THE LITE AND NARROW: Cattle Guard – An Unusual and Interesting Bit of Roadbed Detail About our narrow gauge and branchline columnist
Lew Matt is a published writer, photographer, and illustrator whose work has appeared in many model railroad hobby magazines. Click here to learn more about Lew.
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Page 92 • Issue 11-08 • Aug 2011
Ramblings on Narrow Gauge and Branchline Modeling
I
n our continuing project of looking at modeling fences and railroad rights of ways, it is important to consider how trains can get through a fence but the cattle can’t. Cattle guards were invented in the 19th century to enable trains to safely pass through the fence but not require a person to disembark from the train to open and close a gate. Cattle have cloven hooves and do not like to step on sharp or unstable, upward thrusting objects such as a split rail or an “L” angle iron with the sharp, pointed edges facing up, or a small to medium diameter round
• The Lite and Narrow column, page 1
pipe. The floors of cattle guards can use any horizontal objects laid sideby-side parallel to the rail, that present unstable footing for the bovine. The earliest cattle guards were made from split red oak rails with a triangular cross section about 3” high by 3” wide at the base, laid side-by-side between the rails and spiked to the ties, pointed edge up. Small, round sapling tree trunks about 2” to 3” in diameter and stripped of bark were also used. As the design evolved, steel angle iron and pipe replaced the wood as they last longer and require less maintenance. Today, cattle guards
Figure 1: Cattle guards are a great way to allow the trains through and keep the stock from wandering. They also make an interesting scenic detail, and could be a scene focal point along the right-of-way. are made from precast concrete or U shaped pressed steel sheets with the curve up and resting between the rails like large corrugations. The same flooring material was added to each side and flanked the rails sufficiently to allow wide railroad Continued on page 94 ...
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