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Show The Livestock Shipping Code of all railroads required that livestock could not remain in the cars for longer than 36 hours without being unloaded for feeding, water, and rest. This necessitated stops at regular stockyard feeding pens, so it was up to the conductor to anticipate whether or not a certain designated stockpen could be reached within a 36 hour period. It all depended on time consumed in switching and stopping along the way. If, in his judgment, they could not reach the designated point even though the sheep had been on the train but 20 or 30 hours, they would stop at the next nearest stock loading pen to unload and feed and water the livestock. The freight would have to go on, and the livestock and attendant would wait at the feed pen for the next train. Sometimes, it meant a 6 - 8 - 10 hour wait until a train came along. Such a system sometimes required nearly a week to make the trip to Texas with rams that were weary and in less than best condition from the long ordeal. In order to shorten the traveling time and get the rams to their destination without being worn out by a too-long trip, a plan was devised by Bill and John K to ease the problems of such travel and be more assured of getting the rams to the sale in shorter time and in good condition. Feed troughs were placed and nailed along the sides of the cars, and a deck was built high in each, end to hold bales of hay and bags of grain. Later, bags of chopped hay were used instead of hales. Two fifty-gallon drums 229 |