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Western Region 1960/2- some Fishy Questions

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:22 pm
by Tallpaul70
Hi All,
I am posting this topic here so that I can access those of you who have not read my "Lower Thames Yard" layout thread.

First Topic
There was a train at 0740 that left Reading hauled by a 57xx, taking fish vans to stations as far as Slough.
The Fish was a class C, so I assume that it had a Passenger Brake Van rather than a Toad Brake Van?.
If so,the question is what sort of passenger Brake would have been used?
I am not sure if any fish would have been carried in it, but in some texts the train is referred to as a Fish and parcels train so parcels could have been carried.

Second Topic
In 1959, before the closure of Reading SR Station, there was a parcels (?) bay at the eastern end of Reading Station.
On page 82 of " Through the Links at Southall and Old Oak Common" there is a picture taken from the approaching 1.15 Paddington to Weston Super Mare (due to pass Reading 1.48) of a Hall (presumably the Reading East End Pilot) on vans ready to pull them out of this bay. The text describes the bay as a Fish Dock and says they were to be attached to the 12.00 Oxford to Paddington Parcels (at Reading 1.36-2.00).

My questions:-
1) What traffic was handled in this bay
2) What sort of vans were used?
From what I can see of the vans, which are partly hidden by the Hall, they appear to be BGs?
3) The 12.00 parcels from Oxford was a Hall job? Might the Hall in the pic be the train engine rather than my first idea of the Reading east end pilot?
4) A likely candidate for bringing the vans to Reading is the 06.45 Paddington to Reading parcels, but this arrives at Reading at 10.04, which only allows 2 hours or so for unloading, so is this reasonable?

Many thanks for any thoughts?

Best regards
Paul