and he notes -
Chickens were shipped by rail as early as the 1840s and by the 1880s
cars appeared with heaters, food and water storage for feeding and
watering the chickens.
Unlike other livestock shipped by raill, chickens are less hardy and
required more care enroute, thus the need for the attendant in the
car and the heater too. While the attendant may have been kept warm,
the heater was really for the chickens and between feedings the
attendant could take a snooze on a bed of feathers, yup - the
original "Featherbedder" was a real person!
Once refrigeration and chicken factory farms came into use in the
60s, the attended poultry cars were mostly discontinued except for
short runs (much like milk shipments). But the term 'featherbedding'
persisted and was applied to any employee who had little to do but
who's position was required by Union rules.
One item of note: compared to hens, roosters had little market value
except as breeders and would not have been shipped by rail in any
great numbers so a Palace Poultry Car sound effect would have more
'cluck' than 'crow'!
Raleigh in Maine wondering which came first...
At 11:52 PM 10/27/2008, ed_loizeaux wrote:
> > If our locos can have sound now, why not roosters
> > ? John Armstrong
>
>John....As a certified olde tymer, you probably know that S scale used
>to have a kit for the PALACE POULTRY CAR. Poultry cars were described
>in some detail on this list way back when. I think Rollie knew more
>about them than anyone else -- especially the part with a little stove
>inside during the winter to keep the attendant warm. Or something like
>that. So maybe a rooster or two would not be totally out of place.
>Cheers...Ed L.
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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