My understanding is the Montgomery was the Q’s feed and rest station leading into Chicago from the west. Every railroad running into Chicago from the west had a feed and rest station in Illinois, most within 50-100 miles of Union Stockyards. A feed and rest station means this is where “slaughter cows” had their last meal, you might say, before arrival in Chicago. But not all animals stopped at Montgomery, some went direct to the Union Stockyards in Chicago and adjacent slaughter houses, if the timing of the stock train allowed their arrival without a stop. Galesburg was further away from Chicago.
A feed and rest station is used by the railroad to meet the stipulations of the 28 hour law, which required that animals be unloaded, fed, watered, and allowed to rest for 5 hours, after 28 hours of travel in a stockcar. The law could be waived by the animals owner to allow for transit time of 36 hours, where upon the animals had to be rested a minimum of 8 hours. 36 hours was the max for any animal transit without rest. (as a side note truckers had no such law until sometime in the 1990s, one reason they took livestock traffic from the railroads.) Feed and rest stations were spaced so that stock trains could cover a given distance within the allotted 28 hours. Along the Q mainline you will note Creston and Lincoln are set up to handle large number of animals, not because these towns were major livestock centers, but because they could be used as feed and rest stations. Major livestock centers typically had a union stockyard that was served by multiple railroads and fed adjoining slaughter houses. You will not find a listing for South Omaha, Kansas City or St Louis on the spreadsheet Nolan shared, because these location were served by union stockyards.
A feed and rest station was set up to accommodate a large number of animals, while keeping each car load separated from other animals. In the steam era a stock train could be 50 cars, and each pen was sized to hold one two cars worth of animals. The separation was especially important when dealing with disease, but separation also ensured an owner did not have his animals mixed with others, ie good stock get mixed or replaced with poor stock. Not every animal had an identification tag or brand. Separation in cars and pens was the only way owners retained control over their animals.
Note most of the stock pen locations only had a handful of pens, often only 2-4 which was just enough for the local needs of farmers shipping livestock. They were not large enough to handle an entire train of livestock.
A feed and rest station was also used by owners to “hold” animals while waiting for a better price or to put on some weight after a long period of roundup, trail drives and travel. Well rested and fat cattle garnered better prices, compared to rangy skinny cattle. So an owner might hold animals for a week or two at the feed and rest station.
Doug Harding
www.iowacentralrr.org
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> On Behalf Of Tom Hammer
Sent: Sunday, October 4, 2020 10:50 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: [CBQ] CB&Q STOCK YARDS
I was actually thinking slaughter cows.
I am using Galesburg as one location that would be a good Feeder Cow sales location.?
For slaughter cows, if the Q was part of Union Stock Yards in Chicago?
Or if Aurora was a holding yard for slaughter cows awaiting the trip to Chicago?
I think West Chicago was named as a holding yard for slaughter cows, but I am afraid that was on the CNW?
Trying to have correct names on my HO R><R.
Tom Hammer
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