Also we have to consider the pathetic, dilapidated state of rail cars and track in Missouri and Kansas following 4 years of Civil War. Vast numbers of cars were half burned, broken down, abandoned on sidings. As is the case with any devastation following a war, these vehicles would have been quickly repurposed, cobbled together, mixed and matched, with lots of ingenuity, for immediately practical use. So, I very much agree with Pallalin on this
Another point worth mentioning, is that one cannot confuse the born-in-the-wild murderous Longhorns of the Mexican and Texas Plains with their descendants 10 years later, who were born and raised on huge ranches in Texas and New Mexico, where the young bull calves were branded, often de-horned, and neutered at age 3 months to become much gentler steers. The large heathy cows on those ranches were retained as breeding stock, not shipped away to become meat. So, the Longhorns riding trains in that later era were steers and old decrepit cows. They could probably be loaded into closed cars with some ease.
And remember, those wild Longhorns thrived in the deserts of Texas and Mexico, and were quite accustomed to going without water for 2 or 3 days. A train trip from central Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri, would have been what? 24 hours or less?
