milk tankers

"milk marketing board" site:.co.uk brings up about 560 hits when entered into Google....

From

"Dairy Crest began life as the milk processing operation of the Milk Marketing Board, the public body set up in 1933 to control the production and distribution of milk in the UK. As you'll see from the significant events below, we've come a long way since then. Today, we're the UK's leading chilled dairy foods company, and one of the ten largest food companies in Britain."

Cast iron brake dust I expect, amongst other things....

The message from "piemanlarger" contains these words:

White? Brown?(Well you know the answer to that one! ) The ones I saw hung on the back of down WCML expresses were black, and they showed no sign of ever having had any other colour applied, nor any ownership lettering that I can remember. I always assumed that they came off the train at Preston and were tripped to Garstang Creamery, but I could be wrong.

I read that they were rarely in one place long enough to be cleaned outside and in.

One would hope they were periodically cleaned inside, if not outside.

"MartinS" wrote

I think they were glass lined and would be steam cleaned after use.

John.

...

Unless the milk was destined to be Lancashire cheese. ;-)

I've found the reference now, Pictorial record of GWR Coaches - Russel. Caption to a photo of milk tankers being steam cleaned on the inside following delivery to a dairy goes on to say that they weren't cleaned on the outside through lack of time before they had to be hauled back out to the country in time for the following morning's run.

Could be a bit like old Dutch gin, several times up and down the WCML to mature :-)

Jim.

The message from "John Turner" contains these words:

I was assured that they were sterilised inside, and that steam was the easiest way of doing it - there was plenty of it about!

The message from Jim Guthrie contains these words:

Hmmm. Left for a few hours on the back through lines at WBQ? That would explain why some Lancashire cheese has a soapy taste... ;-)

Definitely cleaned inside if not outside, normally at both the recieving depot upon unloading, and then at the creamery. The external colour of the older, 'silver' liveried tanks was due almost entirely to the effects of spilt milk, so the scent of a rake of 20 passing you could be imagined. The later white and orange St Ivel tanks, and the final stainless-clad MMB tanks seemed to stay much cleaner. All had glass-lined tanks, and thick layers of insulation- the tanks were owned by the dairies, whilst the underframes belonged to the railways- in the period I remeber them from (the early to mid 1970s), they would come back from Swindon with the underframe resplendent in black, or sometimes rail blue, but with the tanks still absolutely filthy. 'Beyond the Crumbling Edge', by my former colleague Stephen Poole, goes into some detail on the operation of these tanks in their latter days. For my part, I wish someone would come up with a reasonably priced R-T-R version to hang behind a Western or Hymek. Brian

Dapol are doing an all new model offatotally new mould this year, Uunited dairies, west park, express milk, RRp is £13 each though, should be in the shops for arond £11-12

Simon

N or OO gauge ?

00

I shall start collecting the milk-tokens now..... Brian

The message from "piemanlarger" contains these words:

Not much use here, then. 8-((

Gosh, that gives your age away :o)

I remember as a kid being jealous of customers buying milk tokens at the central co-op. I thought it was play money!

(kim)

Except that the Peco one's a 4-wheel tanker, of a sort that wasn't used after WW2... Brian

I'm saying nothing... I remember when we lived in Newcastle, that the flat got robbed, with the only things taken being the milk tokens and the bank paying-in book. Not, I suspect, the most successful burglary ever. Brian