Movement of sheep by rail

[nicktamarensis]

Hello,

 

Is there any record of when the carriage of sheep was taken off BR?  Was this at the same time as that of cattle or was it earlier?

 

Cheers,

 

Nick.

[Boris]

I suspect it was when the uniforms changed, once the button flys went the sheep rapidly got used to the sound of the zip and suddenly there was a lot less interest in carrying them

[asmay2002]

Page 7 of this report gives general indication of the decline.

 

Beeching closed down much of the pick up freight facilities from 1963 so decline would have been rapid after that. 

[pointstaken]

Nowadays they're called commuters.

 

I believe there was a general revulsion against carrying live animals by rail, with the suffering involved, so abbatoirs were set up nearer to the farms. I think this was influenced by the American railroads.

 

Dennis

[keefer]

not only that, but much greater care had to be taken when transporting live animals over longer distances - i believe there was a maximum distance they could go before needing watered/examined etc. there was also the risk the animals could become injured/damaged either by the vehicle carrying them or by each other.

Physical injury and high stress levels both affect the quality of the meat/hides.

 

As a modern sort of example, i saw 'outback truckers' on the telly the other day - the sheep train was a triple unit and either double or triple decker, full of sheep.

The driver had to check on the sheep and he had not even set off when he had to get in about them - one had fallen over and couldn't get up as the others kept treading on it. This also caused more stress to the other animals nearby.

I didn't catch how often he had to stop, but I presume there'd be a penalty if deaths/injuries were above a certain %

[nicktamarensis]

Thanks very much, gentlemen.  Apologies for the late reply.

Boris - thanks also. I get it..........

Nick.