As usual, you bring experience and numbers to a debate - very interesting - especially given how much of the rest of the week the wagons are idle for the sake of a handful of journeys - thanks for sharing
Thanks - the present trainload operations from Baglan Bay and Carlisle to Chirk seem to have cracked the market quite well , good loadings on high capacity trains , easy train operations and so on. The timber sources from South Wales "harvest" from a wide range of forests (or soon to be "ex forests") and hauliers no doubt dump the inwards loads to a stockpile , so when the train comes in , there is a guaranteed load. Excellent logistics , rather than "there may be a need for 3 wagons at xxx next Thursday" - there often was not , so the wagons festered for maybe a week till it suited the haulier to bring it in , his vehicles no doubt having trunked easy loads to other locations.
The rates then , were awful. There was constant pressure to convert Speedlink covered vans (redundant due to the inability to match road hauliers who had the markets covered since about 1960) , to timber carriers , (chop the side panels off and fit stanchions and span set rachets) , quick coat of paint , - easily done by places like Cathays and Currock , - but at about £4 a ton gross (not net) , saying no was fairly easy , but did not go down well with senior managers for whom any traffic was worth having (at almost any cost !)
The concept of a salesman , who wanted resources to run timber from Sudbrook to Southampton for a wagon rate of £35 , including an element of a dedicated loco to run from East Usk to the loading point (and hang around there, plus shunter and loading staff) was utterly unviable , at least at Carmarthen there were keen (and underemployed staff) , plus other traffics around to make a better dent at the cost / revenue ratios
You can see how the concept of Speedlnk died. Even in BR days as the realities kicked in. You get the impression in Europe , that remaining timber traffics are now trainload only......
Not that we did not try , but even the foresters often said - unless the haulage rates were rock bottom , the timber was hardly worth moving. By road and rail.
Good luck to any ventures.
