The Milk train

When we think of milk traffic we tend to think of the West Country. I suppose this is down to the fact that this area clung in to rail borne milk traffic when other areas had migrated across to the road. Branches like the Culm Valley remained open almost exclusively for this traffic into the 70s and short diesel hauled formations are burnt on the imagination.

This wasn’t always the case, a quick look through every pre-grouping company’s wagon diagram book will reveal specialist wagons and NPC stock purely for the purpose of transporting milk. Milk rapidly became a valuable revenue source for many early branch lines. Some branches even had small loading platforms adjacent to the tracks in remote locations for loading milk. An example of this was at Apesford on the Leek to Waterhouse line.

The High Peak lines were no different. References in The LNWR Recalled (Edward Talbot) reveals in a chapter by Michael Bentley entitled “Buxton Engines & Man”:-

“Milk traffic had become quite important, and after a direct connection to the Cromford & High Peak Railway (CHPR) was opened, Buxton men used to go with empty vans to Longcliffe at 4am each morning and return with loaded vans working direct to Manchester. CHPR men were only allowed to work in daylight hours which is why Buxton men were used for this job. Later as an economy the vans were attached to the 9.20 a.m. passenger to Manchester”.

The question is what form did this train take? The early start doesn’t make photographic evidence likely. There are however a couple of clues.

An elderly Crewe Goods tank (a tank conversion of the Crewe Goods type) was fitted with a vacuum brake for this traffic. The engine was built in 1856 and not scrapped until 1907, some great photo’s exist of this engine (3054) posed with a new Whale Precursor tank.

Passenger brakes operated the line in seeming contravention of the ban on the carriage of passengers. Many early photos show a passenger brake attached to the back of goods train with an unusual number of non-railway staff around. So it is possible that an old 4 wheeled coach was used.

More information is given in LNWR Wagons Volume 2 “In 1891 seven refrigerator vans built on the West Coast Joint Stock (WCJS) account were added to the LNW stock. It is likely these were diagram 46. Two were allocated to the Buxton and High Peak line labelled “Ladmanlow Branch”.

This is interesting as in “A Register of West Coast Joint Stock” it is stated that D46 Refrigerator vans weren’t built for the WCJS until a batch of 50 in 1893.

At present for Three Shire’s Head I am proposing to run a D46 and 4w North Staffs Milk wagon. Both now built and just waiting minor detailing.

The North Staffs wagon is Meteor kit. The steps were supposed to be mounted on brass wire but I decided to try and drill some brass strip for added security. I also formed the rivet plate for the solebars that wasn’t represented. All that remains is to finish the brakes, these are only basic in the kit but a hour or so with some brass strip should make something more representative.

The D46 van is a Gladiator kit. It was enjoyable to build and took a surprising amount of time with detailed overlays and half round trim to add. I’ve built it as per the instructions but only added the hand brake to one side (as per photos in the era modelled). I still need to make up some new vacuum hoses as those provided with the kit mounted on the 4th plank up, not the third plank shown in photos. This is odd as the rest of the kit is spot on.

The kit was a Christmas present 3 years ago, I took one look and put it in a cupboard until I had enough skill to meet the demands of the kit. I’m pleased I did as I would have loused it up three years ago. It has turned out pretty well now. It’s very satisfying to see evidence of your skills developing.

I have fitted the LNWR number plates. If these we built on the WCJS accounts it probably should have WCJS oval plates instead. I am also unsure of the wording to apply. All photographs show these D46 vans labelled “to be returned to Liverpool” however the LNWR Wagon’s entry implies this should be changed to Ladmanlow or maybe Buxton. Presumably they would have been re-iced in Manchester.