'Piggyback' Freight Melton Mowbray

[sharpley]

Anyone remember the piggyback freight services from the Pedigree Petfoods factory in Melton Mowbray? Lorry trailers driven on to rail wagons and sent down to Cricklewood (I Think!) for onward delivery to the south east. Trailer was reversed onto the wagon via a ramp, then swung round into position.

I remember at the time it was a big thing being the first of its type in the UK (I believe). Got featured on Tomorrows World and even had a visit from a Tory battle bus during an election campaign. Containers won the day in the end and piggyback system died a death. PP had a regular container service as well that was loaded from a crane on the loop just to the east of Melton station (crane still there I think, they used brown curtain sided containers). This piggyback system is why the sidings next to Melton station are tarmac'd. Having lived in Melton in the 80s and having seen some freight videos from the US where trailers are often sent by rail it just brought up some old memories.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I do remember seeing this at a demonstration although I never worked with it. Always seemed like a very complicated operation, particularly over a relatively short distance. It needed a lot of space to swing the decks (which needed a separate compressor IIRC), manoevre the ramp and shunt the trailers around. Remember that you need to have a full trainsworth of space to move the trailers to and ideally further space for another trainload of returns. The trailers couldn't be stacked as you can with containers and reachstackers.
Staff were endlessly trotting backwards and forwards between wagons, compressor, ramp and lorry tractors as they turned on/off locked/unlocked, coupled/uncoupled, jacked up and down, swung in/out, directed arriving and departing lorries into position, have a fag, etc.
The sort of thing that might look just about OK with a single wagon demonstration in a shed and all of the bits of equipment pre-positioned. Rather a different prospect on a cold, wet night in the open.

 

[furnessvale]

Piggyback only really works in the USA because they are virtually standard trailers lifted onto standard rail wagons. Even then, it took the economies of doublestack containers to win over large trucking companies like JB Hunt.

Rolling road, as used on the continent, only works thanks to large subsidies.

In the UK, combine our short trips, tight loading gauge, needing special trailers and rail wagons, and you are on a hiding to nothing.

If you have to lift the trailer onto the rail wagon, you may as well use a container and leave all those loading gauge gobbling, and heavy, road wheels behind.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

From memory - there was an SRA freight team "innovation" competition which came up with about 3 cunning schemes - none of which came to anything (a) Cambrian timber trains with MPV haulage (b) Mini containers tried out on things like Bulmers flows and I believe Anglo Scottish (c) Blue Circle cement for the crashingly long distance flow from Westbury to Southampton , using similar equipment to the above , but for bulk cement tankers.

As someone said , after a couple of trains , the cement tankers could be seen being used on road flows.

 

[sharpley]

Found another thread on this forum regarding this freight service...
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/charterail-information-request.94033/

Also found a few more pics, including John Major on his visit to Melton sidings

 

[randyrippley]

Don't (or didn't) some of the Malcolm's freight flows use something similar?

Seems to me the only really viable route for this kind of thing would be ferry port to ferry port e.g. Felixstowe/Harwich to Heysham/Holyhead or similar

 

[Edders23]

I believe they were also tried on other flows such as for coca cola to and from london but Charterrail went bust and the idea went with them

 

[Dr Hoo]

I believe they were also tried on other flows such as for coca cola to and from london but Charterrail went bust and the idea went with them

Noting the separate SRA piggyback trial, which I think used lift-on road tankers and pocket wagons. (Thanks, ChiefPlanner.) I think that the last use of a Finnish swing-deck, ‘drive-off’ wagon was on the DRS milk tanker trial between Penrith(?) and Cricklewood in the late 1990s. This only used a single loaded wagon and was more to demonstrate the operational reliability and speed of the path rather than the wagon in particular.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Delving back into the 1960's , there was an innovative trail of the "Roadrailer" , built in Oxford by Pressed Steel and tried out on the ECML. Plan was for London to Edinburgh - a good step up from 12 ton vacuum braked 45 mph rolling stock , but by all accounts very troublesome and incredibly rough riding. Never materialised in traffic whilst it was suggested it be bricked up in a tunnel , it was quietly withdrawn.

BR concentrated instead on the Freightllner concept.

There was another surge of innovation in the mid - late 1980's , with the Blatchford transfer crane (basically set yourself up as a terminal anywhere with hard standing) , and Minilink and Maxilink. Despite extensive trials it (again) came to not much.

Motorway expansion and ever increasing tonnage of HGV's saw to that.

 

[furnessvale]

Another major problem in the UK is our apparent inability to make full use of the loading gauge we do have.

All our various attempts at piggyback seem to have the road wheels (when on rail) mounted much higher than other countries seem to manage. This loses potential payload space when we, of all countries, can least afford it.

 

[Bald Rick]

Another major problem in the UK is our apparent inability to make full use of the loading gauge we do have.

All our various attempts at piggyback seem to have the road wheels (when on rail) mounted much higher than other countries seem to manage. This loses potential payload space when we, of all countries, can least afford it.

That’s because our standard loading gauge narrows sharply below solebar level, which is not the case in Europe.

 

[Bald Rick]

The Melton pedigree flow reminds me of their attempt to circumvent the (then) 38t limit for HGVs when the limit for HGVs going to a rail terminal could be 44t.

Pedigree wanted to run road railers all the way from Melton to Corby.

 

[furnessvale]

The Melton pedigree flow reminds me of their attempt to circumvent the (then) 38t limit for HGVs when the limit for HGVs going to a rail terminal could be 44t.

Pedigree wanted to run road railers all the way from Melton to Corby.

I believe at one stage, containers for Europe were being roaded from somewhere in Scotland to the little used Didcot freight terminal using the 44t intermodal allowance.

Another abuse of allowances some years ago were piggyback HGVs from Spain being roaded from Dieppe throughout the UK making use of the unlimited quotas for "intermodal" operations.

 

[furnessvale]

That’s because our standard loading gauge narrows sharply below solebar level, which is not the case in Europe.

True, but we still manage to fit shipping containers on low height wagons.

My comment really refers to just how high the road wheels are above rail level compared to continental versions.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Another major problem in the UK is our apparent inability to make full use of the loading gauge we do have.

All our various attempts at piggyback seem to have the road wheels (when on rail) mounted much higher than other countries seem to manage. This loses potential payload space when we, of all countries, can least afford it.

Bad enough with standard ISO containers ,- note how many 9'6 boxes ride on passing Freightliner etc trains , something the industry did quite well in getting gauge clearance for (Yes - I know it is not everywhere..)

The issue of cube potential versus Railway gauge materialised a long time ago - first example I can think of was the total loss of Kellogs Traffic from Trafford Park to Marshmoor as long ago as 1979. Rockwool Fibreglass was another one from Cardiff.

 

[furnessvale]

Bad enough with standard ISO containers ,- note how many 9'6 boxes ride on passing Freightliner etc trains , something the industry did quite well in getting gauge clearance for (Yes - I know it is not everywhere..)

The issue of cube potential versus Railway gauge materialised a long time ago - first example I can think of was the total loss of Kellogs Traffic from Trafford Park to Marshmoor as long ago as 1979. Rockwool Fibreglass was another one from Cardiff.

Yes, all too late now but wagons based on low floor designs, perhaps using chassis based on lowmac, weltrol or similar designs could have saved the day. Even now, I find the sheer inefficiency of the deck height of wagons like Cargowaggons astounding.

 

[edwin_m]

Yes, all too late now but wagons based on low floor designs, perhaps using chassis based on lowmac, weltrol or similar designs could have saved the day. Even now, I find the sheer inefficiency of the deck height of wagons like Cargowaggons astounding.

Various designs of low floor container flat have a well between the bogies, but result in fewer containers in the same length because the space above the bogies is effectively wasted. Since container trains are generally constrained by length rather than weight, the number of containers per train is similarly limited, hence the preference for enlarging the gauge to allow standard container sizes on flat decks. There were some covered wagons for Rover that had payload in the space between the bogies, but last i saw they were all parked up at Washwood Heath and have been for many years.

 

[furnessvale]

Various designs of low floor container flat have a well between the bogies, but result in fewer containers in the same length because the space above the bogies is effectively wasted. Since container trains are generally constrained by length rather than weight, the number of containers per train is similarly limited, hence the preference for enlarging the gauge to allow standard container sizes on flat decks. There were some covered wagons for Rover that had payload in the space between the bogies, but last i saw they were all parked up at Washwood Heath and have been for many years.

WH Malcolm trialled a few of the Rover wagons on DIRFT to Scotland services but, as I said, all too late now, the wagonload services that could have benefited from such designs are long gone.

Some of the Rover wagons were also converted to log carriers, but not using the lower deck, they suffer the same lack of payload space that bedevils UK gauge wagons.

We are long past the time that the 1m height of a standard container flat became the standard for all wagons. A lower deck height such as Megfret could be used where cube is needed more than weight and the smaller diameter wheel is not so critical.