• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Search results

  1. K

    Milk churns

    You are right about Vauxhall. There was a Unigate bottling plant opposite the station. Those pipes on the platform used to run down under the arches and across the road to the bottling plant. Steam lines ran back the other way to clean out the tanks. Most bottling plants received milk from a...
  2. K

    Milk churns

    I am currently writing a book about milk traffic on the railways and I can shed light on some of these questions. I don't claim that everything is definitive, one of the things I have discovered in my research is that milk traffic was rather poorly documented at the time and many records have...
  3. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Never one to ignore a challenge I did indeed put pen to paper. The result was not a book but at least an article on modelling milk trains and facilities in the December 2012 issue of Railway modeller. Baby steps.... :wink: http://www.pecopublications.co.uk/Railway-Modeller-December-2012.html
  4. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    A few more photos that may be of interest. Melksham was not directly connected to the railway as far as I can tell but I think it still dispatched milk by rail for a while. And here is a nice shot of a T14 on a Vauxhall milk train around nationalisation. This is the earliest photo I have...
  5. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    There used to be demountable road-rail milk tankers, you can see one in this shot here. Part of the problem was one of reliability. Whilst railways did their best to treat milk as urgent, there were still plenty of incidents where a failed loco meant that milk arrive late and spoiled or...
  6. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Not bottled milk, no. "Pintas" had no insulation so once bottled they relied on being refrigerated to keep them fresh. Bottled milk usually went out on milk floats for delivery to people's doorstep. There were plenty of bottling plants outside London to serve their own local areas. The...
  7. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    That is right. The MMB retained a small fleet of tankers and gave them a fairly spiffy refurbishment. They lived on the siding at Lostwithiel for a while and can be seen nicely here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffsimages/6933195671/
  8. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    I have found some pictures of the creamery at Pont Llanio. Not in the best of shape now. http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=18188 http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/91430/images/MILK+FACTORY%2C+PONT+LLANIO/ http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/535124
  9. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Another one for the Album here. The United Dairies depot in Forest Hill was converted from a former brewery that had been used by the Air Training Corps. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegrindlay/393322873/in/set-72157594541194225/lightbox/
  10. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Here is an interesting one I have come across. This is the former United Dairies depot at Finchley Central (now in use as a car wash). The line to Mill Hill East is the lower one while the High Barnet Branch is towards the top of the picture. I do not know if this facility ever had a rail...
  11. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Yes, they dropped down through the platform into the bottling plant which was located in the arches underneath.
  12. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    I have come across a few more pictures to share. The first is milk tankers being unloaded at Vauxhall. Next we have the milk dock at West Ealing. And then the Express Dairies facility at Morden. This is parhaps the most interesting as it shows a great view of the covered part of the...
  13. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    There is a shot here of the Unigate depot at Ilford. It would appears to still be in use in 1978 judging by the tankers in residence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12064036@N04/3497767650/
  14. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Yes, thanks a lot for such a good list of facilities. Further to earlier comments I have tried to ge in touch with some of these companies (or their successors) to enquire if they have historical records that I could research. Hopefully now that the holidays are drawing to a close I may get...
  15. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    I can answer that one. Due to its perishable nature, milk needed to be run at express passenger speeds. 4-wheel tankers were introduced briefly in the 30s but they ran too roughly, churning the milk en-route. They were quickly rebuilt as 6-wheelers and newer tanks followed the same pattern...
  16. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    The idea has crossed my mind however with a full time job and two small boys it would definitely be a long term project. The other problem is I have no idea how to go about researching a book or getting it published. Thus far my research has consisted of posts like this in the hope of getting...
  17. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Very true, I guess it takes someone with the skill to write to take an interest in the subject.
  18. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Thanks, that is a good idea. Industries are usually good self-promoters and may well have some pics, even if rail enthusiasts do not have many. That would be great if you find it. Photos osf St Ives usually show that station to good advantage (unsuprisingly) but rarely give more than a fuzzy...
  19. K

    Milk on the rails: Looking for photos of rail-served facilities

    Hello, I am interested in milk trains and the infrastructure that existed to handle them, both creameries at the country-end and bottling plants in the towns. This is a general appeal for help in finding photos of the buildings that were involved in this traffic as they seem to be rather...

Top