Bespoke milk tank wagon

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alec K
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Alec K

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With the same 'Westcountry background' theme as the Ivor Dewdney Boxcars posted in another thread on this forum, my first attempt at converting a new vehicle was the 'Daws Creameries' milk tanker shown below.

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No LGB vehicles were harmed in the transformation that took place, as, given my
limited resources, razor saw and LGB are two mutually exclusive categories. The donor vehicle was modified to look a little less like a fuel tanker, sprayed with tin coats of Halfors grey plastic primer and then finished with thin coats of Halfords Aluminium colour. The branding transfers were created by Chris Moxham. Daws Creameries was an active business on a site almost underneath the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, in Cornwall; it used Wincanton Transport road tankers and continued in business until the early 1970s, when the waterside site was cleared and used to shore up the hillside behind and for housing purposes. Saltash Goods Yard in the 1960s was rarely without at least three ex GW milk tank wagons awaiting attachment to an up train bound eventually for Wandsworth.

My vehicle blends both these sets of memories. Chris Moxham and I have worked, incidentally, on another of these vehicles, this time in partnership with the Rodda family of Scorrier in Cornwall, where their renowned clotted cream has been made since the 1920s. One of the two Roddas Clotted Cream tank wagons we produced now earns its keep on a garden railway not too far from the modern dairy at Scorrier.
 
Memories

When I was a lorry driver in the late 60s early 70s

I used to go into Daws creamery at Totnes right next to the Station

I wonder how many creameries they had??
 
It just shows what a small world Saltash was! I had no idea Daws owned the Totnes creamery as well, Don, but I'm hoping the Totnes site is still actually a creamery. I should be passing that way on the train later this year but doubtless you're more to up-to-date than me. That's what I like about this hobby- you can make so many memories tangible.

All the best,

Alec
 
If I remember correctly


the factory was closed down last year & there was some controversey over demolition of some historic buildings

one of Brunel's buildings ??
 
Just found this

http://leswood.powweb.com/Middleton_Press/Part304/Part01/index.html


see photos no 3 & no 8

As I remember it the sidings for the milk tanks were not in front of the creamery, but back towards the road bridge, so milk appears to have been loaded in to road tankers moved about 60 yards & loaded into the rail tanks. Well thats how it appeared in the 60s

Not a large factory, hemmed in between the road bridge, the railway line & the station
 
Hmm, interesting! Indeed, one of the creamery buildings at Totnes was/is a Brunel Atmospheric Railway Pumping Station, identical in form to that at Starcross, although it may never have worked to exhaust the 'atmospheric' pipe in the 7-foot way. I think this is because the system may have proved itself unworkable due to the well-known air ingress along the leather flap valve at an earlier stage. These buildings are certainly irreplaceable and may be listed - if not, they should be. As you say, Don, the rail tanker role at Totnes is certainly interesting in relation to the road tankers - and I think this was exactly the same at Saltash. I'm blowed if I can recall how the rail tankers were actually filled, and who by. Surely not Daws again? Anyway, someone out there will know....

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Attached is a picture of the pair of Rodda's Milk Tankers modified along the same lines as the Daws vehicle, but with greater and I hope more effective use of the razor saw and cutting pliers. Once again, full permission was sought and generously given by the Rodda family to use the company's well-known branding, and I am indebted to Mr Philip Rodda for his support for the project. The final colour is a light cream selected from the Halfords range with Humbrol metallic Silver used for some of the walking surfaces. The bespoke transfers are once more another Chris Moxham product and are generated from artwork supplied by A E Rodda and Co. The tankers are marked 'Return Empty to Scorrier GWR', this being the nearest station to the dairy, the former closing I believe in 1964. One of vehicles, as noted earlier, now runs very close to home on a garden system in Scorrier itself.

All the best, Alec
 
Alec K said:
................................... These buildings are certainly irreplaceable and may be listed - if not, they should be. ...............................
All the best, Alec
Click to expand...

Buildings of that age (and with such known provenance) MUST be Listed by the Local Authority.
A check of their records would confirm that but I can't beleive that they would have been missed.
 
Cornish milk wagons on the Rh B? That should upset the Swiss (the Milka cow has gone green), can we do the same for Belgian chocolates? :rolf:

I took a look at the Roddas site and suffered an attack of the munchies. :rolleyes:
 
Records duly checked via a very efficient South Hams District Council, who have sent me the full DCMS Listing. The Totnes Atmospheric Pumping Station building was listed on 7 March 2008, more recently than may have been assumed. The site was owned by the GWR until 1934, when it was purchased by Daws Dairy and incorporated into their milk processing plant, which continued to operate until 2007- hence the date of listing, I would assume. The building is listed because (1) it is one of a very small number of remains of the technology of the time (2) its 'rustic Italianate' style reflects the Victorian view of south Devon as the English Riviera. The campanile-style chimney was demolished - a truncated version remains at Starcross and is listed by Teignbridge DC- but although the building did contain boilers, it was never equipped with the Brunel beam pumping engine for which it was intended.

Alec K
 
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