Cattle wagon

A cattle wagon is an everyday expression for a railway wagon designed to carry livestock. The American equivalent is called a stock car. A cattle wagon is one type of covered goods wagon, although cattle have also been transported in open goods wagons.[1]

Early example of a cattle wagon preserved on the Severn Valley Railway

Wagons with special bays or stalls were only used for the transport of racing horses whilst small livestock, such as sheep, goats, poultry and rabbits were transported in livestock wagons with slatted sides and/or hutches. Originally high-sided wagons were also used to move cattle as well as horses and pigs. For the transport of military horses in goods wagons, tethering rings were fitted.[2] The transportation of large and small animals required special fittings – air vents, means of tethering, drinking facilities and viewing ports – in order to avoid quantitative and qualitative losses.[3] Even troops were transported in covered goods wagons.

Use for deportation
Main article: Holocaust trains
People being deported in cattle wagons cars during World War II

Given their dimensions and features, cattle wagons have been used as vehicles for forced mass transfer and deportation of people. Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the Deutsche Reichsbahn national railway system under the strict supervision of the German Nazis and their allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holocaust, to the German Nazi concentration, forced labour, and extermination camps.

Cattle wagons were used for forced settlement and population transfer in the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century.

Following the end of World War II in Europe, ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia in cattle wagons.

See also

References
  1. Tierbeförderung at Zeno.org. Article by: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens (Encyclopaedia of the Railway), 2nd edition, 1912–1923, Vol. 9, S. 319ff.
  2. Güterwagen at Zeno.org. Article by: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens (Encyclopaedia of the Railway), 2nd edition, 1912–1923, Vol. 6, S. 19, 26f
  3. Güterwagen at Zeno.org. Article by: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens (Encyclopaedia of the Railway), 2nd edition, 1912–1923, Vol. 6, S. 28f
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