Cattle wagons

[austinbob]

I'm thinking of modelling a few cattle wagons with cattle in (N gauge ones of course!!).
How many cattle would normally travel in each wagon do you think?
Answers on a post card to... sorry wrong format.
Answers on this forum gratefully received.

[Karhedron]

Cattle wagons had a capacity of 12 tons so you can work back from there. A full grown Holstein cow weighs an average of about 1,500 lbs (that's nearly 1 ton). Based on that I would guess that 12-15 cows per wagon would be plausible.

[austinbob]

Cattle wagons had a capacity of 12 tons so you can work back from there. A full grown Holstein cow weighs an average of about 1,500 lbs (that's nearly 1 ton). Based on that I would guess that 12-15 cows per wagon would be plausible.

Thanks Karhedron - I'm off to do a search for N gauge cows!!

[joe cassidy]

12 cows in a cattle van seems a lot to me.

Best regards,


Joe

[austinbob]

12 cows in a cattle van seems a lot to me.

Best regards,


Joe

To be honest Joe I'm not sure how big an N gauge cow is!! Once I find a reasonably priced source I'll by a dozen and see how they might fit into a Peco cattle wagon.

[port perran]

12 cows in a cattle van seems a lot to me.

Best regards,
Joe

On the other hand, I guess they had to be loaded quite tightly to avoid damage to each other (eg rough shunting).
I reckon 10-12 friesians per wagon isn't going to be far off.

[bridgiesimon]

Taking into consideration the thickness of N gauge model cattle wagons, the likelihood that model cattle will be over scale size and the lack of vision through the slats, I would think you could easily get away with loading 2-3 in each and it looking fine. Looking across at my layout, with some cows on it, I would be very surprised if you could fit anything like 10-12 in a wagon!

Best wishes
Simon

[austinbob]

Taking into consideration the thickness of N gauge model cattle wagons, the likelihood that model cattle will be over scale size and the lack of vision through the slats, I would think you could easily get away with loading 2-3 in each and it looking fine. Looking across at my layout, with some cows on it, I would be very surprised if you could fit anything like 10-12 in a wagon!

Best wishes
Simon

You could be right. I think the best plan is to buy a few cows and see how they fit. If I buy too many I'm quite partial to nice steak, beef stew or burger so nothing to lose really.
Thanks all...

[Newportnobby]

Farish now do packs of cows, Bob (ref 379-341)

[trkilliman]

Farish now do packs of cows, Bob (ref 379-341)

I'm sure they are nice, but they make fillet steak look decidedly cheap.

I would think if they are part hidden in a cattle wagon then some of the cheapy Chinese ones on ebay may be adequate.

[Newportnobby]

Farish now do packs of cows, Bob (ref 379-341)

I'm sure they are nice, but they make fillet steak look decidedly cheap.

I would think if they are part hidden in a cattle wagon then some of the cheapy Chinese ones on ebay may be adequate.

I believe Noch are even pricier
I bought some from Country Scenes but they seem horribly underscale although this wouldn't matter so much if they were inside the wagons.

[Karhedron]

This photo from the NRM is quite useful. It shows what looks like around 10-12 cattle per pen. Assuming that each pen holds one wagon-load of cattle, it looks like a by-the-weight estimate is in the right ball-park.

[MalcolmInN]

How many cattle would normally travel in each wagon
Answers on a post card to... sorry wrong format.

It depends , , Dexter(see below) or Charolais 

I think the best plan is to buy a few cows
,
quite partial to nice steak, beef stew or burger so nothing to lose really.

Steady on Bob, that can be a slippery slope,
we started with a few chicken and rabbits,
but,
may I introduce you to Treacle & Honey our two dexter [long since gone to fillet, sirloin and topside  ]

and for scale here is a sheep in the background :

The sheep is supposed to be this side of the electric, but there's always one to confound !

[trkilliman]

I have some rather nice Preiser cows, so I have nothing to beef about and will not cause a rump-us.

Been working on some 2mm cattle wagon bodies I assembled a couple of years back...LNER, LMS, and B.R. examples. I had brush painted them with Phoenix enamel bauxite. Now having an airbrush I wanted to strip them and use the airbrush. Cadged some Superdrug acetone nail varnish remover from my daughter and had a trial run (payback for Dad's taxi used frequently lol)  It worked a treat but did require a second coating. Airbrushed them with Howe's acrylic, and what a difference...so much more detail shows through. I'm pretty good with a paintbrush after 50+ years of using them, but the airbrush wins on this sort of job.

[austinbob]

Ah.. But they don't look very N gauge!!

They are good looking animals though. I'd just luv to give them a good hug..