North_Elmham_Milk
The North Elmham Milk Train
Until the early 1960s, a milk train ran daily (including Sundays) between North Elmham, on the Wymondham to Wells line, and the Unigate depot at Ilford. The train left North Elmham in the mid-afternoon as a Class C Milk and Parcels to Trowse, where it reversed and travelled South on the Great Eastern Main Line to Ilford High Road, arriving in the late evening. Here the train stopped for around 20 minutes to detach tankers, before continuing to Channelsea Junction with any remaining tanks.
There was no milk depot at Channelsea Junction; the sidings there were used as a staging point for various milk trains to Ilford to allow the depot to be continually supplied through the night and into the morning.
The return, empty tanks for North Elmham were collected by the early morning Class C parcels from Liverpool Street to Norwich. This working called at Ilford High Road at around 6:30 am and spent 20 minutes picking up the empties before heading up to Norwich. On arrival at Trowse at around 1:30 pm the empties were detached (the parcels formation continued into Norwich Thorpe) and were quickly returned to North Elmham on a Class C working.
Overall the North Elmham milk was a very slick operation with the tanks making a complete round-trip in just under 24 hours. The Summer 1961 timetable illustrates these movements as described below:
Page J113 shows the milk and parcels train departing North Elmham at 3.22 pm as a Class C working to Trowse. Arrival at Trowse is 4.40 pm (SO) / 5.4 pm (SX). Here the train reversed and headed up the Great Eastern Main Line, as shown on Page L37.
Page L37 shows the milk and parcels departing from Norwich Thorpe at 5.28 pm (SX). It stopped at Trowse to pick up the traffic from North Elmham, whilst the 5.45 pm from Norwich to Liverpool Street passed by. The timings at Trowse are not shown in the timetable, but can be inferred from the 56 minutes allowed to reach Tivetshall. Progress up the Great Eastern Main Line was reasonable, with 17 minutes at Stowmarket to allow the 6.45 pm from Norwich to pass, followed by 10 minutes at Ipswich.
After departure from Ipswich at 8.45 pm, there was a non-stop run to Ilford High Road, arriving at 10.26 pm. 22 minutes were allowed to detach the milk tanks before the final leg of the journey to Channelsea Junction. Departure from Ilford high Road was at 10.48 pm, with arrival at Channelsea at 11.17 pm.
There was no milk depot at Channelsea. The sidings there were used to stable milk traffic arriving from different parts of the country so that it could be tripped to Ilford to keep the depot supplied.
The return milk empties for North Elmham were picked up from Ilford High Road by the morning Liverpool Street to Norwich Class C parcels working. In the Summer 1961 timetable, this working stopped at Ilford between 6.38 am and 6.51 am, allowing only 13 minutes to pick up the empties. Hence, some very smart shunting was required, although progress thereafter to Norwich was fairly leisurely, with reasonable amounts of time waiting in Ingatestone Loop, and at Bentley and Diss. Arrival into Trowse was at 1.25 pm, where the milk empties were detached and the parcels stock continued round to Thorpe station.
The final stage of the journey was undertaken by the 1.0 pm (SX) Class C from Norwich Thorpe to North Elmham, which called at Trowse between 1.06 pm and 1.40 pm.
Again, some fairly smart shunting was required between arrival of the empties from Ilford at 1.25pm and departure at 1.40 pm. Final arrival at North Elmham was at 2.41 pm, concluding the round trip in just under 24 hours. A second set of tanks would have been filled, ready for departure back to Ilford at 3.22 pm.