Eastern region fish trains

[Frappington Jct]

With the forthcoming LNER fish vans from Bachmann and the Hornby Blue Spot fish vans, I was wondering whether the two types of van would have been used together on a regular basis, or were they used on different workings?

 

Thanks 

[Fat Controller]

There's been quite a lot of discussion of fish vans in the Peterborough North thread, which might have something of interest to you. The cover of Volume 2 of Geoff Kent's series 'The 4mm Wagon' has a view, taken in the mid-1960s, of the goods yard at Aberdeen, showing both the 12' wb wagon (as proposed by Bachmann and modelled by Parkside) and the 15'wb wagon (as modelled by Hornby-Dublo, Parkside and now Hornby) in a train being loaded from a wonderful selection of traders' vehicles. The only caveat is that the shorter vans probably wouldn't have worked on the flagship working to King's Cross, which was the preserve of the roller-bearing-fitted wagons.

[Pete 75C]

I seem to remember some pics taken in the Yarmouth area showing plenty of both types, although as stated above, this would likely have been as part of a trip working, rather than as a long distance consist.

[Frappington Jct]

Thanks. My layout isn't big enough for mainline workings so any workings would be of roughly the same type as mentioned above, so I can use them plausibly.

 

Thanks again

[hmrspaul]

showing both the 12' wb wagon (as proposed by Bachmann and modelled by Parkside)

Bachmann aren't proposing to do the longer fish van, this is the prototype photo they are working from http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/lnercoveredmerchandise/e232b3569

 which has a 10ft wheelbase wood frame.

 

Working fish traffic was complex, especially when Herring were still very common, as they moved around the British Island and the fleets and vans had to follow them.

 

Paul

[Fat Controller]

Bachmann aren't proposing to do the longer fish van, this is the prototype photo they are working from http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/lnercoveredmerchandise/e232b3569

 which has a 10ft wheelbase wood frame.

 

Working fish traffic was complex, especially when Herring were still very common, as they moved around the British Island and the fleets and vans had to follow them.

 

Paul

For some reason I thought they were doing the longer type.

There's a nice photo of a Perishables train in 'The Red Dragon...', taken in 1959 near Llangennech- a 28xx 2-8-0, a single 10'wb Fish van and a BR Standard brake van.  There was another type of fish traffic, somewhat less prestigious than the 'Blue Spot' vans and their ilk- the traffic in fish offal, for use either in animal food or fertiliser. This used to be conveyed in sheeted opens; I suspect minerals, by preference, as the smell would loiter for ever on a wooden floor. I remember it passing through Low Fell in the early 1980s, by then in bulk tipper lorries; 'high summer' took on an entirely new meaning...