GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Moor Street Station: gwrms2741

A bag of green bananas is being stripped of its protective wrapping after arriving at the Ripening Rooms below Moor Street. Each bunch of bananas (called a truss) comprised a long stalk containing six to nine hands, each of which had about fifteen fingers (individual bananas). The banana trusses were individually wrapped and in the wagons were laid on wagon floor on a bed of straw. Each truss weighed about 30 lbs. With up to 400 banana wagons loaded from a single ship, special trains ran under class C headcodes (express freight) to major cities, including Birmingham Moor Street Goods Depot (see image 'gwrms1729') where there was a Banana Ripening Room belonging to Francis Nicholas in Warehouse shed B. In February 1967 the last banana ship (MV Tilapa) was unloaded at Avonmouth as Elders and Fyffes moved all future banana traffic to Southampton Docks.

Robert Ferris

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