British railway milk tank wagon

There was a ladder either side to allow filling via an industrial rubber hose into a flip-top dome casing, while a steel pipe exited at the bottom of the tank with a tap either end of the chassis between the buffer beams for extraction.

[1] The first tanks were labelled externally as being glass-lined (they were actually vitreous enamel), meaning that the wagons themselves were unauthorised for loose or hump shunting, a reminder of which was applied in large capital letters to the chassis.

Early tank design had no baffles, meaning that the milk self-churned during the journey, and made the wagon highly unstable.

After the required improvement in milk quality was not gained, and a number of derailment accidents, 13 feet (4.0 m) three-axled six-wheel wagons were introduce from 1931, and baffles became standard practise.

[1] The wagons as out-shopped from various railway works were highly decorated – often to show both cleanliness, good hygiene, and as a travelling advertising board.

Early designs had a high amount of labelling, mentioning insulation, hygienic glass lining, and the dairy company name in large superscript and shadowed letters on the sides of the tank.

MMB were not so fastidious on cleanliness standards, and so often in photographs either the cleaned silver paint has faded to white, or the wagons look dirty.

[1] A number of milk tank wagons have survived into preservation, mainly due to their recent usage as well as their ability to be redeployed on a typical preservation railway in a number of ancillary tasks when filled with water, i.e. water replenishment tank for steam locomotives; mobile fire tender; application of weed killer to control lineside vegetation.