Racing Pigeons & Rail

[Calthrop]

I recall seeing in some illustrated book dedicated to the Irish narrow gauge; a photograph, with caption, taken in the last couple of years of the Ballymoney -- Ballycastle line (closed 1950): showing racing pigeons just arrived on the train at Ballycastle, being released by the station staff, to fly home to County Cork. One can be inclined to rejoice to encounter anything re Ireland from those times, involving any sort of friendship / co-operation between North and South -- picture tending to be got (no doubt somewhat exaggerated) of extreme bigotry / mutual hatred on both sides: to the effect of "no damned Papist -- or, respectively, heretic -- pigeons here, thank you !"; and those feelings being reflected in what was actually done / abstained from being done.

 

[coppercapped]

My father was a true racing pigeon fancier, but the his enthusiasm didn't transfer with the set of genes that I received!

He had a loft with some fifty birds at the end of our garden and our summer routine was fixed by the racing calendar - the old birds in the first part of the summer followed by the young bird races. He belonged to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon federation and races were held from the south coast of England - Weymouth being one such place I remember - as well as from Rennes in France and San Sebastian in Spain. The railway connection was that I can remember him sending birds in wicker baskets to stations along the south coast by parcels service for release and collecting the empty cages a day or so later from Goods Inwards. The staff at the destination stations used to water the birds before release by hooking a drinking trough on the front of the baskets which had bars allowing the birds to see out and poke their heads through.

For the National races birds were collected at strategic stations around the country and taken by train to, I suppose, a port and transferred to ships for Rennes and San Sebastian. In our case the collection point was at Oxford and the trains were placed in the old LNWR station of Rewley Road. To get there my father put the baskets on the back seat of the car and drove them to Oxford. The bird received their rubber racing rings there and were placed in baskets in the train. We brought our baskets back home in the car.

Apart from any changes in laws covering transport of animals one of the factors which killed the traffic was the development of larger lorry trailers which could then carry the birds to their destination without transhipment and made the release easier as essentially the side of the trailer opened and all the birds could be released simultaneously. This was only of importance for big races with thousands of birds, for local races with only a few dozen baskets the minute of so difference between the first and the last being released was not significant.

And these birds are fast! Velocities of a mile a minute from Weymouth to Reading was a good rule of thumb and one could reckon some 40-45mph from San Sebastian allowing for some hours overnight rest.

 

[WesternLancer]

My father was a true racing pigeon fancier, but the his enthusiasm didn't transfer with the set of genes that I received!

He had a loft with some fifty birds at the end of our garden and our summer routine was fixed by the racing calendar - the old birds in the first part of the summer followed by the young bird races. He belonged to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon federation and races were held from the south coast of England - Weymouth being one such place I remember - as well as from Rennes in France and San Sebastian in Spain. The railway connection was that I can remember him sending birds in wicker baskets to stations along the south coast by parcels service for release and collecting the empty cages a day or so later from Goods Inwards. The staff at the destination stations used to water the birds before release by hooking a drinking trough on the front of the baskets which had bars allowing the birds to see out and poke their heads through.

For the National races birds were collected at strategic stations around the country and taken by train to, I suppose, a port and transferred to ships for Rennes and San Sebastian. In our case the collection point was at Oxford and the trains were placed in the old LNWR station of Rewley Road. To get there my father put the baskets on the back seat of the car and drove them to Oxford. The bird received their rubber racing rings there and were placed in baskets in the train. We brought our baskets back home in the car.

Apart from any changes in laws covering transport of animals one of the factors which killed the traffic was the development of larger lorry trailers which could then carry the birds to their destination without transhipment and made the release easier as essentially the side of the trailer opened and all the birds could be released simultaneously. This was only of importance for big races with thousands of birds, for local races with only a few dozen baskets the minute of so difference between the first and the last being released was not significant.

And these birds are fast! Velocities of a mile a minute from Weymouth to Reading was a good rule of thumb and one could reckon some 40-45mph from San Sebastian allowing for some hours overnight rest.

Thanks - I enjoyed these insights, along with all the others posted!

 

[edwin_m]

Arthur Ransome in his book "Pigeon Post" (set in the early 1930s) recounts how the children had trained pigeons to carry messages. One of the first illustrations in the book is of two of them releasing a pigeon, sent by train to "Strickland Junction", in reality Oxenholme station, before they travelled down the branch line to Windermere! In this case they walked clear of the overall station roof at the suggestion of the porter before releasing the pigeon.

Probably didn't happen once it was electrified...

I recall reading of some companies having dedicated pigeon vans. Did these have some kind of mechanism so all the compartments were opened at the same time?

Larger animals could only be handled at stations and goods depots with the appropriate facilities (cattle/sheep pens, horse docks, etc.). Smaller animals were effectively treated as parcels, so could be handled at just about any station with a sufficient level of staffing to handle parcels: small halts with only part-time staffing probably couldn’t handle them. As BR gradually cut staffing levels the number of locations handling them would have slowly fallen, probably ending up as being pretty the same as those with parcel offices. (From memory, although I only came in at the end.)

The report into the 1969 Morpeth accident notes that there was a live pig in a crate in the leading van. At least it was live beforehand, it doesn't record whether it survived.

 

[Rover]

I remember seeing (and hearing) perforated boxes of live chicks stacked on platform at my then local station, New Milton, end of 1970s or 1980s, got loaded in guards van along with other red star parcels, so perhaps they went red star.

You're correct they did go Red Star as "Livestock", they did until at least 1988, I turned up at Chesterfield parcels office at 06.00 one morning for the day turn and was greeted by 30 odd tiny yellow balls of fluff chirping away and running about here there and everywhere as the boxes had been damaged, we rounded them up I but was still finding the odd one at dinner time! They would be collected by a local farmer. We put the "oddments" in a cardboard box and the farmer came back later for them. It's a happy memory but I did feel sorry for them.

 

[Wychwood93]

In a book by Colin Boocock, Bournemouth and Southampton steam 1947-1967 (ISBN 0 7110 1461 2), there is, on page 51, a photograph of a down pigeon train approaching Millbrook. A 9F at the head of 15 bogie vans.

 

[Caboose Class]

Somewhat off-topic, but at the Paris Summer Olympics in 1900, pigeon racing was a contested sport. The first (and last) time that live animals featured in the Olympics.

 

[johnnychips]

Somewhat off-topic, but at the Paris Summer Olympics in 1900, pigeon racing was a contested sport. The first (and last) time that live animals featured in the Olympics.

Show jumping?

 

[Caboose Class]

Show jumping?

Show jumping?

Quite correct - I should have added with no human involvement.