Saddletank Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I've been thinking about a small layout set in a tightly packed urban environment in the early BR era, and am settling on an inner city dairy - after all milk tanks and dairies are a popular theme on BLTs right now but what happens at the other end of their journey is modelled rarely beyond a generic siding in front of a warehouse. Alas information or photos of sidings at milk bottling facilities and the unloading equipment are hard to come by so I thought I might try my luck on here. I'm not aiming for a huge Express or United Dairies site but something that could handle strings of perhaps half a dozen tanks per inbound working would be ideal. I thought facilities might be something like: An unloading siding with gantry for offload pipework and hoses connected to the tanks at low level Some sort of pump house to get the bulk milk to the bottling area (loads of external pipework A main bottling warehouse with road deliveries bay for milk floats to be loaded A cleaning siding for tanks to be steam cleaned out (gantries to access tank tops? Raised trackwork for drains?) A boiler house for the production of steam for cleaning tanks and returning bottles A separate platform for unloading vans of churns with non-bulk product (cream/cheese/butter?) A spare siding or two for storing cleaned tanks ready for dispatch In my plan the dairy sidings are accessed off a freight line running at low level and disappearing under a high level single track suburban passenger line. Its pretty much a micro layout so lots to cram in. How far wrong is my above list, and has anyone got ideas of where to find photos of such sites? Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I had a quick scour of the 'net, but most of the useful links were to Fotopic sites.. I wouldn't bother about a siding for butter/cheese traffic; however, I would consider one for either coal or fuel oil for the boiler house. The sites I knew were the creameries that sent the milk to London- the steam-cleaning at these was done on a continuation of the loading track, not on a separate one. There have been several postings on this forum in relatively recent times; it might be worth having a dig. Here are links to one:- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43357 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 There was an Express Dairies depot at Morden, I found a handful of interesting pictures on Flickr (search for 'Morden milk') cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted October 24, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 24, 2013 There was an Express Dairies depot at Morden, I found a handful of interesting pictures on Flickr (search for 'Morden milk') cheers Yes, a good example, and I think there was a general reference in the link Fat Controller posted. This was a line which only opened in 1929, serving a new housing estate of considerable size. One interesting feature of the operations was that all milk arrived from the Wimbledon end, but there was no facility to run round at Morden South to take away the empties, so these carried on to the next station St Helier, where runround was possible, being the only station with a signalbox on the route between Wimbledon and Sutton. The dairy had its own 4-w shunter, which, the signalman at St Helier assured me, could not pull the skin off a rice pudding. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddletank Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Thanks for the info everyone, I didn't expand my searches much further than 'city dairy' which is probably why I wasn't getting anything. I did think about a siding for fuel for the boiler house, that's handy as it adds some variety to stock movements. Reading up on the subject, I've learned that the inner city plants were really just bottling and distribution facilities, I'd always thought more processing happened once the milk reached its destination. The initial idea I have supports a number of short siding ends fed from a sector plate off scene, with a number of positions for siding platforms to be installed. Does anyone know whether the unloading and cleaning would have been carried out from a platform level, or from track level? This photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/5375845579/in/photostream/ found while looking for 'milk from Morden' supports the platform level idea, but was this the norm in dairies rather than unloading in stations? I also saw a photo in that series of a twin track shed, was this a covered unloading facility and again was this or a simple 'hoses by the side of the track / on an open platform' type of unloading environment more widely used? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 Dairies at Wandsworth Town, near Point Pleasant Junction; Vauxhall, served by the Up Windsor line which used to host milk tanks all day; White City, where the Westway road junction now is, with the Central Line on one side and the WLL on the other side... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Bottling plants were located near urban centres and so had to compete for expensive land. This meant they tended to be compact but were varied in terms of style. Some were simple industrial buildings like the Express Dairies plant at South Morden. Others were magnificent art deco edifices like the United Dairies plant at Wood Lane and the IMS plant at Marylebone. Perhaps the most inventive use of space was the bottling plant at Vauxhall which was tucked under the viaduct arches beneath the station. From track-level, the only clues to its existence were some shiny pipes on one of the platforms. The current GWR journal has some nice photos of the milk dock at West Ealing station. Milk would be piped from the parked tankers into road tankers alongside. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/5375833175/in/faves-39347043@N07/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/5373989780/in/faves-39347043@N07/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/5375845579/in/faves-39347043@N07/ http://www.signalbox.org/diagrams/marylebonestn1945.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bri.s Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 There was a dairy at summer lane in Barnsley it operated up until the early 80's I think it had mostly coal going there I think there was a trip working from wath yard a class 08 normally worked it with a few 16 tonners on it . Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 A couple of pics here of the milk dock platforms at Marylebone. This was after the milk traffic had finished and they were used for steam specials. The rear of IMS dairy building can be seen in the background. http://plumbloco.smugmug.com/Trains/British-Mainline-Steam/i-mns8J5J#!/Trains/British-Mainline-Steam/i-mns8J5J/A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.