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Banana/Fruit Traffic 40's/50's/60's


AndrewG
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This link to a Cambridge University image appears to show a lot of banana vans, although perhaps somebody else can confirm that, it dates from 1964 at Garston (Liverpool). Zooming into the ship unloading in the foreground it is connected to bits of infrastructure labelled Fyffes, and the vans have circular spots on them.

 

https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-GEOGRAPHY-AJN-00015/1

 

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If the yellow spot isn't visible, then the other way of identifying Banana vans is that they have three hinges per door-leaf, against two on most cupboard-doored vans. There are one heck of a lot of Banana Vans in this photo; mainly either LMS-designed or BR Standard ones, but at least two of the older SR sort with the three-centred roof. I'm curious as to what all the Conflats are for; bananas for the Scottish isles, perhaps?

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21 hours ago, WillCav said:

I'm guessing that my two banana vans are not really very realistic - what sort of number of banana vans are more likely and would it be a complete block train or part of a longer mixed train? I model late 40s GW.

Thanks in advance

Will

Depends what they're doing.  In the 1960s Fyffes had a small depot at Lent Rise yard near Taplow and it used to receive a bout half a dozen wagons at a time via the local trip from Slough.  So you can get away with a small number in some circumstances.

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20 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

If the yellow spot isn't visible, then the other way of identifying Banana vans is that they have three hinges per door-leaf, against two on most cupboard-doored vans. There are one heck of a lot of Banana Vans in this photo; mainly either LMS-designed or BR Standard ones, but at least two of the older SR sort with the three-centred roof. I'm curious as to what all the Conflats are for; bananas for the Scottish isles, perhaps?

Hi Brian

 

The containers could be for cargo for or from another ship, stuff to be transported to the West Indies or just plonked there waiting to be loaded or unloaded? It does look like most of the BR's banana vans are present in that photo.

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According to information in An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons Vol 4, When banana traffic was moved from Hull to Southampton, as the port of entry, that the now redundant LNER wagons were hired by the Southern to meet the sudden demand. In a 21 hour period in 1934, 681 wagons were loaded with bananas, and such was the demand that refrigerator vans were converted for summer use for this traffic as they had no steam heating.

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My investigations have identified that the Avonmouth / Birmingham Moor Street banana trains ran in blocks. The wagons were dedicated to the traffic, being insulated and steam heated. There is a critical temperature below which bananas do not ripen and above which they cannot be stopped from ripening. Consequently, the practice was for the bananas to be transferred from of the refrigerator boats to the waiting wagons quickly, (hence the provision of dedicated quayside facilities). The wagon insulation would keep them below the critical temperature until the water stop at Stratford, when the heating would be opened to initiate the ripening process. The time from Stratford to Moor Street and subsequent distribution was critical to ensure that "just ripe" bananas were on sale at the greengrocers. Banana trains were always assured of a clear road.

Edited by nigel newling
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1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Depends what they're doing.  In the 1960s Fyffes had a small depot at Lent Rise yard near Taplow and it used to receive a bout half a dozen wagons at a time via the local trip from Slough.  So you can get away with a small number in some circumstances.

 

Thanks Stationmaster,

That's really useful - and will give me an excuse to not have an entire train of banana vans.

Will

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2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Depends what they're doing.  In the 1960s Fyffes had a small depot at Lent Rise yard near Taplow and it used to receive a bout half a dozen wagons at a time via the local trip from Slough.  So you can get away with a small number in some circumstances.

When I saw Barnstaple and Warminster, back in the mid-1970s, each held perhaps three wagons.

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5 hours ago, Tony Cane said:

According to information in An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons Vol 4, When banana traffic was moved from Hull to Southampton, as the port of entry, that the now redundant LNER wagons were hired by the Southern to meet the sudden demand. In a 21 hour period in 1934, 681 wagons were loaded with bananas, and such was the demand that refrigerator vans were converted for summer use for this traffic as they had no steam heating.

 

As I said above, it would appear that some/all (??) of the vans had NE replaced by SR

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5 hours ago, WillCav said:

That's really useful - and will give me an excuse to not have an entire train of banana vans.

Will

Whereas I'm looking for an excuse for one or two at the end of a South Wales BLT.  Gonna be tough to resolve Rule 1 with this one, but I already have fruit traffic to a distribution depot off scene further down the branch (so the vans appear at Cwmdimbath on the pickup having been collected on the way up) and a frozen meat depot on the industrial estate.

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On 10/11/2019 at 02:50, The Johnster said:

 Bananas were also imported through Southampton, Tilbury, Liverpool, and Glasgow.  

Another port that imported bananas was Preston in the ships Windward Islands and Leeward Islands, from about 1950 but the traffic was lost to Barry Docks in the 1960s.

 

Preston Dock lost its banana trade when its main supplier (Geest) began to use larger ships that couldn’t access Preston. Silting of the channel of the River Ribble was an inherent problem throughout the dock's existence up to closure in 1981.  (https://ribblesteam.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/why-did-preston-port-close/)

 

More information on Bananas by Rail may be found at https://ribblesteam.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/bananas-by-rail/

 

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The Fyffes shed at Exeter Central has already been mentioned, it is seen here on the right of this view of Exeter Central goods yard.

By 1985 now being used by Premier Transport who acted as agents for BR and unloaded traffic received off the Speedlink Network at that date.

1129406493_scan0027(2).jpg.79e06e519080a2c0483be362a93100f6.jpg

Exeter Central goods yard, Fyffes shed on the right.  17/7/85.

 

cheers

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  • 4 weeks later...

The value of bananas seems to have just gone, err, bananas...

 

First,
 

Quote

 

An “art installation” which consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall has sold for $120,000 at an art fair in Miami, Florida.

 

Organizers at the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition said two editions of the ‘work’, created by “artist” Maurizio Cattelan each sold for $120,000 while the price of a third edition has been raised to $150,000.

 

 

banana.PNG.7a163dbb7c96add769a565750fe113e1.PNG

 

But then,
 

Quote

 

An artwork of an overripe banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000 (£91,000) has been eaten by a separate performance artist.

The artwork, titled Comedian, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was on display at the international gallery Perrotin at Art Basel in Miami.

Three buyers bought the limited-edition pieces of the banana art this week.

But performance artist David Datuna pulled it from the wall, peeled it and devoured it on Saturday.

 

 

There's always a critic.

 

 

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