Milk Train Brake Vans

[MalcolmInN]

Sorry, no higher res available. The consist looks like 8 tankers, a collett full brake, another tanker and 2  Siphons. I cannot make out the Siphons very well but they might be Siphon Gs.

Ah thanks,
I was expecting a brake at the rear end and was (in my innocence!) getting confusled !
/
But in other words - a lot! of milk !!

[Karhedron]

I was expecting a brake at the rear end and was (in my innocence!) getting confusled !

Like passenger stock, milk tankers were continuously braked so the actual brake vehicle could be anywhere in the formation. I believe that some effort was made to keep it near the rear of full trains as this provided a smoother ride for the guard but I cannot find a reference for that at the moment.

But in other words - a lot! of milk !!

Yup, that's 2700 gallons in the tankers alone plus whatever was in the siphons.

A full milk tanker weighed 28 tons. No wonder it took a big engine like a castle to shift a rake of those at sufficient speed to reach London before the contents curdled. 

[ohlavache]

As a break during my work, I've searched for pictures of milk trains and I've found these.

The one I prefer:

Photo by Andrew Shapland, https://www.flickr.com/photos/articdriver/16782162218/

Two more from the same photographer:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/articdriver/16989007822/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/articdriver/16360306703/

Three from Tim Symons:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38178270@N07/4492141555/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38178270@N07/7160944338/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38178270@N07/7160904100/

One from Crayzy Ray:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/crayzy_ray/7570065586/

One from David Pond:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/68415577@N03/9530995375/

And I would definitely recommend to check the other pictures from Andrew Shapland and Crayzy Ray. They are fantastic.
Enjoy ! 
Have a nice evening.

[joe cassidy]

I think these photos are mostly recent, taken on preserved railways.

Best regards,


Joe

[ScottyStitch]

I was expecting a brake at the rear end and was (in my innocence!) getting confusled !

Like passenger stock, milk tankers were continuously braked so the actual brake vehicle could be anywhere in the formation. I believe that some effort was made to keep it near the rear of full trains as this provided a smoother ride for the guard but I cannot find a reference for that at the moment.

But in other words - a lot! of milk !!

Yup, that's 2700 gallons in the tankers alone plus whatever was in the siphons.

A full milk tanker weighed 28 tons. No wonder it took a big engine like a castle to shift a rake of those at sufficient speed to reach London before the contents curdled. 

And an A4 to/from Aberdeen......

[painbrook]

a recently bought book has a photo of a milk train, it shows 14 tankers with the brake in the middle. the brake was a 'Stove R' and the loco in charge was the 'City of Birmingham'.
Another photo shows a south Wales 'Blue Pullman' in Liverpool on a 'Grand National' special from Swansea. Both dated 1964. cheers john.

[Karhedron]

And an A4 to/from Aberdeen......

Yup, the A4s did Stirling sterling work north of the border.

60004 WILLIAM WHITELAW near Aberdeen with the 1843 milk train to Perth 17 April 1964 by Charlie Verrall, on Flickr

[ScottyStitch]

And an A4 to/from Aberdeen......

Yup, the A4s did Stirling sterling work north of the border.

60004 WILLIAM WHITELAW near Aberdeen with the 1843 milk train to Perth 17 April 1964 by Charlie Verrall, on Flickr

From what I've been able to gather, the Milk trains to Aberdeen were from the "Milk Fields" of Dumfries-shire, largely.

[Karhedron]

From what I've been able to gather, the Milk trains to Aberdeen were from the "Milk Fields" of Dumfries-shire, largely.

Thanks, that is an interesting bit of info. 

Information on milk trains is pretty sparse. Only the flows from the south west into London are documented in any kind of detail. The Scottish flows are barely mentioned and there was some traffic from east anglia into London as well. Also, there was a suprising amount of milk travelling between rural plants.

In the some months, excess production was normally sent to facilities such as Bailey Gate on the S&D and Appleby in Cumbria for converting into cheese and other processed dairy products. I have never seen these mentioned in print and only found out about them from deciphering the carriage working plans. Doubtless there are other flows I have not stumbled across yet.

[Agrippa]

url]60004 WILLIAM WHITELAW near Aberdeen with the 1843 milk train to Perth 17 April 1964 by Charlie Verrall, on Flickr

Jeez, that milk was 120 years old when it arrived in Perth........................

[Papyrus]

 

[johnlambert]

From what I've been able to gather, the Milk trains to Aberdeen were from the "Milk Fields" of Dumfries-shire, largely.

Thanks, that is an interesting bit of info. 

Information on milk trains is pretty sparse. Only the flows from the south west into London are documented in any kind of detail. The Scottish flows are barely mentioned and there was some traffic from east anglia into London as well. Also, there was a suprising amount of milk travelling between rural plants.

In the some months, excess production was normally sent to facilities such as Bailey Gate on the S&D and Appleby in Cumbria for converting into cheese and other processed dairy products. I have never seen these mentioned in print and only found out about them from deciphering the carriage working plans. Doubtless there are other flows I have not stumbled across yet.

Agreed about info on milk trains being sparse.  I've been trying to find out if there were any rail-served dairies in Birmingham that might have been served by traffic originating in the South Warwickshire area.  The only milk trains in the WTT (circa 1963, from memory) are the ones bound for London so there probably wasn't any milk traffic unless it went as part of another working.

[Karhedron]

I haven't been able to find any references to milk inbound towards Birmingham. The rural areas around it seem to have dispatched their milk towards London such as this one at Egginton (although it has lost it rail connection by the time of this photo in 1968).



I suspect that most cities apart from London received their milk by road from the surrounding areas. I know of very few rail-served bottling plants outside London.

[ScottyStitch]

Only slightly OT, some countries still transport milk by rail, in large quantities. The land of my birth being one. Hopefully the OP won't mind me posting the following:


http://youtu.be/aH0Bq1hqLA4

[NinOz]

Slightly off topic.
How did they remove the milk from the tankers?  Pipes at track level, flexible hoses, stand pipes on a platform?
Been searching for pictures of the rail side of milk depots to model but no luck yet.

CFJ