WAGON REPORT
AUTOMOTIVE components traffic was once a significant part of the railfreight portfolio. Ford at one time moved engine and transmission parts between sites at Bridgend, Dagenham, Halewood and Swansea. None of these flows survive today.
There is still components traffic between Dagenham and Valencia, Spain, carried on the Channel Tunnel Express service operated by Transfesa. A dedicated fleet of IFB four-wheel flats are employed, carrying bespoke swapbodies.
Variable gauge axles allow through running on standard and broad gauges. However, problems with ride quality and a subsequent 45mph speed restriction meant that proposed services to Halewood and South Wales never materialised.
The defunct Rover Group also made use of railfreight, sending body pressings from Swindon to Longbridge using a fleet of 100 KSA hi-cube vans. Today Jaguar Land
Rover imports components from Germany in curtainside swapbodies carried on FIA flats owned by DB Cargo. Trains run to Daventry with onward movement by road to JLR factories in the West Midands and on Merseyside.
More former Freightliner Heavy Haul HHA coal hoppers have been rebuilt by WH
Davis, Langwith Junction, for the transportation of aggregates: Nos. 370253/256/ 259-262/264/ 266/272/275/ 279/281/284/ 286/295/297/ 298/362/366/ 371/383/ 386/387/394/ 399/401/407/ 411. The wagons are in use carrying limestone from Swinden quarry. This is located at Rylstone on the eight-mile long GrassingtonSkipton branch. Trains operate to Tarmac terminals at Hull Dairycotes and Leeds. Until the 1960s, china clay or kaolinite had been shipped by rail in dry powder form, either bagged or in bulk. However, it became apparent that certain customers would benefit if the product was transported as a slurry. Bowater’s was one of the first companies to adopt the new method, with its ‘Clayfreighter’ block train running from Burngullow, Cornwall, to a paper mill at Sittingbourne, Kent. Up to 30,000 tons of slurry was transported annually, comprising 70% clay and 30% water. Starting in February 1967, the new service employed 18 TTA tanks, owned by Storage & Transport Systems and built by Rootes Pressings, Nos. STS 53111-128. Distinctive blue livery was used, together with company symbols of Bowaters and English China Clays. The service ended in October 1983. Movement of slurry by rail peaked during the 1990s with wagons serving Caledonian Paper and Inveresk Paper in Scotland, Crosfields soap works at Warrington, and ECC at Cliffe Vale, Stoke. Up to 100,000 tonnes of slurry was moved each year. In January 2008 the final ‘silver bullet’ train to Irvine, North Ayrshire, ran following the decision to end domestic production of slurry in favour of cheaper imports from Brazil. Schweerbau’s HSM highspeed rail milling train was stabled in Bescot engineers sidings on March 13. Ordered for use on Crossrail, it was originally classed as a single unit, No. DR 79601(No. 99 70 9427 063-1). However, each of its three elements are now individually Nos. DR 79602/603/ 604 (Nos. 99 70 9427 064-9/065-6, No. 99 70 9527 005-1). Private owner disposals have been JGA limestone hoppers Nos. RMC 13705/ 706/710, PGA hoppers Nos. REDA 14751/798, JGA bogie hoppers Nos. RMC 17202/203/ 205/207/216/ 218/219/223/ 224/234/243/ 247, Nos. RMC 19224/229/ 232/235/ 239/240, KFA container flat No. RLS 92615.