Fish traffic help

1936ace · February 08, 2016, 10:35:40 PM

Hi all,
I have in my head that one of the reasons the western terminus Barts End exist is that fish stock is transported from here to London.
The terminus is not connected to the dock so the fish is transported by lorry then loaded into the vans.
My question is how was it loaded. Would it have been loaded directly from the truck into the van or would the vans have been beside a load dock of platform of some sort and the fish unloaded from the truck in crates I'm guessing carried across/along the platform and into the vans.
I've found photos of the big fish markets and their multi road set ups but nothing on a smaller scale
Cheers
Bart

weave · February 09, 2016, 03:48:04 AM

Hi Bart,

I don't know the answer but had a look and found this which I thought was a nice photo....

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/tynemouth_fourth/tynemouth(early20thc)old64.jpg

I presume it would be similar with a wide platform that the trucks can access and turn around on and then the crates either forklifted or man handled into the fish wagons.

I can't remember your era. Think modernish? so maybe the trucks back up to a platform bay and they are then forklifted in.

Think both options are plausible.

Probably haven't been much help but thought I'd try.

Cheers weave

PS. That is fish being loaded in the photo. It says it in the earlier link.

1936ace · February 09, 2016, 04:51:17 AM

Thanks mate
Love the photo. Just what I needed
I model 60's and 70's just enough to have the hst
I think I might go with a loading platform as you mention
Cheers
Bart

Bealman · February 09, 2016, 05:15:27 AM

Bit off topic, but I like that photo too. My mother used to take me to Whitley Bay on the electric train from Cullercoats when I was a kid. Used to go through Tynemouth. There was a tunnel just before, if I recall.

Back on topic, fish trains interest me too. I believe some heavy duty ones were hauled by A4 Pacific's during the 50s & 60s. I intend to recreate one!

1936ace · February 09, 2016, 05:53:44 AM

My main thoughts since it's really freelance is that Barts end was the terminus that people caught the holiday trains to, to then jump on a company bus to one of the nearby holiday resorts. I also wanted it to be where local fish, cattle are loaded up for journey into the cities
I was hoping to run express perishables
So would a train be made up of vans containing fish,vans containing meat and vans containing fruit or would the whole train be the same cargo
Bart

Bealman · February 09, 2016, 05:58:36 AM

Cool! Sounds like the Tynemouth example could be useful!

George

MikeDunn · February 09, 2016, 09:50:08 AM

Quote from: 1936ace on February 09, 2016, 05:53:44 AM
Barts end was the terminus that people caught the holiday trains to, to then jump on a company bus to one of the nearby holiday resorts. I also wanted it to be where local fish, cattle are loaded up for journey into the cities
I was hoping to run express perishables
So would a train be made up of vans containing fish,vans containing meat and vans containing fruit or would the whole train be the same cargo

Quote from: 1936ace on February 09, 2016, 04:51:17 AM
I model 60's and 70's just enough to have the hst

I think you're pushing what you want to model with the date range just a tad ! IIRC, most of your desire finished earlier than your era ...

Dorsetmike · February 09, 2016, 09:59:01 AM

QuoteSo would a train be made up of vans containing fish,vans containing meat and vans containing fruit or would the whole train be the same cargo

A lot would depend on the location and season, with perishables speed was essential; Main fishing ports like Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Grimsby would run complete fish trains, probably daily; ports with smaller fleets maybe add a couple of vans to a passenger service or tripped to a marshalling yard and made up into a van train of perishables.

Milk traffic from smaller dairies added to local passenger services or trip freight to a central yard (example Yeovil) then a full train of tankers &/or vans to London or other large city.

The SR handled quite a lot of imported refrigerated meat from Southampton, full trains, think boatload of New Zealand lamb!

Fruit growing areas would run trains of all fruit in season. Out of season no fruit traffic. Typical scene at Botley in LSWR days (linked from Google)

To sum up it's a good case for a bit of rule 1

Bealman · February 09, 2016, 10:04:19 AM

Eek. Makes you realise how labour intensive it was.

Mind you, at least people had an income.

1936ace · February 09, 2016, 10:42:28 AM

Have been known to push things to the limits. I said I was only going to run diesels but I've now got a good stock of steam locos so if I needed to go earlier I can
I run what u like and it looks good so a divot counter I'm not
Thanks heaps for those photos they are exactly the thing u was after
Cheers
Bart