Patent 106,888, both issued on August 30, 1870) were first used in 1870 on shipments between Chicago and New York City. The first patented stock car designs that actually saw use on American railroads were created by Zadok Street. Patent 106,887 showing a cutaway view of Zadok Street's stock car design Other states such as Ohio and Massachusetts soon followed with similar legislation, though effective federal laws were not enacted until the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. However, double-deck stock cars had been experimented with as early as the 1830s on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England. Some railroads stepped in with their own new designs at this time, such as the Pennsylvania Railroad's class KA stock car, a design first published in 1869 which featured a removable second deck for transporting pigs or sheep. In 1869, Illinois passed the first laws to limit the animals' time on board, and required them to be given 5 hours' rest for every 28 in transit. Claims were made that the meat of neglected animals was unfit for human consumption. When the railroads and cattle industry failed to act quickly enough to correct these perceived deficiencies, the government and even the general public went into action. The railroads generally preferred to use standard boxcars because that type of car proved much more versatile in the number of different types of loads it could carry. Most railroads resisted the call for as long as possible from shippers for improvements to cars specifically designed to carry livestock. However, even with livestock handlers and faster schedules, many stock cars were still listed on company rosters with open roofs and very little in the way of improved conditions for the livestock themselves. Particular attention must be given to stock unaccompanied by attendants." In absence of special instructions, hog shipments should be watered as necessary. Wishes of attendants regarding care of livestock should be ascertained and assistance rendered in caring for such shipments. . A 1948 rulebook for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, for example, lists only one rule regarding livestock: Railroad operating rules for livestock and handlers that rode the trains were very limited, as the handlers were private contractors or employees of the shippers, not employed by the railroads. These early passenger accommodations were the predecessors of the later "drovers caboose" designs that were used until the mid-20th century. The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company followed this practice as early as 1839, and the Erie Railroad advertised that livestock handlers could ride with their herds in special cabooses. Some of the early railroad companies attempted to alleviate the problems by adding passenger cars to the trains that hauled early stock cars. Increased train speeds reduced overall transit times, though not enough to offset the deleterious conditions the animals were forced to endure. A certain percentage of animal deaths on the way to market was even considered normal (6% for cattle and 9% for sheep on average, according to a congressional inquiry ), and carcasses of dead animals were often disposed of along the tracks to be devoured by scavengers, though some were sold to glue factories or unscrupulous butchers. The suffering of animals in transit as a result of hunger, thirst, and injury, was considered by many to be inherent to the shipping process, as was the loss in weight during shipment. Upon arrival at the local processing plant, livestock were either slaughtered by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butcher shops for retail sale, smoked, or packed for shipment in barrels of salt. Driving cattle across the plains led to tremendous weight loss, and a number of animals were typically lost along the way. Getting food animals to market required herds to be driven hundreds of miles to railheads in the Midwest, where they were loaded into stock cars and transported eastward to regional processing centers. Stock cars make up part of an eastbound Santa Fe freight train in March, 1943
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