Wagon News

More shortened hoppers

A further batch of 48 IIA coal hoppers is to be shortened for aggregates use by WH Davis. This time a full repaint will be carried out into a dark blue livery with Touax and GB Railfreight logos.

As a result, a set of donor wagons arrived on June 30 from Doncaster, with 66740 delivering 37 70 6791 027/57/58/67/88/90, while another nine IIAS were brought to Shirebrook by 66716 a week later. 37 70 6791 002/08/19/45/46/56/66/85/86 had been retrieved from Ferme Park by the same loco the previous day after some time in store, with the train overnighting at Doncaster. Meanwhile, on July 15, five further rebuilt HHA hoppers were released, 370255/298/368/381/406 being hauled away to Gascoigne Wood by 70006.

Weedkiller moves on

The new loco-hauled weedkiller set mentioned in the August issue of Railways Illustrated departed the Severn Valley Railway on July 15 after a month-long stay for initial trials. Hauled south to Tonbridge West Yard by 66771, it will now undergo a further period of testing and training on the main line.

The three KFA wagons on which the various modules are mounted also carry EVN numbers with VTG95378380 being 99 70 9395 003-5, 001-9 and 002-7 respectively.

Ecofrets released

Another batch of newly-built FWA

Ecofret intermodal sets for GB Railfreight was collected from WH Davis on June 30 by 66740. Taken to Doncaster Decoy, the 4D21 1715 departure featured 83 70 4520 270-7, 83 70 4521 071-8, 83 70 4520 271-5 followed by 272-3/072-6/273-1, 274-9/073-4/275-6, 276-4/074-2/2772, 278-0/075-9/279-8, 280-6/0767/281-4, 282-2/077-5/283-6 and 284-8/078-3/285-5.

Long Marston boxes

A rake of nearly-new JNA aggregates boxes was retrieved from Long Marston on June 18 by 66764.

Taken to Willesden Euroterminal, 81 70 5500 607-609/611/778-803 were subsequently deployed into HS2 traffic from the remodelled site, taking construction spoil to

Barrington to infill the quarry. A month later, on July 15, 66056 delivered a number of somewhat older JXA box wagons to Long Marston for storage from Bescot, many of these originally being Sheerness Steel scrap carriers built in the early 1980s. The full rake was VTG3 100/09/10/12/19/23/24/25/32/35/3 6/56.

Breakdown cranes leave

The last two 76-tonne breakdown cranes on the network were removed from their long-time home of Wigan Springs Branch on June 23, West Coast providing 57314 and 47813 to move Cowans Sheldon-built ADRC96713 and ADRC96715. Taken to Burton Wetmore, the telescopic jib cranes are expected to be exported.