Stoke Courtenay

[checkrail]

4908 comes through the station, passing a pick up goods train which has recently set back into the yard loop from the down main.

 

 

These tank wagons really do look good. 

 

John C.

[Star-rider]

I’m enjoying the milk tank pictures.

 

By a combination of skilful weathering and photography you have hidden the tank numbers from me. Having gathered seven of them together I need to address the fact that they are all numbered 62. I notice at least one of yours is numbered differently. Have all of your tanks been renumbered and if so can you point me to the source of the transfers?

 

Pete.

[checkrail]

4 minutes ago, Star-rider said:

By a combination of skilful weathering and photography you have hidden the tank numbers from me. Having gathered seven of them together I need to address the fact that they are all numbered 62. I notice at least one of yours is numbered differently. Have all of your tanks been renumbered and if so can you point me to the source of the transfers?

Thanks Star-rider.  I plead guilty to the photography but the 'skilful weathering' is nothing to do with me! I'm sure that @gwrrob, the owner of these lovely vehicles, will be happy to answer your questions.  Over to you Robin!

[checkrail]

Here's my contribution to this week's pannier pageant, 8750 class 3603 and 57xx class 8709. 

 

 

 

John C.

[gwrrob]

1 hour ago, Star-rider said:

I’m enjoying the milk tank pictures.

 

By a combination of skilful weathering and photography you have hidden the tank numbers from me. Having gathered seven of them together I need to address the fact that they are all numbered 62. I notice at least one of yours is numbered differently. Have all of your tanks been renumbered and if so can you point me to the source of the transfers?

 

Pete.

 

They are numbered differently but you'll have to ask @toboldlygo to confirm as I'm sure they were the dreaded Modelmaster.

[toboldlygo]

25 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

They are numbered differently but you'll have to ask @toboldlygo to confirm as I'm sure they were the dreaded Modelmaster.

 

Thankfully no it wasn't Modelmaster, it was Fox Transfers, I found a general lettering set that was close enough for the numbering

[Star-rider]

Thank you @toboldlygo, @gwrrob, @checkrail

 

Fox is where I'll start looking then when the great day arrives.

[toboldlygo]

4 hours ago, Star-rider said:

Thank you @toboldlygo, @gwrrob, @checkrail

 

Fox is where I'll start looking then when the great day arrives.

FG 1006 to be precise - that's the decal sheet I used for the renumbering.

[Coach bogie]

13 hours ago, checkrail said:

Another day and here's a down train of empty milk vehicles emerging from the tunnel in the charge of 4908 Broome Hall.

 

 

The first vehicle is a Siphon F, from a K's kit,  (IIRC this siphon is the wrong length, having been made to share a roof and other parts with K's 40 foot Dean PBV. I guess this means that the angles of the diagonal framing are out too, but can't remember if I ever checked it out against the Russell drawing.

 

A closer view of the Siphon here.  I don't think there were many of these.  Weren't some used for sausage traffic?  Might therefore be more at home in Wiltshire than in Devon.

John C.

 

Good morning John - well it is here.

 

The K's siphon is the correct length. It was a 40ft long vehicle as was the K's K15. If anything, mine is 1mm over but that could instability of the plastic. As K's included the solebar in their sides, here is where a challenge arises. The brake lever is fitted to the same shaft which needs the cut-out in the footboards in different positions on each side.

 

There were only 6 of them with 4 lasting until the 1950's.  My notes have two being used on the Harris sausage runs at anyone time, but the other were being used as general vans. The few images I have picked up over he years show them being used in parcels trains. Even the Calne-Newcastle branded vans appear have been photographed way off this route on occasions.

 

Before the Dart castings sides came out, the F was a favourite starting point for a C. Here there was a compromise on the length by a couple of mm, but it was never an issue, at the time.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

[St Enodoc]

16 minutes ago, Coach bogie said:

 

Good morning John - well it is here.

 

The K's siphon is the correct length. It was a 40ft long vehicle as was the K's K15. If anything, mine is 1mm over but that could instability of the plastic. As K's included the solebar in their sides, here is where a challenge arises. The brake lever is fitted to the same shaft which needs the cut-out in the footboards in different positions on each side.

 

There were only 6 of them with 4 lasting until the 1950's.  My notes have two being used on the Harris sausage runs at anyone time, but the other were being used as general vans. The few images I have picked up over he years show them being used in parcels trains. Even the Calne-Newcastle branded vans appear have been photographed way off this route on occasions.

 

Before the Dart castings sides came out, the F was a favourite starting point for a C. Here there was a compromise on the length by a couple of mm, but it was never an issue, at the time.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

I concur with that, Mike. My own notes, compiled from various sources (that weren't all consistent) also tell me that they could have been fitted at various times with 9' volute, 7' plate or 9' American bogies.

 

1545 and 1548 seem to have been the regular Calne/Newcastle vans but 1546 is reported as carrying, in BR days, the branding:

 

TO WORK BETWEEN
CALNE AND
NEWCASTLE
VIA BANBURY

 

on a central panel covering the top half of the louvres between the two inner doors.

 

Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.

[checkrail]

Good to hear that my Siphon F is at least the right length! Don't know where I picked up that stuff about it being wrong. A railway modelling myth?

[checkrail]

Last shots of the down milk empties.

 

The old and the new.  Behind the snazzy new milk tanks a 6-wheel Siphon C and a Dean 40 foot PBV bring up the rear.

 

The Hall passes a Castle coming the other way ...

 

... and disappears under the road bridge.

 

The milk tanks are now on their way back to Robin @gwrrob.  It's been an honour and a privilege to host them on Stoke Courtenay. I've had great fun running and photographing them. Hope you've enjoyed it. 

 

John C.

[gwrrob]

The feeling is absolutely mutual John, a smashing few days , I'm sure we can do this again with something else one day.😎

[57xx]

21 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

 

Good morning John - well it is here.

 

The K's siphon is the correct length. It was a 40ft long vehicle as was the K's K15. If anything, mine is 1mm over but that could instability of the plastic. As K's included the solebar in their sides, here is where a challenge arises. The brake lever is fitted to the same shaft which needs the cut-out in the footboards in different positions on each side.

 

There were only 6 of them with 4 lasting until the 1950's.  My notes have two being used on the Harris sausage runs at anyone time, but the other were being used as general vans. The few images I have picked up over he years show them being used in parcels trains. Even the Calne-Newcastle branded vans appear have been photographed way off this route on occasions.

 

Before the Dart castings sides came out, the F was a favourite starting point for a C. Here there was a compromise on the length by a couple of mm, but it was never an issue, at the time.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

Your picture has reminded me i need to fit gas pipes on my Siphon C roof.

[checkrail]

You didn't know there was a creamery on the Earlsbridge branch did you? Nor did I until I made it up the other day.

 

Here 5557 brings the branch B-set into Stoke C. along with two milk tank wagons to be added to the up milk train to London.

 

 

 

 

So although Robin's wagons have gone back to him their memory lives on - and I've just ordered three from eBay.  They'll probably live in a drawer until they can be joined by others.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Prompted by recent discussion of GWR milk traffic on this thread and the fruits of Colin's @BWsTrains research I can also recommend the 18 page chapter 'From cow to cornflake' in Tim Bryan's 'A year in the life of the Great Western'. Some very good pictures too.

 

John C.

[Limpley Stoker]

I sense a renewed interest in the milk churns by your porter in light of  the efforts of the milk marketing board in the South Hams area!

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

You didn't know there was a creamery on the Earlsbridge branch did you? Nor did I until I made it up the other day.

 

Here 5557 brings the branch B-set into Stoke C. along with two milk tank wagons to be added to the up milk train to London.

 

 

 

 

So although Robin's wagons have gone back to him their memory lives on and I've just ordered three from eBay-.  They'll probably live in a drawer until they can be joined by others.

 

John C.

 

I was surprised how much they go for on eBay considering their short comings.

[AlfaZagato]

Speaking of milk traffic.   How about the milk brake?  I've seen kits of it a couple of times.  I just know nothing about it.

[checkrail]

12 minutes ago, AlfaZagato said:

Speaking of milk traffic.   How about the milk brake?  I've seen kits of it a couple of times.  I just know nothing about it.

Me neither.  What's a milk brake?  (Though we had a milk break at school.)

[AlfaZagato]

https://www.svrwiki.com/GWR_1399_Milk_Brake

 

Decided to look it up.   Four ex-Ambulance vans apparently used on milk trains.

[Darwinian]

The Milk van was one of the early Mallard Models kits (later Blacksmith and now....). It was the first etched kit I built way back when it was released having been sold one by Fred Blackman at their Camberley shop.

There were not any transfers for it at the time so it's got some rather dodgy hand lettering.

 

I don't know if anyone else produced it.

[AlfaZagato]

Available in N from two different sources, though I don't know if the 3d-printer still does theirs.   I forge the name of the outfit.  They wouldn't ship to the USA, and that was some 10 years ago!.   Other is Osborn's Models own range.

 

@chuffinghell might be coaxed into modeling it...

[Coach bogie]

11 hours ago, Darwinian said:

The Milk van was one of the early Mallard Models kits (later Blacksmith and now....). It was the first etched kit I built way back when it was released having been sold one by Fred Blackman at their Camberley shop.

There were not any transfers for it at the time so it's got some rather dodgy hand lettering.

 

I don't know if anyone else produced it.

 I built the Mallard kit and still have it somewhere but I rarely use it. A second, unbuilt one, was sold on. The reason is, I tend to base my trains on photographs or load diagrams. To date, I have not come across a GWR era shot of one actually in a milk train. All the images I have come across, have them sat in yards on their own, not ever coupled to another vehicle. Hopefully someone will post an image of one in a train now. I have collected Westbury area information, for many years. 1397 and 1399 were both branded for Frome, not too far from Westbury, but I have looked, in vain, to find shots of them at work. I doubt if they would have been popular with guards, being a 4 wheel vehicle when an ancient K14/5/6, bogie van would have given a far more comfortable ride - even the small siphons had six wheels!

 

One I do use is an ex TPO K17 clerestory brake, from Trevor Charlton zinc sides as featured in the well known Maurice Earley image of Caynham Court in Sonning Cutting.

 

Many years ago, when David Geen was researching his milk tank kits, we spent several evenings going through his extensive photograph collection and books- again we never found any train images with the milk train brake. Now I appreciate these trains often ran at night, but I would expect to find at least one by now. Challenge to everyone out. Please prove me wrong.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Dragonboy]

11 hours ago, AlfaZagato said:

Available in N from two different sources, though I don't know if the 3d-printer still does theirs.   I forge the name of the outfit.  They wouldn't ship to the USA, and that was some 10 years ago!.   Other is Osborn's Models own range.

 

@chuffinghell might be coaxed into modeling it...

You may be thinking of Etched Pixels here as I’m currently building one of their milk brakes. Sadly they closed for business earlier this year, so I was lucky in getting mine as so far there’s been no news of anyone picking the range up.

 

Brian

Edited August 5, 2023 by Dragonboy