Courtesy Little Current-Howland Museum Sheguiandah, Ontario
The "Turkey" Car

At one time Manitoulin Island was famous for its turkeys.  The island was one of the largest Ontario producers of turkeys, which were shipped all over Ontario.  The two pictures on this page and the one on the AER Little Current - Station page show the rolling stock used to ship the live fowl.  The cars appear to have been especially built for the turkey trade.  These cars were all likely privately owned.  From the picture on the station page we can see that they had open sides, much like a conventional stock cars, but were filled with eight levels of crates containing the birds.  The sides were covered with curtains during the winter to shelter the birds.  This would have been necessary since turkeys are actually quite delicate birds and do not adapt well to rapid environmental changes.  How the loading and unloading of these cars was done remains a mystery.

	Courtesy Little Current-Howland Museum Sheguiandah, Ontario
	Shipping Turkeys at Little Current

 
The bottom of the car shown on the Station page is lettered “LIVE POULTRY TRA”(in?).  Underneath the small window in the centre door are the initials “L.P.”…  Above the door is a large “N”.  Unfortunately the photo only shows part of all of these marks.  The two photos on this page, which are of the same car reveal a little more.  Over the centre door of this car is the letters “DUMA” and the reporting marks “LPCX”.  The car number is either 1538 or 1630.   The cloth sign on the right says “Manitoulin Turkeys” on the top and “A.J. Wagg M…” on the bottom.

Perhaps someone with further knowledge of either this type of rolling stock, or the shipment of turkeys from Manitoulin Island will write and share that knowledge with us.