When I worked there from 67-69 there was one track on the north dock with 18-20
chute pens for unloading livestock into both Cattle and Sheep. There was also
a
south Dock and chute track but was leased out to Henry Steele. The south barn
labled Sheep Barn on Page 28 had just been torn down. All barns west of Ill
Rt.
31 were gone. As were the Barn and Horse Barn on Page 28
On page 29(BB 25) both the barns to the north labeled Sheep Barn and Cattle
Barn were used for Cattle with Wertheimer Cattle Co. using the all the west and
half the east barns. They sold and also fed cattle there. The New Sheep Barn
was leased by Moiner Sheep Co for feeding out sheep which would then go to
Chicago for slaughter. The square just north of the sheep barn was the scale
and most of the area labeled feed lot just open pens. Wertheimer unloaded all
their own cattle. Henry Steele only sold Prime A1 cattle looked like 4H
material.
I worked Sat and Sun all thru High School and any extra work after school or
vacations. First thing I did every morning was call the Chief Dispatcher and
find out if any stock were coming. If not I would move hay from the barn into
the east cattle barn with the Co. Dump truck(that is where I learned to drive a
stick shift jockeying around to get lined up to drive thru the alley. No gates
lined up with the alley. On days when we did get stock the first thing to do
was go out and get the pens ready by opening the water trough(a length of pipe
was the plug and allowed any overflow to go down a drain) and open the bales of
hay for feed. The stock would be unloaded into the chute pens a car to each
pen. Then they would be moved down the alley to the scale, Weighted and moved
to a pen. Sheep were fed alfalfa pellets and corn while cows got plain hay.
Next you took the scale tickets back to the office and glued them to the
waybills for the agent when he came in.
Some stock was still moved in '73 when I was working at Aurora Tower and I had
the train set them out in the depot as he was too long to fit and set them out
on the sheep yard lead. The Aurora Passenger Depot engine then just came right
in on them and shoved them down to the stockyard.
Steve in SC
________________________________
From: o_rrman <mofferman@ameritech.net>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, November 3, 2011 11:53:34 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Montgomery Sheepyard Questions
A few topics relating :
Stockpen Layout:
I was wondering if anyone has a diagram showing how the loading docks, ramps,
stockpens and alleys were laid out at Montgomery? I have BB25 which shows
general layout of the buildings but not the fencing.
Chute tracks:
Were there separate tracks for north/south chutes or one track with north and
south leads to the yard? Did these tracks run to the west of the elevator?
Current Tracks:
Finally, looking at bing maps birdseye views (http://www.bing.com/maps), are
the
current tracks running into the lumber treatment plant from the south and north
the old Chute tracks? The one from the South runs adjacent to the east side of
the elevator so I'm guessing that it used to run into the old lean-to? If so,
did it used to continue through the lean to the chutes or did it stop there?
In
any case, could someone tell me whether the current tracks are remnants of old
ones or do they post-date the sheepyard?
Thanks for any help. Sorry for the number of questions but I figure it will
give
Steve or Leo something to do! :-)
Mike O
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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