The Siphon G, by Accurascale - From Milk To Mail!

[Dunsignalling]

9 minutes ago, Not Jeremy said:

In the new book on Siphons coming very soon from Wild Swan, (heavily illustrated, many plans, tons of information and all penned by maestro John Lewis) there are from memory photographs of bogie siphons at three branch termini, so not a completely unknown phenomenon.

 

TBF, Mike's earlier post didn't state that it was unknown, just "not at all common". 

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[David C]

Fatadder is also quite right re: the Cheddar Valley. The area it served was a major producer of fruit, which definitely got transported away in siphons of various kinds. I think the GWR and probably BR (W) even ran special trains of the vehicles, but presumably, only in season. Whether they appeared on branchlines or not obviously depended on the traffic on offer, so all the BLT modellers have to do is invent a traffic to justify them like The Johnster has. 

 

There was also Kingsbridge. According to the Oakwood history of the branch, siphon Gs were used to carry up to 25 tons a week of crabs and lobsters to Billingsgate, Birmingham and Southampton leaving the terminus attached to either the 4.15pm or the 5.30pm passenger departures. Siphons were also employed carrying rabbits (once a food staple up to the 1950s when myxomatosis wiped out most of population) to Birmingham and Sheffield. This traffic departed on the 2.05pm service. The return workings carried live pigeons to Kingsbridge apparently. 

 

Looking at photos of Kingsbridge in BR days, there are usually a few NPCS vehicles either parked in the goods yard or attached to trains en route to the junction. SR utility vans of several different types were particularly common, as were ex GWR LWB 4 wheel vans (bloaters?) I haven't seen any photos featuring a siphon G, but a 4 wheel panelled ex LNER van sometimes appears as does what is possibly an LMS bogie van in the distance in one shot.

 

Incidentally, does anyone know what the siphon G on the Cardigan branch carried? Nothing is specified either in the Oakwood history or in the exhaustive and detailed article in MRJ many years ago.

 

David C

 

PS: I've ordered and paid for my model of the siphon G already!

[The Fatadder]

23 minutes ago, David C said:

There was also Kingsbridge. According to the Oakwood history of the branch, siphon Gs were used to carry up to 25 tons a week of crabs and lobsters to Billingsgate, Birmingham and Southampton leaving the terminus attached to either the 4.15pm or the 5.30pm passenger departures. Siphons were also employed carrying rabbits (once a food staple up to the 1950s when myxomatosis wiped out most of population) to Birmingham and Sheffield. This traffic departed on the 2.05pm service. The return workings carried live pigeons to Kingsbridge apparently. 

I must have missed this in the book (or more likely forgotten it) another use for one of my siphons once they arrive.

 

Another branch line that saw a lot of siphons was Calne for the sausage traffic, though of course it was mostly siphon C/F that were used rather than Siphon G

[The Stationmaster]

On 17/03/2023 at 20:22, Gwiwer said:

Mike.  You might know.  

 

I have clear memory of the DPUs towing a couple of vans up and down the Thames Valley.  I used to be a "watcher" at West Drayton where they came through at speed.  So far as I recall none of those were ever Siphon Gs.  But were they???  

I can't really remember Rick but it's a possibility I suppose.  I can recall the DPUs running with tail vans although I'm faIrly a sure my sole photo o one is without tail traffic.   The twin sets using ordinary power cars definitely didn't involve Siohons and I'm fairly certain that none were wired for m.u. through control.  In my time the Aylesv bury 'Radio Times vans were normally CCTs or GIVs but I suppose a Siphon might have been a possibility although by then they were probably mainly in newspaper workings in the London Division.

 

We hadan outside frameSiphon at our local station but it was a boiler vane cinversion - until it caught fire late one night.

[Gwiwer]

6 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I can recall the DPUs running with tail vans

6 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

normally CCTs or GUVs

That matches my memory but as the memory is now approaching 60 years old I wouldn't place absolute reliance upon it.  

 

I clearly recall Siphon Gs in locomotive-hauled rakes.  Both the shape and their name struck me as unusual and that memory stuck.  But not towed as swingers by the DPUs.  Siphons also turned up at Penzance (well beyond DPU territory) when we lived that way so I suspect those too were on newspaper traffic.  The parcels duties were in the hands of GUV / BG rakes.  

[McC]

[GWJ]

On 18/03/2023 at 13:17, David C said:

 

Incidentally, does anyone know what the siphon G on the Cardigan branch carried? Nothing is specified either in the Oakwood history or in the exhaustive and detailed article in MRJ many years ago.

 

David C

 

PS: I've ordered and paid for my model of the siphon G already!

David,

 

I think I have found another 3 photos of a Siphon G in use on the Cardigan branch - the first is on page 84 in Martin Connop Price's excellent 'The Whitland & Cardigan Railway' book (Oakwood).  The picture is taken at Boncath on a southbound train hauled by 1613, probably the 5.45pm service from Cardigan.  The second and third photos are on page 317 and 318 respectively of the GWR Journal No.30 Spring 1999 (both taken by G H Tilt) from a northbound service hauled by an unknown 45xx. 

 

As to what the Siphon G would have been used for, it is probably carrying either milk churns or more likely rabbits.  MRCP quotes another author who said that 'at every station the platform is covered with crates upon crates of stiffened rabbits ready to be dispatched to large towns ...'.    The Journal notes on page 311 that culled rabbits were usually sent out on the last passenger train.  The Journal also notes that day old chicks and ... puppies ... were transported from Cardigan.  Could these have gone in a Siphon?  There was quite a trade in puppy breeding in the area as a way of making ends meet (to my shame, some of my family were involved) and some of them may have left on the train.

 

Quickly moving on, also on page 311 the Journal also mentions the transfer of moss which was collected from the hedges around Cardigan and sent to Swansea for use in flower displays.   Finally, on page 356 The Journal notes that 'In the latter days, nearly all passenger trains were formed of just one vehicle, though siphons or goods stock were often attached ...', so the use of Siphons on the branch, particularly towards the end of the line's existence might not have been uncommon.

 

Regards,

 

GWJ 

[SteamingWales]

These look awesome 😁

 

Glad the paint colour on the Crimson version have been much improved as they didn't look quite right

 

Bring on delivery in the next few weeks 😄

[MidlandRed]

Not a branch line but definitely a DMU - RCTS photographic archive CUL0642 depicts W50063 at the rear of a DMU service at Shirley station, Birmingham in July 1957, with Siphon tail load (referred to as GW 1459). Part of the reason I’ve ordered one!! 

[Captain Kernow]

In the 1960s, they were very common on the Somerset & Dorset, ex-Midland freight-only lines in South Gloucestershire, the Forest of Dean, parts of the South Wales valleys and a select few freight-only ex-GW branches in Mid-Wales.

 

[McC]

[The Fatadder]

Getting close.....

[GWJ]

Found another Siphon photo!  Page 64 of Laurence Waters' 'The Changing Scene Western Region' shows a Siphon in the centre road at Barnstaple (Junction) in Sept 1975.  Fabulous photo by Charles Gordon-Stuart/Great Western Trust showing it next to a 3 car Swindon Class 120 unit in blue/grey livery (come on Accurascale, you know want to!) towing a blue GUV.  I am guessing that the Siphon is in all-blue livery although it looks darker to me but probably just in a filthy condition.  

[tractionman]

2 hours ago, GWJ said:

Found another Siphon photo!  Page 64 of Laurence Waters' 'The Changing Scene Western Region' shows a Siphon in the centre road at Barnstaple (Junction) in Sept 1975.  Fabulous photo by Charles Gordon-Stuart/Great Western Trust showing it next to a 3 car Swindon Class 120 unit in blue/grey livery (come on Accurascale, you know want to!) towing a blue GUV.  I am guessing that the Siphon is in all-blue livery although it looks darker to me but probably just in a filthy condition.  

 

is it the picture here

 

http://railthing.blogspot.com/2015/01/ilfracombe-ill-be-back.html

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by tractionman

[Michael Hodgson]

4 hours ago, McC said:

 

 

 

I meant to ask while I was at Ally Pally - why are the top part of the axle boxes blue?  Not something I remember on the prototype. 

Is it correct, or just something to do with the development process before production?

[Fat Controller]

15 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I meant to ask while I was at Ally Pally - why are the top part of the axle boxes blue?  Not something I remember on the prototype. 

Is it correct, or just something to do with the development process before production?

I've seen it on some GWR passenger stock; presumably something to do with the lubrication to be used? Might the vehicle with the blue tops have received bogies from one of these?

[Pteremy]

 

[GWJ]

3 hours ago, tractionman said:

 

is it the picture here

 

http://railthing.blogspot.com/2015/01/ilfracombe-ill-be-back.html

 

No, although it is very close.  The photo I was referring to has the Siphon further back on the centre road (possibly up against the buffers) and the Class 120 is towing an all-blue GUV.  However, the photos are close so could have been taken around the same time. 

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, GWJ said:

No, although it is very close.  The photo I was referring to has the Siphon further back on the centre road (possibly up against the buffers) and the Class 120 is towing an all-blue GUV.  However, the photos are close so could have been taken around the same time. 

That will almost certainly have been a news van as Barnstaple (Jcn as once was) was at one time booked a News Siphon from Paddington - in fact without checking it might even have been two Siphons for a while.    One  of the consequences of Regional boundary changes and rationlisation of former LSWR routes in Devon and Cornwall.

[VIA185]

On 19/03/2023 at 11:05, Gwiwer said:

That matches my memory but as the memory is now approaching 60 years old I wouldn't place absolute reliance upon it.  

 

I clearly recall Siphon Gs in locomotive-hauled rakes.  Both the shape and their name struck me as unusual and that memory stuck.  But not towed as swingers by the DPUs.  Siphons also turned up at Penzance (well beyond DPU territory) when we lived that way so I suspect those too were on newspaper traffic.  The parcels duties were in the hands of GUV / BG rakes.  

I see no reason why a Siphon wouldn't have been hauled by a Class 128 but from my memory most of the tail loads on the parcels railcars were box vans as seen here making (unusual) use of the up goods line at Iver on a winters day probably 1962 or 1963. (CJL)

Edited March 23, 2023 by VIA185
spelling mistake

[gwrrob]

On 21/03/2023 at 09:52, McC said:

 

Any photos yet @McCof the GWR versions.

[McC]

3 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

Any photos yet @McCof the GWR versions.

Yes all the production photos are live on the website and we are working up some more content in advance of them landing shortly

[KymN]

Lovely words 'landing shortly'. My bank balance may not agree, given that it is not the only pre-order on my books 🤪. 

[McC]

[Harlequin]

23 minutes ago, McC said:

 

That's just stunning.

 

It raises the bar incredibly high for RTR wagons.