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Original Text (Annotation: EPW019270 / 202445)
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Many of these wagons carry the GWR White circle indication found on banana vans. This would suggest that the white ship standing beside the large transhipment shed is a ‘banana boat’. There are several lines of banana vans on the surrounding tracks. Unlike today when imported bananas arrive chilled, in 1927 they would arrive green and have been put in steam-heated wagons to help ripen them ready for the markets in Birmingham and the north. Most of the bananas for the south came in through Southampton.
For a rather poor illustration of a GWR banana van in its preserved state, complete with its white spot, go to www.flickr.com/photos/svr_enthusiast/7740976996/
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