Rail Freight Flows and News UK

[Class15]

Freightliner have today announced that they are starting 25 new weekly services.

https://www.freightliner.co.uk/news/freightliner-announces-25-additional-weekly-services/

4L97 Trafford Park to Felixstowe has restarted running but on the other hand 4L41 going the other way seems to have stopped!

4M92 is the new Daventry working but has been cancelled past Ipswich two days straight and the return (4L91) simply hasn’t run at all!

 

[AndrewE]

I saw an unidentified Freighliner Class 70 going southbound through Sheffield Station at around 11:20am towing a number of tanker trailers.

Cement empties? https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H10946/2023-10-03/detailed

 

[55002]

I saw an unidentified Freighliner Class 70 going southbound through Sheffield Station at around 11:20am towing a number of tanker trailers.

70001 on the Dewsbury Blue Circle cement to Earles sidings that would be

 

[littledude]

Which contract is this - is this to do with export of rails?

Yes, export of rail from Scunthorpe to Germany (for DB Netz) and Belgium (for Infrabel)

 

[Biscuit 56]

Rumour mill has it that Gbrf are taking over the china clay traffic

 

[66701GBRF]

Some GB intermodal changes....

4E03 Felixstowe South - iPort now only runs, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
4M66 Felixstowe South - Daventry runs, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
4M22 Felixstowe North - Trafford Park runs Monday to Friday (Possibly also Saturday)
4M04 Felixstowe South - Birch Coppice. No longer runs.

 

[Class15]

Some GB intermodal changes....

4E03 Felixstowe South - iPort now only runs, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
4M66 Felixstowe South - Daventry runs, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
4M22 Felixstowe North - Trafford Park runs Monday to Friday (Possibly also Saturday)
4M04 Felixstowe South - Birch Coppice. No longer runs.

Are there return workings too?

 

[WessexEclectic]

Does anyone have any info on the current status of flows to/from the Goole Docks branch?

Seems sporadic use to export(?) steel (see here).

 

[66701GBRF]

Are there return workings too?

Yes

Some GB intermodal changes....

4E03 Felixstowe South - iPort now only runs, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Return 4L03 iPort - Felixstowe South runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday

4M66 Felixstowe South - Daventry runs, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Return 4L66 Daventry - Felixstowe South runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

4M22 Felixstowe North - Trafford Park runs Monday to Friday (Possibly also Saturday)
Return 4L22 Trafford Park - Felixstowe North runs Monday to Friday (Possibly also Saturday)

4M04 Felixstowe South - Birch Coppice. No longer runs.
Return 4L04 Birch Coppice - Felixstowe South. No longer runs.

Some more...

4M18 Felixstowe - Trafford Park. No longer runs.
Return 4L18 Trafford Park - Felixstowe North. No longer runs

4M61 Felixstowe North - Ditton runs Tuesday to Saturday
Return 4L62 Ditton - Felixstowe North runs Monday to Friday.

4A03 Felixstowe South - iPort Runs Saturday Only (Stables Colchester then onwards Monday)
4A28 Felixstowe South - Trafford Park runs Saturday Only (runs to Parkeston then onwards Monday)

 

[Freightmaster]

Does anyone have any info on the current status of flows to/from the Goole Docks branch?

Seems sporadic use to export(?) steel (see here).

No steel since the start of the year - the only regular freight to the Goole area at present
is the sand train from Middleton Towers.




MARK

 

[Malaxa]

The Tilbury to Elton Encirq glass train which always ran on Wednesdays has also been doing extra Monday runs in recent months.

 

[ayubdaud]

Has the Daventry to Trafford Park Euro terminal started running? Appears to be a DRS 4K43 / 4K44 workings (although not sure why the Manchester bound train is a 4K when it should be a 4H). Mildly interesting that it sits in Chelford Loop for over an hour and a half, presumably because the 1240 slot into the terminal is taken by 0O29.

 

[Disco Bat]

Does anyone know how the letters in the headcodes relate to specific freight flows? With such a variety of routes I understand how they couldn’t be as clear cut as passenger routes but would a L or O for example give you any kind of idea of routing?

 

[Class15]

Does anyone know how the letters in the headcodes relate to specific freight flows? With such a variety of routes I understand how they couldn’t be as clear cut as passenger routes but would a L or O for example give you any kind of idea of routing?

L = destination Anglia Region
O = destination Southern Region

 

[Numbskull100]

Does anyone know how the letters in the headcodes relate to specific freight flows? With such a variety of routes I understand how they couldn’t be as clear cut as passenger routes but would a L or O for example give you any kind of idea of routing?

From an intermodal point of view and also an East Anglian one...

L tend to be bound towards the south east. Felixstowe/Gateway.
M are towards the Midlands/ North West via London
E are to Leeds / North East via Peterborough
S is to Scotland
V is to the West / Cardiff

However, we also use R which is used for services from Ipswich to Felixstowe, sharing the use of R with the Felixstowe passenger trains.

I think it will be fair to say that the letters can have meaning but those meanings can also be broken at will.

 

[AndrewE]

From an intermodal point of view and also an East Anglian one...

L tend to be bound towards the south east. Felixstowe/Gateway.
M are towards the Midlands/ North West
E are to Leeds / North East
S is to Scotland
V is to the West / Cardiff

However, we also use R which is used for services from Ipswich to Felixstowe, sharing the use of R with the Felixstowe passenger trains.

I think it will be fair to say that the letters can have meaning but those meanings can also be broken at will.

MESV are the old BR inter-regional destination letters, with O for the southern.
The rest of the alphabet was/is used and re-used in each region for trains within that region. See the front of any appropriate (old?) WTT for the regional explanations.

 

[Western 52]

MESV are the old BR inter-regional destination letters, with O for the southern.
The rest of the alphabet was/is used and re-used in each region for trains within that region. See the front of any appropriate (old?) WTT for the regional explanations.

Was N once used for the former North Eastern Region?

 

[AndrewE]

Was N once used for the former North Eastern Region?

I don't know, as it had disappeared in 1967 according to Wikipedia - while I was still in shorts - long before I got my hands on a WTT!
I'm sure there are websites with pdfs of old timetables...

 

[D6130]

Was N once used for the former North Eastern Region?

Yes....until 31st December 1966, when it was amalgamated with the Eastern Region (and the Eastern Region headquarters was moved from Liverpool Street to York).

 

[Steveswan10]

Hi all, anybody have any ideas to what the 4M20 Bristol-Crewe Freightliner on Friday 13th and return 4V18 Saturday 14th service was for? i.e was it a trial service for a new flow or just transfering wagons? 4M20 had 18 empty normal size container wagons but not sure about 4V18

 

[Freightmaster]

Hi all, anybody have any ideas to what the 4M20 Bristol-Crewe Freightliner on Friday 13th and return 4V18 Saturday 14th service was for? i.e was it a trial service for a new flow or just transfering wagons? 4M20 had 18 empty normal size container wagons but not sure about 4V18

Both trains were just wagon moves from/to storage respectively; I understand that the flats from 4M20
are destined for Guide Bridge for attention before returning to traffic.




MARK

 

[Steveswan10]

Both trains were just wagon moves from/to storage respectively; I understand that the flats from 4M20
are destined for Guide Bridge for attention before returning to traffic.




MARK

Ahh right okay, thank you......shame though.....was hoping it was a trial for a new service/services on the Marches

 

[littledude]

No steel since the start of the year - the only regular freight to the Goole area at present
is the sand train from Middleton Towers.




MARK

It strikes me as strange that a well connected port like Goole, and indeed a port as busy (for ships) as Goole, has such a poor railfreight presence.

There are considerable numbers of weekly calls into Goole, probably in excess of 10 per week, with large numbers of steel coils imported to a dedicated coil shed from Germany. I appreciate that not all of this will be destined for a location suitable for railfreight, but really, absolutely none of it?

 

[Penmorfa]

After an encouraging start freight on the North Wales coast has somewhat tapered off with only two trains in the last month, both for slate chippings from Llandudno to Bescot/Walsall. Nothing at all out of Penmaenmawr. I understood that Hope cement works was going to be using slate chippings?

 

[Dr Hoo]

It took much longer than expected to get planning consent for the discharge facilities at Hope but this has now been granted. Could still be a while until they are completed.

 

[furnessvale]

It took much longer than expected to get planning consent for the discharge facilities at Hope but this has now been granted. Could still be a while until they are completed.

Meanwhile, Peak District residents, like me, have to suffer the HGVs bringing the slate waste in down inadequate roads. Planners need to see the bigger picture.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Meanwhile, Peak District residents, like me, have to suffer the HGVs bringing the slate waste in down inadequate roads. Planners need to see the bigger picture.

Is slate waste already passing by road (at scale)?

The shale quarry at Hope is still being worked extensively, albeit at ever lower and wetter levels - which is prompting the switch to slate waste.

 

[furnessvale]

Is slate waste already passing by road (at scale)?

The shale quarry at Hope is still being worked extensively, albeit at ever lower and wetter levels - which is prompting the switch to slate waste.

Yes. HGVs returning loaded up the A6 are quite noticeabe, Monk Farms from Mostyn being one, others are available.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Yes. HGVs returning loaded up the A6 are quite noticeabe, Monk Farms from Mostyn being one, others are available.

Thanks for that, @furnessvale . I'll keep an eye open for them in the Hope Valley.

 

[ExRes]

DCR doing route refreshers/learning yesterday and today to Princes Risborough, suggested elsewhere that they are replacing DB