Does your layout run a fish train?

[Sun Chariot]

Excellent - hopefully some workbench output in the near future I hope!

Me too! Our fostered furball has grown very rapidly; I'll need to think how I keep scalpel,.glue, paint & delicate kits away from his inquisitive reach...

 

[Sun Chariot]

My fish haul is at 18. Three are RTR and a further six are built + painted Parkside kits simply needing 1950s-era numbering and some weathering powders. The other nine are kits to be built; I have that as my 2025 mission!
Rapido's ex-GNR insul van hopefully arrives this year. Just a BR 20t brake van still to be bought; then my rake of 20 is ready.
My two LMS dia.1663 Cambrian kits will be added to a general merchandise fitted freight instead.

My intended train comprises 12' and 10' wb vans + conflats. I had planned to include 2 examples of LMS dia 1663, a 9' wb design van; but it would be unlikely on a fish train, due to the 35mph operating speed limit imposed in the 1950s.
9' wb wagons were limited to a max speed of 35mph (versus 45mph for 10' wb). The restrictions were imposed following several derailments of short wheelbase wagons, due to them "hunting" (laterally oscillating) along sub standard track, until the flange rode over the rail-top.
In the early years of the Big Four, 9' wb fish vans were built by the LMS (dia 1885) and LNER (dia 23). By the late 1950s, the 9'wb fish vans were relegated to non-fish use, e.g. for general merchandise.

 

[Iskra]

Can anyone assist with whether a Hornby White Fish Van with Blue Spot would be acceptable for use on my vaguely West Highland themed layout? Or would I be better with just a generic brown van (or something else)? The White Hornby one says on the side of it that it's for use between Kings Cross and Aberdeen. Did they run attached to passenger trains or were they purely used in rakes?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Can anyone assist with whether a Hornby White Fish Van with Blue Spot would be acceptable for use on my vaguely West Highland themed layout? Or would I be better with just a generic brown van (or something else)? The White Hornby one says on the side of it that it's for use between Kings Cross and Aberdeen. Did they run attached to passenger trains or were they purely used in rakes?

You could have a (very filthy by then) white van attached to a 1970s passenger service along the Oban, Kyle, Mallaig or Far North lines.

Until cessation of dedicated fish services (in 1968), the dia. 800 and 801 vans were kept in dedicated fast fish consists.
Single fish vans appear to have perpetuated into the 1970s BR(ScR), with the van attached to some daytime passenger workings. See Gloster's info on posts #7 and #9.

 

[Iskra]

You could have a (very filthy by then) white van attached to a '70s passenger service along the Oban, Kyle or Mallaig lines.

Until cessation of dedicated fish services (in 1968), the dia. 800 and 801 vans were kept in dedicated fast fish consists.
Single fish vans appear to have perpetuated into the 1970s BR(ScR), with the van attached to some daytime passenger workings. See Gloster's info on posts #7 and #9.

Wonderful, thank you!

 

[Gloster]

Before the Spot vans were cascaded down from the Aberdeen-London trains, the most likely type to appear would have been an older fish van, rather than an ordinary vanfit. Fish vans had floors that could be washed down to clear off the water that ran out of the boxes as ice melted, vanfits didn’t and you don’t want fishy water soaking into the floor.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Before the Spot vans were cascaded down from the Aberdeen-London trains, the most likely type to appear would have been an older fish van, rather than an ordinary vanfit. Fish vans had floors that could be washed down to clear off the water that ran out of the boxes as ice melted, vanfits didn’t and you don’t want fishy water soaking into the floor.

(Blue) Spot on. In Iskra's #post 21 photo, I think that lead van is a Bachmann ex-LNER dia. 83, which would be correct; also usable are ex-LNER d.134, or ex-LMS dia. 2059. Kits made by Parkside (and now Peco)