Cattle Wagon - I would like to know more

[Aire Head]

On 18/09/2020 at 14:26, Wickham Green too said:

indeed.

 

The Fruit Van conversions that obviously follow have already been mentioned but we might have to start a new thread for the LMS Cream Van that accompanies them ??!? ...... with, perhaps a GWR 'Tevan' bringing up the rear.

 

Don't forget the Scone Tippler.....

 

I'll get me coat 

[Wickham Green too]

......... and the tipple tanker !

['CHARD]

Resurrecting this thread, as I can't find much by way of info elsewhere.  It's well documented that the last cattle traffic ran from Holyhead by 1975, and cattle trucks had transferred to 'ALE' use.  

 

What I can't establish, on Paul (Bartlett)'s site or anywhere else, is when ALEs started to appear in numbers, where they worked, and when they were withdrawn.   Specifically, plenty of traffic came out of Edinburgh's breweries, but were beer barrels conveyed in ALEs between 1966 and '69?

[Wickham Green too]

On 18/11/2020 at 10:52, 'CHARD said:

.......... were beer barrels conveyed in ALEs between 1966 and '69?

David Larkin's 'Working Wagons' 1968 - 1973 volume doesn't have a section on Cattle or Ale wagons ......... so one might conclude that the answer's 'NO'

['CHARD]

On 19/11/2020 at 21:34, Wickham Green too said:

David Larkin's 'Working Wagons' 1968 - 1973 volume doesn't have a section on Cattle or Ale wagons ......... so one might conclude that the answer's 'NO'

 

Hmmm, on face value I tend to agree - BUT we know that livestock was transported by rail until '75, so perhaps there's no section due to lack of info, as here? 

 

Consequently the rake in question isn't on Ebay yet!

[Rail-Online]

When I train spotted from the late 60s onwards in the midlands I never saw any cattle wagons of any form until I went to York in 1973. There were loads dumped in the yard there.  I have read that the last traffic was from Holyhead to York (why there?)

 

Tony

[Fat Controller]

York would have been for fattening up the cattle before slaughtering.

[RichardT]

York cattle market was in the city centre (just outside Walmgate Bar) & served by the Foss Islands branch, which ended in a multi-platformed goods terminus for cattle loading/unloading also just outside Walmgate Bar.  The market made its long-planned move out of town in 1976 hence presumably the previous end of cattle traffic on the branch & the start of its final decline to full closure in 1989.

Edited December 4, 2020 by RichardT
Adding date