A fishy story |
| Jul 22 2010 |
From 1949-1961 BR built a standard 12-ton insulated fish van at their Faverdale wagon works in Darlington. These new vans were made of plywood, skinned with smooth aluminium sheeting for ease of cleaning and had two drains in the floor to enable water and fish slime etc to escape.
They were painted white to reflect the sun's rays and the roof was a sandwich of aluminium and rubber insulation. Some were fitted with roller bearings and vacuum braking for express workings. These were identified by a blue circle painted on the side and named 'Blue Spot' fish vans.
Throughout the 1950s trainloads of these vans would leave Grimsby docks each day for destinations such as London, Liverpool, Manchester and the West Country.
But the writing was on the wall, and by 1964 BR withdrew from carrying fish by rail and this is one of the only surviving working examples of these fish vans which can still be seen today at the LWR.
Extracts from an article by Jeff Beedham of Grimsby.
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