TheSeeker
Member
I would guess the only way this is possible today is via a lorry on EuroTunnel.
Are there any more movements left? When did they stop?
Are there any more movements left? When did they stop?
I would guess the only way this is possible today is via a lorry on EuroTunnel.
Are there any more movements left? When did they stop?
I think cattle trains lasted until the early 1970s. Not sure about pigeons and others.
Live cattle imports from Eire ceased (by rail) around the time of our glorious entry into the Common Market in 1973. This was from Holyhead - and there were a good number of localised protests about it.
Traffic was far more trouble than it was worth , with empty "oxfits" sent to Shrewsbury for cleaning etc.
I did see loaded cattle trains at Venice Mestre in or around 1982. Off topic I know.
Definitely not going to happen on today's railways. I'd guess they may still run in some countries though.
(we did move in my day , Interfrigo wagons from the continent to Melton Mowbray for Pedigree Petfoods , with frozen Continetal "offal" for petfood. I will not spoil your appetites by describing the contents)
DMUs / EMUs must have put paid to pigeon traffic.
When I was a kid in the 1960's there was always a pigeon van at Weymouth station when we arrived on a weekend morning, with the birds waiting to be released. These must have come attached to the Southern trains from London, as the Yeovil route was converted to DMUs by then. Never saw one after the line was electrified.......but by then we usually went by car anyway
DMUs / EMUs must have put paid to pigeon traffic.
When I was a kid in the 1960's there was always a pigeon van at Weymouth station when we arrived on a weekend morning, with the birds waiting to be released. These must have come attached to the Southern trains from London, as the Yeovil route was converted to DMUs by then. Never saw one after the line was electrified.......but by then we usually went by car anyway
Never saw any on the trains but did see them on Crossville buses in the 70s. I remember pigeon baskets at stations in the 60s but always empties being returned.There was still quite a lot of day old chicks carried in cardboard boxes in the 1980s.
Not true, I'm afraid. The heaters did run off BR "diesel" fuel but it was actually/technically "gas oil," with a much higher permitted sulphur content.The paraffin and diesel "hot air" heating on modernisation era DMU's would have seen off (literally) any live pigeon traffic.
Definitely not going to happen on today's railways. I'd guess they may still run in some countries though.
If animals are slaughtered relatively locally and the meat transported instead, then the amounts and distances are likely to be too low for rail to be viable.I appreciate the financial viability may be a reason why animals are not transported these days by train but animals are still transported by road, so if it was financially worth it why not by rail?
The livestock trade was transferred to the Metropolitan Cattle Market north of Kings Cross in 1855 and declined in the 20th century until the MCM was closed in 1963. Were they trucking beasts from Smithfield to Caledonian Road, detaching the cattle trucks elsewhere or shipping carcasses?There was still a cattle train from Birkenhead to Smithfield in the 1960s; it provided great interest to rail enthusiasts in the Chester area as it was often worked by a Churchward 47XX class 2-8-0.
According to information found using Google, Smithfield Goods depot closed in 1962, so this service must have ended at that time, although I would have thought the train ran more recently; however, as the last 47XX class was withdrawn in 1964, it cannot have been any more recent than that. This service was also interesting as it was hauled over the Met as far as Farringdon by condensing panniers, then over the connection to the Widened Lines to reach Smithfield.
I'm pretty sure that there were still some cattle trains running in the mid-1960s from Birkenhead; many of these were brought over from Ireland in BR-owned ships. From memory, one was called the 'Slieve Bloom', and a Google search shows that this was withdrawn from service in 1965 (it - along with others including a motor vessel named 'Slieve Donard' - used both the Mersey and Holyhead as their English ports when carrying cattle across the Irish Sea); this (sort of!) supports my recollection that cattle trains were still running from Birkenhead until the mid-1960s.
I remember them!There was still quite a lot of day old chicks carried in cardboard boxes in the 1980s.
I appreciate the financial viability may be a reason why animals are not transported these days by train but animals are still transported by road, so if it was financially worth it why not by rail?
This horse tried: https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/n...horse-joins-commuters-platform-train-station/What about horses ? specifically the racing / sport source ...
That was a passenger rated traffic, ended c1971 - horse boxes (code HB) were non-passenger coaching stock (though they did have accommodation for grooms). Can't remember the status of prize cattle (for which there were special vans).What about horses ? specifically the racing / sport source ...
The film was 'Farmer Moving South', of 1952I seem to remember a BTP film about someone flitting between farms, and taking everything including the livestock by train - and didn't some circus concerns use trains (One of the Railway Detective novels - Inspector Colbeck - features a circus train being derailed on the Tyne Valley route in the 1860s)