Building a milk/newspaper train, need some advice

[NZRedBaron]

I'm planning out a layout set at a junction station in the fictional market town of Market Trenholme, somewhere on LNER metals during the inter-war period; the station (aptly named Trenholme Junction) would also have a branch line leading to a fishing village named Yarlshaven, so there would be a small amount of fishing traffic going through Trenholme Junction.

Either way, if you'll pardon my rambling, the meat and potatoes of this post, is the fact that one of the trains that I want for this layout, is an early morning milk and parcels/newspapers train, most likely hauled by a "Claud Hamilon" or a B12; I've got most of a rake built (a couple of CCT's, a full-length brake coach and some ventilated and non-ventilated vans along with a brake van at the rear), but I'm looking to bulk out the consist, and remove some of the non-vents (which are mostly Hornby Railroad vans) from it.

What should be things I look to getting? That includes six-wheel milk tankers, or kits for vans to use for milk churns.

[JASd17]

Hello NZRedBaron,

You are not alone modelling the LNER, in NZ. You will find others on this Forum.

You have come across one of the odd issues regarding making up your own layout scenario. What actually happens?

If you model a real prototype and have access to information about its buildings and traffic, job done.

A fictional layout needs a whole back-story. Size of station/location to suit space available, geographical location/therefore likely traffic.

You have got so far. Newspapers and milk could perhaps be dealt with in a small 6-wheel van or the Guard's portion of a BTK/BT. Therefore, how big is your seaside community. That is the key. I suggest unless you are secretly modelling Grimsby or Hull, you should be thinking of less NPCS not more.

But, Rule One applies with fictional models too!

John

[Ocean Swell]

I know this is a bit out of your timeframe but considering you are having GE locos pulling this train here is the formation of 2 newspaper trains that left Liverpool street each weekday in the 50s.

Liverpool St to Norwich
CK,BG,BG,BG (Bury st Edmunds),BG (Yarmouth),PMVY(Lowestoft),BG(Yarmouth),BG(Ipswich),PMVY(Hawrwich)

Liverpool st to Clacton-on-sea/Walton-on-the-Naze
B,CK,BSK,SK,PMV,BG(Haverhill/Marks Tey),BZ (Cambridge via Colchester)

As you can see lots of vehicles were dropped off along the way so perhaps your train may drop off a a BG or CCT off at your junction station to be taken down your branch.

I can't really help in regard to the milk traffic however.

Cheers

[Seagull]

Welcome to the forum NZRedBaron

I've come across a few details about newspaper trains and milk trains whilst looking at passenger traffic.

Milk tankers did not start to appear until the early 1930's so prior to that it would be either milk vans, full brakes or often passenger brakes.
When the tankers did appear (they really only became common from the mid 1930's) they worked on fixed routes between a major milk producing area and a large city dairy. Usually there would be a short train of tankers and a brake 3rd or brake composite for the guard and the odd passenger. Smaller milk producing areas would either still use churns to send to a larger town via a passenger train or road transport.

Out of Kings Cross there were a few newspaper trains, one left at 1.05am one at 1.10am.
The earlier one was an East Coast Joint Stock train for York, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh. This was made up of 7 brake vans and 5 passenger carriages so a heavy train and most of the stock was what you could describe as front and second rank. It ran fast as far as Newcastle and probably required some fairly smart shunting work on the way.

The second one was for the GN section and is probably more what you are looking for. In 1935 it was made up as follows;-
6 wheel van for Grimsby
Van for Leeds (I have yet to identify this but it is almost certainly an older GN bogie van)
Lav composite for Leeds
Corridor semi-open composite for Hull
Bogie brake van for Hull
6 wheel van for Doncaster
Bogie Milk Brake for Lincoln via Retford
Bogie brake van for Grimsby
Brake van for Kings Lynn (almost certainly a 6 wheel van but I have yet to identify which one)

There was another one later in the morning which included a couple of mail vans, but at 17 carriages is probably a little more than you are trying to achieve!

Alan

[NZRedBaron]

Well, let's see now; I'll answer what I can.

The layout I'm planning is, as I said, a moderately sized junction station on a secondary mainline; I've worked out from a map it's somewhere in the northern part of East Anglia in the area of The Wash, semi-close to the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire county borders. The town that the station services is called Market Trenholme (named for an American friend of mine), and as the name suggests, is a moderately big market town (at least borough size, somewhere around 30,000 to 35,000 population), supplied primarily by both the local farms, and also by the fishing village of Yarlshaven, which is connected to the town by the branch line I mentioned, which meets the 'main line' at Trenholme Junction, the station I'm planning to build. As an aside, I was considering a nonsense reason to justify somewhat bigger engines, up to RA 8 or even RA 9, if needs be.

So also, to sum up, you're suggesting that rather than milk tankers, I should look for a couple more BG's and corridor coaches, and various other vans to put on? Any suggestions on what to get (preferably RtR, but will accept kit-bashing RtR stock, or kit building- plastic kits for preference, since I have no experience in soldering).

All that sound about right? Any other questions?

[NZRedBaron]

So, I was also having a think, and thought I'd see how this sounded:

The early morning train is made up of two passenger coaches ( a standard composite and a brake composite), a passenger Guards coach, one or two CCT's and a couple of fitted vents, with or without a standard brake van at the end.

How's that sound?