London Milk Traffic

[David J Hayes]

4 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

Having been away I've just caught this. Might I enquire if there was still any milk traffic to/from East Anglia in these later days, or that is discussed in your articles?

 

The last movement I am aware of was to Stowmarket (?) from the West Country (Chard Junction) during a very dry summer of 1981.

 

Many thanks.

THANK you for asking, "Pint of Adnams". As you can appreciate, I don't want to give too much away, but, yes, there were, indeed, movements between the West Country and East Anglia in the early 1980s, and other ad-hoc workings, too, all of which shall be mentioned in Part Two of my London Milk article in TRACTION 273 (due out 25th November). Although I'm aware there are many who are well-versed on post-1980 milk operations, I hope there is still the odd nugget of information contained in my article that will still be of interest even to those who know far more about the subject matter than me.  

 

Cheers.

 

David J. Hayes.

 

 

[Captain Cuttle]

On 13/09/2022 at 11:51, cctransuk said:

 

Indeed - that name does ring a bell.

 

Glen must have amassed a huge volume of research material, judging from the information that he gave on the internet, etc. - do you know if any of it survived?

 

John Isherwood.

Sorry to hear of his passing, he was my go to guy  on all things Pullman.

[SP Steve]

I discovered the following regarding load for Milk trains, taken from a BR WR publication published by Paddington October 1974 titled "Loads For Passenger, Parcels, Motorail and Milk Trains".

[C126]

Of oblique interest that the word "MILKTANKS" is used, I assume dating from when telegraphic codes were used.  Many thanks for these copies, very useful.

[863Warrior]

On 13/09/2022 at 12:08, Not Jeremy said:

Wild Swan have a book on milk traffic in the very advanced stages of preparation.

 

Entitled "Milk On The Rails", it is written by Matt Pinto, "Karhedron" of this parish, and contains a wealth of information and images on the subject of milk traffic up until its demise. Matt has been researching the subject for a good number of years and has uncovered a lot of fascinating information from a wide range of sources.

 

I know that Matt was in touch with Glen, and we certainly have some good information and images in the book that have come from that source.

 

Matt may wish to comment further on this aspect, I will leave that to him as he had the contact with Glen Woods, whose loss was very sad indeed. Glen had talked about doing a book, so I would think that this may well be what is being remembered on this thread.

 

The new book's publication date is "as soon as possible".

 

Given Wild Swan's other commitments (not least the new book on the related subject of GW Siphons from John Lewis) publication may just creep into the early part of next year.

 

But it is definitely coming!

 

Simon

I was wondering if there was any indication of whether 'Milk on the Rails' was any nearer publication please?

[Not Jeremy]

15 hours ago, 863Warrior said:

I was wondering if there was any indication of whether 'Milk on the Rails' was any nearer publication please?

Replying as Wild Swan, it is due to be set after John Lewis's major new GWR Siphons book is finished, which we are just now going through the final edits for.

 

So definitely this year, Matt has done more work on the text and we have found more photographs, it is "ready to go" and will be a book worthy of its subject.

 

Wood Lane milk depot, 1935

 

Thank you for your interest.

 

Simon