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Insulfish vans


forest2807

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Did any of these remain in white livery and used for fish traffic as late as 1979-81? The instructions of my Parkside Dundas kit say they were mostly out of service/used as stores vans (oil bearing fitted examples) or in parcels traffic as SPV's(roller bearing fitted examples) by this period. I have seen layouts firmly set in the BR blue period running white insulfish vans but wondered if this was modellers licence or specific specialist knowledge?

I'd like to run white Insulfish vans on my Scottish layout set in this period but I'm not sure if I can stretch reality this far.

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The last recorded use of fish vans (and one which survived a good few years after the previous one ceased, if that makes sense) was the Wick fish, until 1981.  Unfortunately the vans that survived latest were the later BR builds.  These were more GWish in appearance than the LNER-inspired variant represented by the Parkside kit, and also had BR clasp brake gear rather than LNER.  Of the few vans in the circuit, it's possible some could have retained white livery, albeit filthy

 

From the old forum:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=35636&p=549773&hilit=fish#p549773

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Cheers for that Ian, and to the OP for revisiting this scaly question. IIRC one of the major culls of fish traffic occurred at the May 1968 Summer timetable change. I'm sure there were others and it dwindled on a line by line/ district by district basis, obviously, but there seem to have been contractions in the old 'common carrier' way of life, based on commodities, that happened at predetermined times. Perhaps I dreamt it, but in the same way that livestock traffic ratcheted down, I'm sure that reference to the Modern Railways etc of the era chronicles the swingeing retrenchment of wet fish (how's that for a Sunday quote!). Unsurprisingly this was latter stage Beeching in its genesis...

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Corroborating the above, on my only ever all-line rover, 30 July 1980, we were bleary-eyed on the 0546 from Inverness to Aberdeen, behind loco 26019, with the formation:

25359, 24580, 1829, 25386, 25369, 81603, 88007. The last of those I noted as "INSULFISH". I may have a grotty 126 print somewhere.

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If you ever find that print, I'd pay a fortune to see it!

Thanks to all for the info and comments btw.

Unfortunately (for both of us??) I searched my scans later, and no sign. I may have been mixing it up with another little Scottish loco photo.

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