Karhedron

The photo in question had 4 tankers on the mainline, 1 being shunted and 2 parked on the dairy siding. You are correct that they are all 6-wheelers. Appleby opened in 1931, the same year the 6-wheeled tankers were introduced and I have seen a photo from that year of a 6-wheeled Express Diary tanker at Cricklewood which may well have come from Appleby. 4 wheeled tankers were all rebuilt as 6-wheelers by 1937 so it is possible that some worked to Appleby but I have not seen any photos of this. 6-wheelers were the norm for the bulk of its working life. I have seen a note from 1960 that the regular milk train originated in Carlisle at 7.15 pm each weekday, picking up additional tankers at Appleby, getting to Skipton just before 10pm, and then on to Cricklewood so your assumption looks to be correct. Also, Appleby was a major cheese factory so some of the photos you see of it may actually show excess milk arriving from other areas of the country (particularly the south west) for processing. This is pretty difficult to deduce from photos alone. I would guess that the original photograph actually shows milk arriving at Appleby since it is dated 1965. I believe that Appleby stopped dispatching milk to London at the end of 1963 as part of the "Western agreement" between BRB and the MMB. After this milk into London was focussed on the 3 principle flows from south Wales and the south west. There is another photo of the Dairy here with a much longer train passing (with what looks like an ex-LMS Stove-R for the guard in the middle of the formation). Milk production varied considerably depending on the time of year. I believe this photo is older as the large drying tower has not been built yet and so probably does show a milk train bound for London. Actually, given the length of the train, it might even be empties being returned for filling. Milk tanks weighed 28 tons when full so a train of 14 of them would be taxing, even for a large engine.

Agreed, RC Riley's article "Home on the milk" in 1959 notes that churn traffic was still going into London from some WR creameries although the amount was in decline. The last reference to churn traffic I have found so far is 1961. The final cut-off date would probably have been the implementation of the "Western Agreement" between BRB and MMB in December 1963. This concentrated milk traffic into London on the GWML and SWML routes and I would hypthesise that they decided to just run tanker trains from that point onwards as well. Siphons disappear from milk trains after this point.

What a super job you have done there. I actually thought "Torrington" as soon as I saw your plans. I will keep an eye on this as I am looking forward to seeing the finished model.

I gather that Wandsworth road regularly received milk tankers in the post-nationalisation years. I can't identify a dairy in the vicinity of the depot. Does anyone know how the milk was handled? Was there a bottling plant at the depot or was the milk decanted into road tankers and handled elsewhere?

I am not sure but one explanation I have heard is that some materials had to be substituted for lower quality equivalents due to post-war shortages. The vehicles would have looked pretty much the same externally.

I am actually looking for some nice clear shots of the dairy facilities on the S&D for a project I am researching. Bailey Gate, Bason Bridge, Wincanton and Sturminster Newton. There are a few decent published shots but relatively little online.

Just had a look but the link seems to be broken. Are these images still available anywhere please? P.S. Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread.

There are some nice shots of the dairy at Frome on the Britain From Above website. The image below is part of a sequence taken in 1946. There are shots from virtually all directions. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW002015 https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW005114

Fox do some United Dairies transfers which I used on my dairy. https://fox-transfers.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=united+dairies

A couple more pics of Experimental blue. To my eye, both look a bit darker than the Hornby livery but the variation between all the prototype photos really highlight the difficulty of working from 70-year old photos taken in varying lighting conditions.

If you are referring to this one.... It does indeed look like a Mk1 brake of some description but it is too small and oblique for me to make out what sort. The photo is dated 1970. Interestingly, by 1975 the train had reverted to pre-nationalisation stock again (I think this is an ex-LMS Stove-R).

Yes, whatever the region, I never saw a post nationalisation brake vehicle on a milk train. I guess by the time the Mk1 BGs were being displaced from top-link services in the late 60s, the requirement to include accommodation for the Guard disappeared as they were allowed to travel in the rear cab of diesels.

This study thoroughly debunks the myth that electric cars are more polluting than ICEs once you take manufacturing into account (not that I have seen anyone here claiming that). In most countries they are already green and will become even more so as more renewable capacity is installed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51977625

For the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, there is now a government form for registering. Apparently supermarkets will be using this list to prioritise deliveries. Just registered on behalf of my mother-in-law who is 81 and has asthma. https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable

I would imagine that it would become an ejector seat in the event of a crash whether it was designed that way or not.

It is a common comment that any country is only 3 square meals away from a revolution.

Common sense would suggest that would be the case. Unfortunately common sense seems to have gone AWOL at the moment.

I went on that walk around 25 years ago on a very hot and sunny day. We surprised a couple of young ladies on the wooded stretch just south of Highgate. They had decided to get an all-over tan and had obviously not expected a couple of dozen railway buffs to come strolling past. The group backed up and allowed them a few minutes to recover their dignity before proceeding.

According to this thread it will be going ahead as planned.

Looking forward to seeing Loftus Road in the flesh (plastic?) for the first time. The photos look really good.

Can all cars support that charging rate? 350Kw is very fast indeed.

I tend to avoid late December and early January as people are generally spending their time and money on Christmas festivities. Once you get to the last week in January, people's pay packets start coming in and they start spending on hobbies again. Avoiding the summer is also wise as people go off on holiday so while an item may sell, it may not get top-whack. I agree that ending on a Sunday evening is popular, just avoid doing that on a bank holiday weekend. Some hobbies are seasonal which is worth considering. I have noticed that summer is a lot quieter for indoor hobbies both on eBay and on fora like RMWeb.

If I were a delivery driver, I would be interested in knowing the finishing times of schools so I could avoid all the extra congestion.

I used ID Backscenes to print a custom backscene for me which I attached with 3M spray adhesive and it worked very well. Unlike wallpaper paste and other water-based glues, it does not get absorbed by the paper so you don't get wrinkling. The backscene stayed smooth and flat during application and has remained firmly in place, even though the layout is portable and tends to get moved around quite a bit.

A vote from me for Carl Wood's excellent Vale of Oxbury. Beautifully captures a railway in a landscape.