[The Stationmaster]

A great period snap Bill but it looks like a lorry load at best; so in such cases did a trainload of prospective beef get marched through streets between yards and abbatoirs. It sounds like it could be a bit messy. I'd imagine that there'd be quite a few cattle coming into west London for example in all those cattle vans the GW had. Continuing with London as an example which yards did the cattle end up at from each of the regions? I'm assuming they had a visit to the abbatoir before ending up at Smithfield?

The GW trains to Smithfield conveyed meat, not live animals, and it originated in that form from 'down country'.

[Andy Y]

A great period snap Bill but it looks like a lorry load at best; so in such cases did a trainload of prospective beef get marched through streets between yards and abbatoirs. It sounds like it could be a bit messy. I'd imagine that there'd be quite a few cattle coming into west London for example in all those cattle vans the GW had. Continuing with London as an example which yards did the cattle end up at from each of the regions? I'm assuming they had a visit to the abbatoir before ending up at Smithfield?

 

I've stumbled on part of an answer to this whilst digging up some ghost ads - http://paintedsignsandmosaics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/bordesley-cattle-station-birmingham.html

[KevinWalsh]

Not strictly speaking on-topic, but here is animal transportation miniature railway style.

[benb]

I stumbled on this from the June 1979 "Railway Magazine"

 

FOLLOWING its decision in 1977 to continue to carry unaccompanied livestock by its Rail Express Parcels Service. after representations from the Central Transport Consultative Committee. British Railways has issued a list of 478 stations——about half the previous number at which such traffic will now be handled. During discussions with major users of the service and the CTCC. changes in BR's conditions of carriage were agreed. particularly to provide closer controls over the standards of packaging and labelling of animals.

 

Seems pretty late to me that in 1979 there were nearly 500 stations equipped to carry livestock!

 

Ben

[The Stationmaster]

 

I stumbled on this from the June 1979 "Railway Magazine"

 

FOLLOWING its decision in 1977 to continue to carry unaccompanied livestock by its Rail Express Parcels Service. after representations from the Central Transport Consultative Committee. British Railways has issued a list of 478 stations——about half the previous number at which such traffic will now be handled. During discussions with major users of the service and the CTCC. changes in BR's conditions of carriage were agreed. particularly to provide closer controls over the standards of packaging and labelling of animals.

 

Seems pretty late to me that in 1979 there were nearly 500 stations equipped to carry livestock!

 

Ben

 

There were probably far more which still had Parcels Offices - just that the BRB decided to restrict livestock by passenger train to a limited number of stations.

[Fat Controller]

There were probably far more which still had Parcels Offices - just that the BRB decided to restrict livestock by passenger train to a limited number of stations.

The livestock in question were not large quadrupeds such as horses, sheep and cattle. Rather they were research animals, breeding stock (notably day-old chicks) and domestic pets; one of our former cats, Jake, made the journey from Northallerton to Ashford in the early 1990s, travelling by Red Star. The vet in Yorkshire gave him a sedative; we got a call to say at what time he'd left, and when he would arrive, and picked him up accordingly. The sedative wore off as we left Ashford station.

Presumably the stations 'equipped to handle livestock' were simply ones with staff on three shifts, even if not dedicated to parcels traffic?

[The Stationmaster]

The livestock in question were not large quadrupeds such as horses, sheep and cattle. Rather they were research animals, breeding stock (notably day-old chicks) and domestic pets; one of our former cats, Jake, made the journey from Northallerton to Ashford in the early 1990s, travelling by Red Star. The vet in Yorkshire gave him a sedative; we got a call to say at what time he'd left, and when he would arrive, and picked him up accordingly. The sedative wore off as we left Ashford station.

Presumably the stations 'equipped to handle livestock' were simply ones with staff on three shifts, even if not dedicated to parcels traffic?

The sending stations would have needed a Parcels Office to deal with the consignment note and charging plus checking correct labelling etc.  I would think the same for the receiving station because at many stations there would have been nowhere else suitable for holding 'the package' until it was collected.

[Brinkly]

Amazing photographs. Such an insight into this part of railway operation.

 

Many thanks for sharing.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[Jez12]

Hi. I'm new to the forum and really interested in this topic. I'm designing a model railway (based in East Yorkshire) and would really like to understand horse and livestock loading/unloading procedures, plus pictures of cattle pens etc.

 

This thread looks like it might have many answers for me but unfortunately none of the images open when I click on them. I realise the thread was created a few years ago and maybe all the links have long since been deleted, but I'm hoping someone out there picks up my message and could point me in the right direction!

 

Thanks in anticipation.

Jeremy

[drmditch]

8 minutes ago, Jez12 said:

Hi. I'm new to the forum and really interested in this topic. I'm designing a model railway (based in East Yorkshire) and would really like to understand horse and livestock loading/unloading procedures, plus pictures of cattle pens etc.

 

This thread looks like it might have many answers for me but unfortunately none of the images open when I click on them. I realise the thread was created a few years ago and maybe all the links have long since been deleted, but I'm hoping someone out there picks up my message and could point me in the right direction!

 

Thanks in anticipation.

Jeremy

Probably depends on what period you are modelling, and whether you are basing your railway on a particular prototype. That would give you somewhere to start from!

[jonhall]

Yes, the NRM in its infinite wisdom decided to move everything, in all my dealings with them they are hopeless, probably one of the few organisations that make a certain Mr Trump look competent.

 

Now I'v got that off my chest... this should be the link to the railway photgraphic colections https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/categories/photographic-collections-(railway)/images

 

From there you will need to navigate and find the photos yourself, but as a head start, if you take my filenames from page 1 in the link there is a section that says (for example) ....group=BTF....  so that will tell you which folders the photos were in, and you can start with those.

 

Jon

Edited October 2, 2020 by jonhall

[Jez12]

6 hours ago, drmditch said:

Probably depends on what period you are modelling, and whether you are basing your railway on a particular prototype. That would give you somewhere to start from!

My era is late 50s/early 60s.  The specific area is East Yorkshire, based on typical NER design, in an area with a typical rural economy. It is also the location for Beverley Races. So horses and livestock were both common in the area (although rail traffic was obviously in decline).

 

Many thanks for your interest in my post.

[Jez12]

5 hours ago, jonhall said:

Yes, the NRM in its infinite wisdom decided to move everything, in all my dealings with them they are hopeless, probably one of the few organisations that make a certain Mr Trump look competent.

 

Now I'v got that off my chest... this should be the link to the railway photgraphic colections https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/categories/photographic-collections-(railway)/images

 

From there you will need to navigate and find the photos yourself, but as a head start, if you take my filenames from page 1 in the link there is a section that says (for example) ....group=BTF....  so that will tell you which folders the photos were in, and you can start with those.

 

Jon

Thanks Jon

 

I'm actually finding the search engine in the Science Museum link really difficult to understand. I've typed words like cattle and horses in but that doesn't get me anywhere. I'll keep working and hope the penny will drop before long. Any tips would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks again

Jeremy

 

[jonhall]

Ive just browsed the collections, my contempt of the NRM grows with every interaction.

 

The BFF group has a series in a row

 

Jon

[Corbs]

I wrote an email of complaint to them about the search function. My findings were that it works the opposite way around to how any search should, in that the more terms you search for, the more results you get rather than every term refining the search. I would guess this is because it searches for each word individually, so 'Great Western Railway Pannier Tank' actually gives you ALL the results from 5 one-word searches, rather than filtering out everything that doesn't fit the criteria.

It's maddening! I think it's actually easier to use google to search the site, but even then it gives loads of dud results.

 

If you do want to use Google to search, you do this by typing 'site:' in to google before the URL and then adding your spaced out search terms after that, like this:

site:https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/ Great Western Railway Pannier Tank

which gives you:

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk037_QUveraflV5qENpKr-VF_xDiew%3A1601659906499&ei=AmR3X_SAHrGo1fAPl4KToA8&q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fcollection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk%2F+Great+Western+Railway+Pannier+Tank&oq=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fcollection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk%2F+Great+Western+Railway+Pannier+Tank&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQA1C_DFi_DGDFD2gAcAB4AIABQ4gBeZIBATKYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6wAEB&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwj0iZyOuJbsAhUxVBUIHRfBBPQQ4dUDCA0&uact=5