BR Fruit vans, when did they stop being used for such traffic?

[TravisM]

I saw a boxed set of Graham Farish Fruit Vans in late bauxite livery at a toy fair today and I was wondering when BR lost the fruit traffic and were they possibly used for any other traffic?  As my layout is set on the S&C from the mid 60's through to the mid/late 80's, would they appeared on the S&C in the the early part of my time frame?

 

Julian Sprott 

[Fat Controller]

I saw a boxed set of Graham Farish Fruit Vans in late bauxite livery at a toy fair today and I was wondering when BR lost the fruit traffic and were they possibly used for any other traffic?  As my layout is set on the S&C from the mid 60's through to the mid/late 80's, would they appeared on the S&C in the the early part of my time frame?

 

Julian Sprott 

They were to be seen in use as parcels vans out of season, even when nominally dedicated to fruit traffic; by the mid 1960s, most fruit traffic would have gone over to road, but the vans would have been used amongst ordinary vanfits for other traffic.

They were popular for seasonal parcels work, as they had removable mesh shelves.

[TravisM]

They were to be seen in use as parcels vans out of season, even when nominally dedicated to fruit traffic; by the mid 1960s, most fruit traffic would have gone over to road, but the vans would have been used amongst ordinary vanfits for other traffic.

They were popular for seasonal parcels work, as they had removable mesh shelves.

 

Any idea when they were last used for any kind traffic?  Would they still been around by the late 70's?

 

Julian Sprott

[Fat Controller]

Any idea when they were last used for any kind traffic?  Would they still been around by the late 70's?

 

Julian Sprott

I'd have said probably mid-1970s, on seasonal animal feed or fertiliser traffic. I certainly remember seeing them at the ICI sidings at Severn Beach, where long rows of assorted vans would await loading; that would have been 1973- 1976.

[Guest]

Southampton Docks was still loading some fruit to BR fruit vans in 1968-9 but even then this traffic was increasingly moving to road hauliers who were seen as more reliable by the shippers.

[Swindon 123]

Any idea when they were last used for any kind traffic?  Would they still been around by the late 70's?

 

Julian Sprott

Some Fruit vans went into departmental use, and were still around in the early 80's.

XDB875188 ZRV [A482A-007] by Paul James, on Flickr

 

XDB875399 ZRV [A482A-006] by Paul James, on Flickr

 

XDB875399 ZRV [A482A-008] by Paul James, on Flickr

 

Paul J.

[hmrspaul]

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brfruitvan Into the 1980s.

 

Paul