Single Container Wagon at Milton Keynes Today

MK Tom · 6 Dec 2014

At around 4.30PM today I saw a single Maersk container wagon parked at the north end of Milton Keynes Central station platform 3. A few hours earlier I had passed the station and seen a freightliner stopped in Platform 3 facing north, and the Southern service was in platform 5. Does anyone know what was going on?

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hairyhandedfool · 6 Dec 2014

I don't have any facts so what I say may be miles off, but I'd suggest the wagon in question developed a fault (brake fault, hot axle box detection, etc), stopping the train and blocking the usual platform for some services. The wagon clearly got removed from the train and is now presumably awaiting collection for onward movement to a repair facility.

GearJammer · 6 Dec 2014

Meanwhile somebody at Maersk is picking up the phone to a client and saying...
'were ever so sorry your container isn't with you, its stuck on a broken wagon at Milton Keynes'......
'no sorry we have no idea when it will arrive'.....
'yes we are sorry, next time we'll put it on a truck which is far more reliable'.

455driver · 6 Dec 2014

GearJammer said:
Meanwhile somebody at Maersk is picking up the phone to a client and saying...
'were ever so sorry your container isn't with you, its stuck on a broken wagon at Milton Keynes'......
'no sorry we have no idea when it will arrive'.....
'yes we are sorry, next time we'll put it on a truck which is far more reliable'.

To which the client will say-

"its okay my other 4 containers are still on the M1 in the traffic jam"

Eng274 · 6 Dec 2014

GearJammer said:
Meanwhile somebody at Maersk is picking up the phone to a client and saying...
'were ever so sorry your container isn't with you, its stuck on a broken wagon at Milton Keynes'......
'no sorry we have no idea when it will arrive'.....
'yes we are sorry, next time we'll put it on a truck which is far more reliable'.

'Cos trucks NEVER get punctured tyres, fall over/crash, break down, or get stuck in motorway congestion.

edwin_m · 6 Dec 2014

There is always a risk of loss, delay or damage to containers whether by rail, road or ship. Hopefully they will manage to rescue it quickly, or at least drag it slowly to somewhere nearby where it can be offloaded.

bluenoxid · 6 Dec 2014

edwin_m said:
There is always a risk of loss, delay or damage to containers whether by rail, road or ship. Hopefully they will manage to rescue it quickly, or at least drag it slowly to somewhere nearby where it can be offloaded.

Customer doesn't care. The container is late and this fact is the end of the world. Despite the performance on the contract being above contract specific levels, they'll be making out that they're unloved by Maersk and people will starve as a result of this.

The Planner · 6 Dec 2014

Must have been one hell of an alarm to drop it there, especially when the wheelchex and HABDs are a lot further south, would have thought it would have been dumped in the Bletchley loops.

DaveNewcastle · 6 Dec 2014

Where the volume of exports from the UK to any other of its trading nations (e.g. China, USA, etc) is equal to the volume of imports in the opposite direction, then the need to transport empty containers will be confined to local movements between a UK importer and a UK exporter.

Somehow, we don't seem to be quite in that balanced position. So the prospects of the container being empty becomes significant. At this time of year, it could reach probabilities higher than 1 in 3.

MK Tom · 6 Dec 2014

The main thing that caught my mind was that it was blocking the down slow, causing massive disruption. Southern services were either using platform 5 or being cancelled altogether (the 16:13 at least was) and a lot of other things were delayed.

richardjeeves · 6 Dec 2014

Still there at 22:30.

GearJammer · 7 Dec 2014

158>185 said:
'Cos trucks NEVER get punctured tyres, fall over/crash, break down, or get stuck in motorway congestion.

Yes they do get punctures....... but they are fixed there and then.
Yes they do break down.......... but they get fixed there and then.
(in neither case does the container get left behind)

If a truck rolls over, the load is written off, as it would be on a train.

And as for congestion, yes they do get stuck in it, but 99% of the time they still arrive on time, its called 'planning'.

33056 · 7 Dec 2014

I don't know what was wrong with the wagon but guessing it might well need a wheel skate which are not necessarily available at the drop of a hat. If that is the case the pressure will be on to find one in this particular instance though overnight possessions will not have helped in getting the wagon moved.

DiscoStu · 7 Dec 2014

I hope they move it soon. Otherwise the Afghans inside may suffocate.

carriageline · 7 Dec 2014

To be honest, it is an awful situation. Surely any fault with the wagon should of been highlighted earlier on by the FOC.

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SPADTrap · 7 Dec 2014

GearJammer said:
Yes they do get punctures....... but they are fixed there and then.
Yes they do break down.......... but they get fixed there and then.
(in neither case does the container get left behind)

If a truck rolls over, the load is written off, as it would be on a train.

And as for congestion, yes they do get stuck in it, but 99% of the time they still arrive on time, its called 'planning'.

When was the last time a train rolled over? Compare that to a fellow 'GearJammer' :lol:

Passenger John · 7 Dec 2014

Probably full of our rubbish being exports to China - got to keep the export figures up as we don't make anything here now.

edwin_m · 7 Dec 2014

SPADTrap said:
When was the last time a train rolled over? Compare that to a fellow 'GearJammer'

To be fair, three or four containers will have been lost in the derailments at Camden and Gloucester, and several blew off two WCML container trains in 2008 due to bad design of the wagons. But I would guess far more were written off on the roads in the same period - it's just that we don't hear about them.

najaB · 7 Dec 2014

edwin_m said:
To be fair, three or four containers will have been lost in the derailments at Camden and Gloucester, and several blew off two WCML container trains in 2008 due to bad design of the wagons. But I would guess far more were written off on the roads in the same period - it's just that we don't hear about them.

There was also Carrbridge in 2010, I think several containers ended up on their sides. So it looks like every couple of years some containers get written off in a railway accident - I'm willing to bet that it's every couple of months on the roads.

Shimbleshanks · 7 Dec 2014

Also, there's now a big shortage of lorry drivers - down largely to the road haulage industry's unwillingness to pay them a decent wage or offer decent working conditions over the years. There are reports of containers being stuck for days waiting to be picked up in the first place.

Yes, they also need to be picked up and moved by road to the rail terminal but with the shorter distances involved, one truck can probably do several moves to the railhead in the time it would take to move a single container a long distance to the port, so rail is much less affected.

Road is still faster door to door than rail in most cases, but a lot of the boxes don't have to move that quickly.

GB · 7 Dec 2014

GearJammer said:
And as for congestion, yes they do get stuck in it, but 99% of the time they still arrive on time, its called 'planning'.

...as is the case for for railed containers most of the time. In anycase, not all containers that are transported on rail immediately get transfered to trucks or ships once they get to the rail yard. Theres usually scope to accommodate delays.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

carriageline said:
To be honest, it is an awful situation. Surely any fault with the wagon should of been highlighted earlier on by the FOC.

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Huh?

How do you expect a FOC (or TOC for that matter) to foresee faults that occur en route and in service?

If a wagon fault it identified at the train preparation point it gets reported, fixed if possible, or if it affects the traffic the load gets moved or the wagon gets knocked out. Not really much else you can do without a crystal ball.

carriageline · 7 Dec 2014

GB said:
...as is the case for for railed containers most of the time. In anycase, not all containers that are transported on rail immediately get transfered to trucks or ships once they get to the rail yard. Theres usually scope to accommodate delays.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Huh?

How do you expect a FOC (or TOC for that matter) to foresee faults that occur en route and in service?

If a wagon fault it identified at the train preparation point it gets reported, fixed if possible, or if it affects the traffic the load gets moved or the wagon gets knocked out. Not really much else you can do without a crystal ball.

Sorry, it was meant to have a question mark as being a mere signaller I do not know such things! But normally faults don't just appear out of nowhere for no reason, and can be sometimes picked up through inspections and maintenance, or is that not the case? For example if it was a wheel flat surely it didn't deteriorate that badly in its journey?

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edwin_m · 7 Dec 2014

carriageline said:
Sorry, it was meant to have a question mark as being a mere signaller I do not know such things! But normally faults don't just appear out of nowhere for no reason, and can be sometimes picked up through inspections and maintenance, or is that not the case? For example if it was a wheel flat surely it didn't deteriorate that badly in its journey?

This incident must be pretty rare - I don't recall hearing of any other container wagon being cut out of its rake like this - which means that most faults are found and fixed before they develop into a situation like this.

Axle bearings can run hot quite quickly, which is why the railway has hot axle box detectors, and wheelflats can develop too especially at this time of year when adhesion can be poor so wheels lock up on braking. Again there is equipment to detect this, such as Wheelchex and GOTCHA, and it may be that an alarm from one of these systems is the reason the train was stopped. These systems can also detect uneven loads, which contributed to some of the recent derailments so it may be that Network Rail is paying more attention to them.

MK Tom · 7 Dec 2014

What I actually wanted this thread to be about was does anyone know what train the wagon came off and why, and what impact it had on passenger services? Like I said, the 16:13 to Croydon was cancelled.

The Planner · 7 Dec 2014

And the FOCs dont like the WILD systems either as they cause the most alarms and they cop for the delay minutes, it always comes back to the £££.

GB · 7 Dec 2014

MK Tom said:
What I actually wanted this thread to be about was does anyone know what train the wagon came off and why, and what impact it had on passenger services? Like I said, the 16:13 to Croydon was cancelled.

4M88 04:25 Felixstowe - Lawley Street

The Planner · 7 Dec 2014

Cracked brake block on the first wagon and the brake couldn't be released and damaged a wheel. Knocked out lots of axle counter sections which is why it got caught. Needs a wheel skate to be moved. Pretty much massaced the service and 2600 minutes and counting.

eMeS · 7 Dec 2014

The Planner said:
Cracked brake block on the first wagon and the brake couldn't be released and damaged a wheel. Knocked out lots of axle counter sections which is why it got caught. Needs a wheel skate to be moved. Pretty much massacred the service and 2600 minutes and counting.

I assume this is a "wheel skate"?

40002mas%20Getting%20the%20skid%20into%20place.jpg

I got there at around 14:00, and left at about 15:15 just after I got the above shot from the multi-story car-park. There were two class 66 in attendance. How fast can it travel on a skate?

Ploughman · 7 Dec 2014

GearJammer said:
Yes they do get punctures....... but they are fixed there and then.
Yes they do break down.......... but they get fixed there and then.
(in neither case does the container get left behind)

If a truck rolls over, the load is written off, as it would be on a train.

And as for congestion, yes they do get stuck in it, but 99% of the time they still arrive on time, its called 'planning'.

You forgot the ones that fall off ships when the water gets a bit choppy.

swt_passenger · 7 Dec 2014

Ploughman said:
You forgot the ones that fall off ships when the water gets a bit choppy.

...or (highly off-topic) they even get knocked off by overtaking ships when they get a bit too close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ocTTkHqQcg

Ouch...

Single Container Wagon at Milton Keynes Today

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