Modelling the Western Region by Emerson John;

Author:Emerson, John; [Emerson, John;]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crowood
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Largest of the GWR fruit vans and immortalized by Hornby–Dublo was the 10ton Dia.Y11 ‘FRUIT D’. Further batches were built by BR after nationalization, some with electric lighting, the switch gear being added to a Just Like The Real Thing kit (now available from MM1 Models).

Towards the end of their life, some of the ex-GW horse boxes were branded for use as calf vans, to carry valuable prize calves. This is the simplest of conversions, only requiring appropriate transfers to be added. For adult prize cattle, purpose-built prize cattle vans (code name ‘Beetle’) were built by the GWR. These were four-wheel vehicles, but BR built a similar batch on six-wheel underframes. It is unlikely that the RTR manufacturers will produce a model of these particular vehicles, but a kit for OO gauge is available from Parkside and WEP Models produce a 7mm kit.

The ‘Siphons’ were a family of vehicles built for milk-churn traffic, but in BR days they were used for parcels and newspaper traffic. The most familiar is the inside-framed ‘Siphon G’ built by the GW and BR, some of the BR vehicles having bodyside louvred vents covered by sliding shutters. Dapol produce an N gauge RTR model as do Osborns (the Dapol model but usefully with different bogies). The old Lima OO gauge model, although with incorrect BR1 bogies and no longer in production, is worth looking out for in the second-hand department of your local modelshop or on eBay if you are prepared to replace the bogies and do a little detail work. Several kits are also available. These vehicles had a long life, many lasting into the BR blue period on newspaper traffic.

Older ‘Siphons’ had outside framing but were more or less extinct by 1962; in model form the old Airfix/Mainline outside-framed ‘Siphon G’ is in the Hornby range, as is a ‘Siphon H’ – also produced in N gauge by Dapol and in kit form for O gauge by Scorpio. Long before nationalization, milk-churn traffic had been replaced by bulk transport using 3,000gal tank wagons. A six-wheel underframe was used as this gave better running at speed, and although the railway companies built and owned the actual wagons, the milk companies owned the glass-lined tanks.

The subject of milk tanks would fill an entire book, but fortunately for modellers of the WR there are several models available based on GWR and BR 3,000gal tanks. Both Dapol and Hornby produce RTR models for OO gauge, Dapol also producing a slightly hybrid O gauge RTR model. Kits are available from David Geen (OO), CRT/Powsides and Slater’s (O). Trains of milk tanks ran from West Wales and the South West of England to depots at West Ealing and Kensington, the formation including a full brake for the guard, often marshalled inboard of the last few tank wagons for a smoother ride. Most published photographs of milk trains show the empty workings, as the loaded trains would come up overnight.

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