Jump to content
 

Operation of last years of Scottish fish van usage.


C126
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold

Eager to increase the variety of wagons for my 1970's-early 80's S.R. general goods yard, and inspired by Balornock Goods (Rly Modlr, July 2019), I purchased a few 'Light blue' Bachmann 10T Insulated vans recently.

 

Would it be too great a stretching of reality for the purposes of 'Rule 1' to use them like the last Scottish fish van service in the late 1970's?  I was thinking of the detaching of a few vans en route from a train from Shoreham or Newhaven to London, to serve a wholesaler.  If so, do I even have the correct vans?  Were the Scottish wagons ex-Insulfish S.P.V.s instead?  What livery did the S.P.V.s sport (I assume rail blue)?

 

All comments and advice gratefully received; no rush for a reply.  Incidentally, there is a good one-page article in Railway World Annual 1979, p.29, by Alan Jeffreyes, that describes the decline of the traffic to its last days, which might be of interest to some.  Thanks for giving this your consideration.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, Scottish Modeller said:

From memory all the small vans had gone from Fish traffic by the date you refer to.

 

I was wandering around Scotland each year for either Easter or Summer over the period 1973 to 1979 and can only remember the larger, more modern vans in use.

 

There's photographic evidence of fish vans attached to Far North passenger trains as late in 1980. In "Diesels on the Regions - Scottish Region" (Tom Noble, OPC) plate 132 shows a 'blue spot' insulfish van with six Mk1s on the 'Wick Fish' (28th May 1980) and plate 133 shows a similar train with a BR standard fish van at Georgemas Junction (24th September 1980). The caption notes that this kind of traffic was the last of its kind on BR and came to an end in 1981.

 

HTH,

David

Edited by Kylestrome
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, C126 said:

Eager to increase the variety of wagons for my 1970's-early 80's S.R. general goods yard, and inspired by Balornock Goods (Rly Modlr, July 2019), I purchased a few 'Light blue' Bachmann 10T Insulated vans recently.

 

Would it be too great a stretching of reality for the purposes of 'Rule 1' to use them like the last Scottish fish van service in the late 1970's?  I was thinking of the detaching of a few vans en route from a train from Shoreham or Newhaven to London, to serve a wholesaler.  If so, do I even have the correct vans?  Were the Scottish wagons ex-Insulfish S.P.V.s instead?  What livery did the S.P.V.s sport (I assume rail blue)?

 

All comments and advice gratefully received; no rush for a reply.  Incidentally, there is a good one-page article in Railway World Annual 1979, p.29, by Alan Jeffreyes, that describes the decline of the traffic to its last days, which might be of interest to some.  Thanks for giving this your consideration.

The 10t Insulated Meat vans you describe were rarely, if ever, used for fish; they tended to carry frozen foods, such as peas. Those not used for such traffic were used as general merchandise vans. I remember seeing one on fertiliser traffic to West Wales in the early 1970s. Many were branded 'ALE', and dedicated to Guinness traffic.

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Thanks for all your replies.  I appear now to have an additional, unexpected, lineside industry...  Should I use the B.R. blue S.P.V.s, in a general 'trip working' perhaps, or to really 'stretch reality' a handsome Interfrigo van, as per trials in the late 1980's?  Is this at all plausible?  Thanks again.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...