Slaters Plastikard O Gauge 7C019 MR/LMS 6 Wheeled Fish / Milk / Fruit Van Slat Sides Kit
Modelled from the 40 Midland Railway D1272 design slat sided fish vans built 1920-22. Slat sides provided ventilation and cooling from the steady air-flow while the train was moving. These vans had long service lives, lasting around 40 years. In later years many of these slat sided vans were used for other traffic including beer and seasonal produce such as fruit and vegetables. Some vans may have had the slats sheeted over inside for general parcels service.
Supplied with metal wheels and sprung buffers
This kit is modelled on the Midland Railway D1272 design vans which were constructed on 6-wheel coach chassis from withdrawn passenger stock. The Midland built 2 batches of 20 (40 vans total) designated as fish vans. Following the grouping the design was continued by the LMS, though now described as milk and fruit vans. A further 45 vans were added to stock, again using chassis recovered from withdrawn 6 wheel coaching stock.
Another lot of 100 vans is recorded as being to this diagram but photographs show this lot to have been to the later fish van design with louvred sides.
The vast majority of these slat sided vans appear to have continued in service until after WW2, though the movement of milk traffic from individual churns to bulk tank wagons reduced the need for ventilated milk vans. Photographs in the later years show several examples of these wagons with the body slat gaps boarded over on the inside and doors with external planking covering the gaps. Marked as PMV (Parcels Miscellaneous Van) some remained in British Railways service until the early 1960s.