Freightliner employs recycled wagons for aggregates work
Freightliner is introducing new 102-tonne MWA box wagons that use recycled components from redundant 102-tonne HHA bogie hoppers, for use with an aggregates contract.
The freight company is the first UK rail operator to introduce European Standard-compliant box wagons using recycled materials. It is taking delivery of 23 MWAs, and Freightliner Heavy Haul will use the wagons on a new aggregates contract with Tarmac.
With expertise provided by Greenbrier Europe, investigations confirmed that HHAs made redundant following the decline in coal could be used, albeit with some modifications. Their bogies and some brake equipment were compatible with an existing box wagon already produced by Greenbrier.
From November last year, Freightliner Maintenance Ltd (FML) recovered and modified bogies that were then dispatched to Greenbrier in Poland using Freightliner Road Services. The new MWAs were completed in Poland, and the first have now been delivered to the UK. FLHH worked with the Office of Rail and Road to ensure the wagons were compliant.
Chris Swan, senior manager, rail and shipping at Tarmac, said: “It’s good to see equipment and materials being repurposed, especially as this is a key part of Tarmac’s approach to sustainability and business.”
The decline in coal has hit FLHH particularly hard. ORR statistics released in May ( RAIL 802) show that FLHH recorded a 53.5% drop in freight train kilometres (the actual mileage in kms operated by freight operating companies). Overall, as an industry, rail freight carried 54.6% less coal in 201516 compared with the previous 12-month period.
Coal is now the third largest commodity in the rail freight industry, representing 13.1% of the market. Domestic intermodal (36.2%) and construction (22.4%) lead the way.