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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Trent Valley Line
Shilton Station: lnwr_shil2378a
Close up of image 'lnwr_shil2378' showing the timber
platform erected on the up slow goods line specifically to handle milk traffic.
The milk churn are of a standard size, the older galvanised iron conical type
held 17 gallons, the cylindrical type with the mushroom shaped lid introduced
in the 1930s held ten gallons. Each churn carried a brass plate near the top to
identify the owning company and when full it would have a white paper label
(tied to the handle on the lid of the conical type and to the side handle of
the cylindrical type), which was used for accounting purposes by the creamery
or dairy. Milk churns were heavy so the normal practice was to tilt them on one
side and roll them along, the sketch shows both the older conical churn and the
later cylindrical type being moved in this way.
Milk churns were loaded into both luggage compartments of
passenger trains as well as milk vans, a farm hand assisting a porter was a
common practice. Note the loaded churns would all have a white paper label
attached to one of the handles. By 1883 one farmer alone was sending 19,000
gallons a year to Birmingham and by the late 1880s entire trains of milk churn
vans were a feature of railway operations. The milk churns remained part of the
railway scene into the 1960s possibly the 1970s, bringing the milk from the
farms to the country dairy and also travelling to the smaller towns and
communities along the line. Milk churns remained the principal method of
collecting milk from farms for many years. Bob Wilkinson writes, 'I think we
write off the sheer physicality of churns a bit too easily. Assuming the
density of milk to be the same as water gives 10lb per gallon or 179lb for the
contents now add on the metal churn and it must be rising 200lb,never mind the
cylindrical ones. No wonder the porters were slim shifting this traffic daily.
No wonder back injuries were so common! I thought churns went when bulk rail
tankers were introduced which I understood occurred after the General Strike of
1926.I can't imagine there were many tears.I think churns remained in use for
farm / creamery use until bulk milk transport by road and 'Rationalisation'
occurred'.
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