Milk traffic on Irish NG lines

[Kelvin White]

Did any of the Irish NG lines carry milk in milk churns?
If they did what type of wagon / van was used?

I’m aware the Clogher Valley had butter vans, but I presume these carried butter & cheese, not milk in churns.

[jhb171achill]

Irish railways did not carry milk in anything remotely like the quantities that British lines did, thus no milk tankers.

What milk traffic WAS carried, travelled in churns in ordinary wagons or vans.

As far as the narrow gauge was concerned, as mentioned, the CVR carried some, I believe in churns in standard open wagons (along with gawd knows what other stuff!). I have an idea that the Cavan & Leitrim might also have done so.

However, it is probable that most of the lines carried small quantities from time to time also, again in ordinary wagons.

[Mayner]

The Cavan and Leitrim built a pair of Milk Vans No 1&2 in 1902 & 1902 and appear to have considered building another two in 1917 but built a pair of Timber Trucks instead. The vans were set up as passenger brake vans and had end doors but no end platforms for accessing the coaches.

The milk vans were quite different in outline from the standard C&L passenger brakes with outside framing similar to a hard roofed van. 

They originally appear to have been painted in dark blue with "Milk Van" lettering on the door, later one was apparently painted grey and the other brown and both were painted green in CIE days, apparently the vans were also used for fish traffic in the early 1900s

The "Milk Vans" appear to have been mainly used as passenger brakes on the Main Line in CIE days.