Portal:Trains/Featured article/Week 38, 2005
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In railroad terminology, a stock car is a type of rolling stock that is designed (as the name implies) for carrying livestock to market. Stock cars are designed to transport the animals while they are still alive ("on-the-hoof"), rather than after they have been slaughtered at a butcher shop or meatpacking facility. Generally, a stock car resembles a boxcar with slats missing in the car's side (and sometimes end) panels for ventilation; stock cars can be single-level for large animals such as cattle or horses, or they can have two or three levels for smaller animals such as sheep, pigs, and poultry. Specialized types of stock cars have been built to haul live fish and shellfish and circus animals such as camels and elephants. Until the 1880s, when the Mather Stock Car Company and others introduced "more humane" stock cars, loss rates could be quite high as the animals were hauled over long distances. Improved technology and faster shipping times have greatly reduced losses.
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