Horses

[70022Tornado]

Horses and Hunting,

 

Reading Sasoon's "Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man" we find many references to "Hunters" etc being despatched to the Hunt Meeting by train, Unfortunately SS is not explicite in how this was done other than commenting that a quivk word with the Station Master produced the neccessary horse box.

 

Now where these shunted inyo bays and docks specially, or where the boxes put in trains and loaded and unloaded during a normal station stop over and on the normal platforms ??

 

 

Any info would be appreciated.

 

70022

[Buckjumper]

The Great Eastern's instructions on horsebox use ran to five pages in the 1906 Appendix to the Working Timetable. Pertinent points for modelling purposes appended below, with important info in bold.

 

*No horse was to be accepted without halter or bridle.

 

*In attaching or detaching horseboxes, care was to be be taken to prevent startling any animals loaded in them. Generally the harness had to be removed, except on special instructions.

 

*Headstalls were, in preference,to be facing the front of the train.

 

*Where the platform distance was some distance below the level of the horsebox floor, mats were to be placed over the floor to prevent horses trapping their feet in the aperture between the floor and flap door.

 

*Coup?© windows in which no one is travelling were to be closed during the journey.

 

*At junctions and wherever possible, the guard was to enter the coup?© to check the condition of the animals. Animals had to be examined at exchange stations with other railways.

 

*On arrival, a man was to at once go to the coup?© and observe the condition of the horses.

 

The GER had dep??t stations where horseboxes, carriage trucks and special cattle boxes were stored for quick dispatch to stations within the District. No station was to retain any horsebox except dep??t stations, and dep??t stations were only allowed to hold the numbers specified in the Appendix. Immediately a horsebox was received (whether home of from another Railway) it was to be unloaded, properly cleaned out and disinfected. Coup?©s were be swept out, and windows cleaned, and all equipment returned to it's proper place. Home company horseboxes were sent by the first available train to the district dep??t, and foreign horseboxes to the originating company via prescribed routes.

To order a horsebox, the stationmaster was to give the earliest notice possible to the district dep??t station as to how many horseboxes (or carriage trucks) he needed, and the dep??t stationmaster was to give the request his immediate attention and reply as quickly as possible. The dep??t station master could apply to other dep??ts if there was a shortage for vehicles, and in the worst case scenario of there being no vehicles available, he was to contact the Rolling Stock Inspector with relevant details. Each dep??t station was to telegraph the same inspector each day at 8.30am to confirm the number of horseboxes and carriage trucks on hand at that time. Dual fitted stock was held at London and the same inspector was notified of requests.

 

Stations without loading docks allowed animals to be unloaded on the station's platform.

[LSWR]

On page 48 of Kevin Robertson's book "Railways of Winchester" (ISBN 0-906579-71-6) there is an intriguing picture, credited to P.J. Cupper, of the Winchester shunter, B4 30096, adding a horse box to a Western Region DMU in the down platform at Winchester City. The date is given as 1st July 1961. It would be my assumption that the equine passengers (if any) would have been loaded into the horse box some time earlier at the World War 2 loading bank or cattle pens in the adjacent down yard.

 

My experience with handling horses suggests that it would be undesirable to load or unload a horse at a station platform but I have no direct knowledge of the procedures used. In the same book plans of both Winchester Cheshil and Kings Worthy stations show a loading bank adjacent to the passenger platforms. In the case of Kings Worthy the bank is explicitly labelled "HORSE BANK". The text refers to race horses from several local studs using the station.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

To add to Buckjumper's summary of working instructions, Bradshaw and railway company timetables indicated at what stations horseboxes and carriage trucks were available on a walk up request basis, and the notice required to procure these vehicles at the stations where the stock had to be called up.

 

I am pretty sure as well that the railway companies expectation was that if there were passenger(s) other than servants travelling with the horse (and carriage) that they would go first class. Effectively the H&C service was a supplementary fare service made available only to first class passengers.

... My experience with handling horses suggests that it would be undesirable to load or unload a horse at a station platform but I have no direct knowledge of the procedures used. ...

For sure; but in an age when there was a lot more general knowledge and experience about handling large animals, you have to believe that the station staff in such instances would know to use hurdles or other similar portable fencing to make a temporary enclosure on the platform. The last thing you want is an alarmed horse bolting for the nearest open space; which most of the time is going to be the running lines...

[70022Tornado]

Many thanks for these informative replies.

 

It certainly is a incentive to get the opperation correct! Now how do we make a 4mm shunting horse ? - Motorised !

 

70022

[Penlan]

Uhm, I don't know about a horse shunting Horse box(es) onto the running line, if a country station I would have thought the train engine would do the pick up/set down, main lines a station based shunter would do the job.

 

On my layout (Penlan) we do run Horse boxes on trains, setting down and picking up into a loading bank, plus a train of a dozen 'empty' horse boxes stored in a layby from another station up/down the line, for the local races/hunt - and to show off all the kit built boxes which took me ages to build........ rather than running them through non-stop every half hour.

 

Of course if a geared 'rolling road' could be fitted in the base of the wagon below, it would indeed be a 1hp 'shunting engine'..

 

I jest of course...

 

Penlan