Siphon G - corridor connections

[bécasse]

On 29/09/2019 at 21:06, melmerby said:

Coach roofs from 1947 were officially black, so the chances are so were the "Browns"

They would surely have been either black or another dark colour during WWII as an ARP.

[Miss Prism]

29 minutes ago, bécasse said:

They would surely have been either black or another dark colour during WWII as an ARP.

 

Roofs on passenger stock were officially 'dark grey' from 1942 (until black was introduced for the Hawksworth stock in 1947). The difference in appearance between a 1942 dark grey roof and pre-1942 white roof is probably somewhat academic though, given how rare cleaning was, particularly for roofs, in WWII.

 

NPCCS livery probably followed that for the passenger stock, but cleaning was even rarer.
 

[The Johnster]

Ah. So there’s no need for me to get excited about black roofs on Cwmdimbath’s stock if black was only used on Hawksworth stock as I only have one, a BG in BR crimson.  The matter was largely academic except on ex-works stock anyway as Miss P rightly says.  

[Karhedron]

On 19/09/2019 at 13:51, M.I.B said:

On 19/09/2019 at 12:05, WillCav said:

I'm modelling 1947 so I have a load of 6w milk tanks - were the churns in Siphons not used at all by then?

The six wheelers replaced churn traffic because it saved so much manpower.

 

I'm not going to say "there was not a single churn shifted in 1947" because someone will turn out a picture of one being used in 1956, but in general, churn traffic was dead by then.

 

This is an interesting point as I have been trying to find the end date for churn traffic for some time. Certainly the 1930s saw a big switch to milk tankers but churn traffic on the rails didn't fade away quickly, simply because many smaller dairies hadn't been converted (possibly expense or interrupted by WW2). In 1959, R.C. Riley wrote an article called "Home on the Milk" which details the journey of the west country milk train from Penzance to London. The author notes that some churns were still being collected on the route but that the numbers had fallen drastically compared to some years earlier. He went as far as ton attribute this to the footplate mens' strike in 1955.

 

This makes quite a bit of sense as churn traffic was both labour-intensive and highly perishable so would have been heavily hit by such a strike. Tanker traffic would have held up much better as it was quicker and easier. I think that the dairy staff loaded the tanks rather than BR staff loading the churns into the vans which would also have helped.

 

The upshot of this is that by nationalisation, the majority of milk would have been in tankers but you could easily justify a siphon or two for residual churn traffic in the 1950s. The last date I have seen for a churn was 1961 in the Southern so I currently assume that was the end date unless/until I get more concrete evidence to the contrary.

 

What I feel fairly confident of is that any remaining churn traffic would definitely have ended with the "Western Agreement" in October 1964. This was an arrangement between BR and MMB to focus the milk flows into London on the Southern and Western Regions. These were the bulk flows originating from South Wales, Penzance and Torrington that picked up extra tankers en-route. Rail served creameries on the LMS and ER closed around this time with their London bottling plants switching to receiving west-country milk tripped around London from the marshalling point at Kensington Olympia.

[RobMG]

On 19/09/2019 at 21:38, WillCav said:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply to my questions.

 

The amount of info that has been given is amazing and I have plenty of options for my siphons now I know that 1947 is too late for churn traffic.  I might have to get a few more 6 wheel milks though...

 

Thanks again

 

Will

 

The six wheel milk tanks always look good..