Hi, nice to see an update to this thread. The history of these ferry wagons is interesting and I'm glad they are still used in Europe.
Firstly, this section is about your post from February last year, with the photo of 33 87 F-GRSE 9345 955 - 7 Uagpps.
I think there was only one wagon with the E389 design code, 8705980017 (built 1974) which was renumbered 875699001x by 1990.
Your wagon looks very similar to the E431 type in this photo:
https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/U...red-hoppers/JIA-Traffic-ServicesVTG/i-GBcP5dT
The E431 wagons built in 1974 are very similar to some E644 wagons built in 1983 (the E644 wagons are the "French Polybulks" on Paul Bartlett's site)
The renumberings are confusing! This is what I can work out from a 1990 book listing the ferry wagons used in the UK (N.B. check digits mostly not shown, e.g. 700999000-064 is a number range for 65 wagons):
700999000-064 built 1974 (E431)
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/polybulk
875699011-025 built 1983 (E644)
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/frenchpolybulk
7009990222/039/055/056 (E431) renumbered 875699007/008/009/010 (E644) by 1990
875699002-006 (possibly from the 1974 E431 batch ex 700699xxx) renumbered 709382001-005 (E675) by 1990
700999000 (E431) renumbered 709382000 (E431) by 1990
700999006-058 (E431) renumbered 709382006-058 (E431) by 1990
875699021x renumbered 8706990128 by 1998 (info from Paul Bartlett photo)
This photo shows 8756990150, one of the 1983 built E644 wagons, at Dover in 1989. There is a "Pechiney" logo near the roof
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmillington/2037939627/in/album-72157603210839981/
These NACCO polybulks operated between France and the UK for Pechiney, conveying elemental silicon (known as silicon metal) to Dow Corning's chemical plant producing silicones at Barry Docks, near Cardiff in Wales. The same traffic to Barry Docks was also carried in containers. I think the polybulks contained powdered/ground silicon and the containers had larger lumps of it inside. The container traffic is still moved by rail to Barry but from the ports, not through the channel tunnel.
I think the rail-connected French production facilities were at Anglefort and Montricher, now owned by Ferropem ("pem" = Pechiney electrometallurgie), producing silicon from quartz.
https://www.ferroglobe.com/about-ferroglobe/industrial-footprint/anglefort
https://www.ferroglobe.com/about-ferroglobe/industrial-footprint/montricher
The silcon traffic in polybulks (TOPS code IRB) to Barry Docks stopped at the end of 2015. Below is a list of wagons used on the Pechiney silicon traffic and the date they left the UK. It looks like the original E431 (built 1974/1975) and E644 (built 1983) wagons were mixed together when renumbered again, and all of them in the list below became E644. Except one... I don't know anything about the E812 wagon in the list, maybe another renumbering...
8006990014 / Mar 2014 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990022 / Mar 2014 / E644 / Built 1983
8006990030 / Oct 2013 / E644 / Built 1983
8006990048 / Dec 2015 / E644 / Built 1974
8006990055 / Jan 2016 / E644 / Built 1974
8006990063 / Jan 2016 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990071 / Dec 2015 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990089 / Dec 2015 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990097 / Nov 2015 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990105 / Dec 2015 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990113 / Dec 2015 / E644 / Built 1975
8006990121 / Jan 2016 / E644 / Built 1975
8093830008 / Dec 2013 / E812 / Built 1975
8706990029 / Oct 2009 / E644 / Built 1975
8706990037 / Mar 1996 / E644 / Built 1975
8706990052 / Jan 2010 / E644 / Built 1983
A couple of photos of this traffic en-route to Barry Docks:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99279135@N05/13929726598/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99279135@N05/13929714277/in/photostream/
===================================================
Part 2: STS wagons
https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/stspolybulk
Thanks for the photos of the STS wagons. It looks cold there!
There is a small amount of data in the "TOPS" computer system showing their last journeys in the UK, with the old numbers and diagram. The list below shows the month/year when they were last in the UK, and also the last loaded working (they all returned empty to Europe on the train ferry to Dunkerque). My 1990 wagon book shows the number series as 709382100-129, owned by CAIB/STS (I think STS became part of CAIB then eventually VTG) with the comment "On hire to CITA" which matches the logos in the photos by Paul Bartlett. I think CITA was a Belgian company organising grain transports, similar to TSL / Grainflow in the UK.
7093821003 / Apr 1990 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported malt to Eccles Road (Norfolk) via train ferry
7093821094 / Mar 1995 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported malt to Ely (Cambridgeshire) via train ferry
7093821102 / Mar 1990 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported malt to Keith (Scotland) via train ferry
7093821177 / Mar 1993 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported grain to Selby (North Yorkshire) via train ferry
7093821185 / May 1993 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported wheat to Selby (North Yorkshire) via train ferry
7093821227 / Mar 1990 / E574 / Built 1984 / Imported wheat to Selby (North Yorkshire) via train ferry
