Weathering milk tankers

[Snowwolflair]

I must first say I have no views on this however I keep on seeing excessive "spillage" weathering on model milk tankers as if they were oil or tar tankers.

My understanding that as long as milk has been transported by rail cleanliness was a requirement and whilst some rust would be acceptable surely the vast spillage sometimes represented is excessive.

Does anyone have any definitive thoughts, photos or viewpoints.

[Mito]

Paul Bartlett's web site has several photos of milk tankers both clean and dirty. An example http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/gwrbrmilktanks/h319f1073#h319f1073

[NeMo]

Quite the reverse, @Snowwolflair.

You are correct that the insides were thoroughly cleaned. Steam cleaned for a spotless shiny glass interior. But given the time taken to transport the milk and then return the tankers to the West Country (or wherever) to have them cleaned and then filled up again, there simply wasn't time to clean the outsides.*

St Ivel famously made some effort to tidy up the outsides so they looked more attractive. But by the time this idea was being discussed the milk traffic was drying up. So yes, the majority of milk tankers would have been pretty horrible on the outside. We're probably talking more brake dust and general dirt than spillage though.

Cheers, NeMo

*Should have added: we're talking hours in the day. Tankers would be going to London and back each day. So there was very little time spare in between travelling to London, unloading, travelling back, steam cleaning, and refilling. Hence their dirtiness on the outside.

[Newportnobby]

Paul Bartlett's web site has several photos of milk tankers both clean and dirty. An example http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/gwrbrmilktanks/h319f1073#h319f1073

I notice the main pic of number ADW2532 shows it being labelled "not to be used for milk"

Does anyone have any definitive thoughts, photos or viewpoints.

I quite like the weathered tanks in the Dapol set with the class 22 but, as usual, they all look the same with factory weathering so I may have to experiment a little. At the very least I'd expect everything below tank level to look grotty.

[Karhedron]

Photos show that the outside of milk tankers were rarely cleaned post WW2 and got pretty filthy. Spillages were and issue and sour milk made a great adhesive for dirt. Check out the post below for some 1970s photos. The tankers vary from lightly weathered to absolutely filthy. Trains of clean, matching tankers seem to have been a 1930s phenomenon (St Ivel excepted perhaps).

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88678-dapol-6-wheel-milk-tanker/?p=2212687

[Karhedron]

Check out these photos of Hemyock, things were just as grimy in the 60s. Most of the tankers are silver although you would not guess to look at them. 

[Chetcombe]

Check out these photos of Hemyock, things were just as grimy in the 60s. Most of the tankers are silver although you would not guess to look at them. 

Great shots, particularly of that Green Class 22! Thanks for posting

[Bealman]

Most interesting discussion. Something I never really thought about. Those tanks in the pics are absolutely filthy!

[kiwi1941]

Slightly off-topic but following one of the links in this thread I came across "the CCR LMR drain train" at http://80srail.zenfolio.com/p352573549/h7d88e18#hde08f14 etc. Looks fascinating -can anyone provide any more information? TIA Brian

[Karhedron]

After milk trains ended in 1980, a small fleet of tankers were refurbished to provide a strategic reserve and looked very smart in bright silver livery. Sadly I don't think there were ever used in normal service.

[longbow]

Looking at the pics and the links, the tank sides below the filler caps do tend to be a little lighter in colour. That could be fresh spillage or perhaps it was customary to hose down the filler area before loading.

[woodbury22uk]

Wagon cleaning is a major job, and in the days before easily accessible pressure washing equipment, shifting even a small accumulation of traffic dirt from a wagon body with lots of nooks and crannies would have entailed many man hours. Once established the traffic dirt combined with acid rain and the sooty particulates of the pre-1970s atmosphere and you need more than water to separate the dirt from the body. One of the weakest points of the BR blue livery was the way it reacted with the cleaning agent (an oxalic acid based material, I think) to leave yellow streaks down the bodyside. So even regular cleaning has some downside.

Shot blasting works well but few wagons get a repaint more than once or twice in their lives to justify it. I do like the shiny appearance of that reserve milk tank rake, but it would not have stayed like that for too long in use. I remember someone asking me why a certain china clay slurry tank was called a silver bullet. The dirt encrusted wagon next to us did not live up to the original name.

[Karhedron]

True enough. It didn't take long for the silver bullets to go from this...



to this!