GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Rolling Stock: gwrbsh3063

Great Western Railway fifty foot long Milk Van (telegraphic code Siphon G) No 1192 built in November 1928 to diagram O22 is seen at Birmingham Snow Hill in July 1947. See 'gwrbsh3064' for details of diagram O22 milk vans.

The Great Western Railway introduced their first dedicated vans for carrying milk churns in 1870. These were three converted third class broad gauge carriages that operated between the West Country and London. The growth in the population of urban centres increased the need for milk to be transported and the railways facilitated this by developing ventilated vans that could travel in passenger trains. Until 1921 dairy farmers were expected to take their milk churns to their local station or railhead where the churns were dispatch on local passenger trains either, in the guard's compartment or a small Siphon (depending on the normal quantity of churns to be collected on the line). The churns were then transferred to the larger Siphons for transporting to the milk depots in the major urban centres. Competition from road haulage firms lead to the introduction of both; rail only and road-rail milk-tankers, in 1927 and soon dedicated trains of milk tankers were regularly operating from the country dairies (see 'gwrbsh47' and 'gwrsrh281') to the major urban centres. Although these milk tankers became the principle means of transporting milk, the use of milk churns continued and the need for the Siphons remained. Internally the large Siphons had collapsible racking along the sides which could be folded away to leave an open space for storing full milk churns. The racking increased the versatility of the Siphons, which were also used for other perishable produce as well as parcels and newspaper traffic. An example is in May 1936, a Siphon G (No 1194 from the same lot as the Siphon in the photograph) was specifically branded for carrying ‘Pigeon Traffic’.

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting 'AEL204' (Photographer P Garland).

Robert Ferris

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