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Express Dairies Truck and Van fleet circa 1960 - 1963 (Devon)


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Good evening. Bit of a long shot here. I have been scouring the interwebby for pics of the above vehicles with almost zero luck.

Has anyone any info. on the above fleet please?

I am embarrassed to admit I have very little knowledge of other vehicles from this era as well, apart from some cars and a limited number of buses and coaches that I remember from my childhood.

I'll be looking for 4mm scale vehicles eventually.

Many thanks.

Phil

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I'm sure I've read an article about Express Daries in a magazine. That would have been a vintage lorry magazine, 'Vintage Roadscene' comes to mind. I would suggest writing to or e-mailing them and other similar magazines for help.

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Spent most of yesterday searching for sales sources and with almost zero results.

One unboxed on EBay - good price but I'm unsure it is the right era.

Another few places with what I think is a 1970s tanker. Looks nice but is around £20 and far too late for me anyway.

I've put a Wanted in Classifieds but maybe I could repeat the request here?

Anyone got any lurking in their collection that they might be able to move on?

Sincerely, Phil R.

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The registration dates from 1950, such vehicles would have usually remained in service for 10-15 years but sometimes as much as 25 years.

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I can't remember seeing any 'United Dairies' bulk tanks when I lived in South West Wales (1955> 1973); the two firms I remember were Bulwark of Chepstow (there are models available of one of their vehicles) and Wincanton Transport. Wincanton were part of the United Dairies empire, and had a depot at the London end of the Briton Ferry bridge; I think this was shared with Calor transport.

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Thanks Grandad and Phil. hadn't spotted that one and it is just west of here (36E) too.

The order is done. Now all I need is the fleet of Vans that I have yet to identify from a photo I have found!

Fat C.

Seaton Junction was strictly Express Dairies. However, some of the 6 wheel tankers (rail) I've noted from 'sources', were MMB. I'm slowly building up my collection of relevant wagons and looking forward to weathering the lot as they were generally filthy (on the outside).

P

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I think that the dairies were like bus companies, and at one time the railways were 'regional' in nature. Express Dairies predominated in some areas whereas United Dairies were common in others with the Co-op being another big player. Another thing to be aware of if modelling a specific area or region.

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Thanks Grandad and Phil. hadn't spotted that one and it is just west of here (36E) too.

The order is done. Now all I need is the fleet of Vans that I have yet to identify from a photo I have found!

Fat C.

Seaton Junction was strictly Express Dairies. However, some of the 6 wheel tankers (rail) I've noted from 'sources', were MMB. I'm slowly building up my collection of relevant wagons and looking forward to weathering the lot as they were generally filthy (on the outside).

P

The Milk Marketing Board bought and collected all the milk from the farms, selling it on to the processors, such as Express Dairies and Unigate (who had been United Dairies and Cow and Gate). If there was a surplus of milk in one region, MMB tanks would take to other regions where there might be a shortfall. My former colleague, Stephen Poole, wrote about the mechanics of rail-borne milk traffic in his 'Beyond The Crumbling Edge'; he had been one of the last 'Milk Controllers' at Paddington, and thus on BR.

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Brian = genius.

Thanks mate.

Phil

Just a case of looking through those pages on http://ccmv.aecsouthall.co.uk/f552295240and looking for the nearest fit. It's amazing the variety of designs in production from any given manufacturer at the time, and sad to see how it's all been lost. Around that time, dad did a lot of work for local garages, and would come home with piles of brochures of the latest Bedfords and Austins.

I'd not realised, until looking through the site, that the long-bonnet Ford was a Thames Trader.

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They are all Bedfords in the second photo, models A, S, O and the last two are also A's. There is a group on Facebook called 'Even Older British Trucks' which from time to time features milk tankers. There is a pic of an Express Dairy AEC tanker posted this morning on that group.

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