Beer Delivery by Rail?

[Ray Von]

I finally modelled a pub on my layout - I decided to go down the "Flight of Fancy" route, rather than be restricted by realism.  It occurs to me now, that the way my pub is built - it would be ideally suited to receive it's beer by rail, maybe I could model a large sliding door in the base?  If not in the era it occupies (early 1980's) then maybe in it's past. 

[Michael Hodgson]

That seems to be a running line not a siding.  So what do you propose?   A tank wagon they're going to siphon the beer out of? 

An open wagon in a train stopping in section and blocking the main line for half an hour while mine host and his cellarman shove full barrels off and empties back on?   All very improbable but you did say it was a flight of fancy.  It's your railway.

 

I once worked a large O gauge garden railway which had wagons with frames which could carry a tin can on its side.  Towards the end of the running the train ran loaded and the operators received telephone instructions that one wagon had to be emptied at each station.  No drugs and alcohol tests for signalmen on that line 

[Ray Von]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

That seems to be a running line not a siding.  So what do you propose?   A tank wagon they're going to siphon the beer out of? 

An open wagon in a train stopping in section and blocking the main line for half an hour while mine host and his cellarman shove full barrels off and empties back on?   All very improbable but you did say it was a flight of fancy.  It's your railway.

 

I once worked a large O gauge garden railway which had wagons with frames which could carry a tin can on its side.  Towards the end of the running the train ran loaded and the operators received telephone instructions that one wagon had to be emptied at each station.  No drugs and alcohol tests for signalmen on that line 

I like your ideas!  It's really just a "what if?" bit of fun at the moment, I don't think I'll act on it - but anyway, the section of track forks and leads to a siding so no problem blocking it really. 

I thought maybe that "once upon a time" the pub could've been served by rail, perhaps in the early days of steam...

I'd be interested to find out if this practice was at all widespread, or has road transport always held the monopoly...?

[ISW]

2 hours ago, Ray Von said:

It occurs to me now, that the way my pub is built - it would be ideally suited to receive it's beer by rail, maybe I could model a large sliding door in the base? 

Even in Burton-on-Trent, as town with 27 Breweries and more private railway tracks than you could 'shake a hat at', the beer was delivered to the many many pubs by horse drawn carts. Shame really.

 

Ian

[RJS1977]

Whilst I'm not aware of any pubs having their own dedicated sidings, there is a pub in Henley-on-Thames which has a short length of narrow gauge track running into it. I guess at some time the barrels were unloaded from carts and put into small wagons to be pushed into the pub (although Brakspear's brewery wasn't that far away so it's possible - but extremely unlikely - the track went all the way there at one stage).

 

And it wasn't unknown for wagons on the Corris Railway to be derailed and pushed through the village streets direct to their customers - including to the pub!

 

There was also at one time an underground narrow gauge railway system in Chicago which delivered (mostly coal) to cellars around the city centre, but I don't know if it ever carried beer!

[Michael Hodgson]

I would have thought our own Post Office tube railway vehicles could have carried the stuff rather well.   

 

I once went on a pub crawl round the Underground, having a drink in a bar at every mainline terminus served by the Circle Line.  Wasn't very sober when we got back to Kings Cross - and we were only drinking halves!

[TheSignalEngineer]

The only place I can think of was during the early part of the 20th century at Birchinlee, which was a temporary tin village built to house workers on the Howden and Derwent Dams.  There was a railway up from Bamford to carry stone from the stonemason's yard by the waterworks offices near to the Hope Valley line. It also carried other supplies to the village and also workers families.

The 'Canteen' was effectively the village social club. It stood alongside the railway in the middle of the village and had a platform behind it. There was a direct entrance from the platform into the beer cellar.

This picture shows the passenger train at the station with beer barrels on the platform.

https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/BRITISH-INDUSTRIAL-LOCOMOTIVES/INDUSTRIAL-DIESEL-AND-ELECTRIC/i-zhpw9Vn

The canteen was just out of shot on the top of the bank to the left of the platform.

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by TheSignalEngineer

[DCB]

A big net by the lineside could catch beer barrels pushed out of the door of a passing train.   You would just need a Mail coach repainted in Brewery colours and barrels instead of mail bags.  The crane could then lift the barrels so the cellar man could pull them in through the upstairs window ad store them upstairs so the beer could flow downhill without being pumped.

[Michael Hodgson]

Long time since I was last at the Snowdon Mountain Railway, but I understood the cafe at the top used to get all its supplies delivered by rail.  Can't remember if they had a licence to sell beer though. 

[sandwich station]

I believe Shepherd Neame and Fremlins had their own wagons. Not sure if they ever delivered direct to pubs by rail though.

[roundhouse]

This place delivers beer by rail

 

https://www.vytopna.cz/en

[eastglosmog]

If you can have the upper floor jettied out over the railway, you could also imagine that the pub has a cellar which extends under the railway (compensation for when the railway took their ground floor?) as far as the scrapyard old engine shed (by the looks of it).  Could have unloaded the barrels there.

[5050]

The Slaters Arms in Corris had its beer delivered by rail via the Corris Railway.  It ran past the front door so it was quick and very direct!