Slovenia: Motorail or car freight transporter?

[mm333]

Sitting in Ljubljana station yesterday morning, I watched a freight train loaded with wagons of cars head west. Was this a freight movement or a motorail service?

And have there ever been cars moved by freight in the United Kingdom?

 

[317666]

It might have been a motorail service - especially if there was a coach on the back for use by cyclists.

As for whether cars have been moved by freight in the United Kingdom, it depends whether you mean cars fresh from the factory or cars that are in use.

 

[alanf]

Either way the answer is yes providing you class motorail as freight at least as far as the cars are concerned that is

 

[30907]

unless there were passenger vehicles it was a freight. afaik france is the only country where motorail cars are carried on freights.

 

[33056]

AFAIK the only motorail train in or passing through Slovenia is the Avtovlak which runs between Bohinjska Bistrica and Podbrdo / Most na Soči, nowhere near Ljubljana.

 

[30907]

Autoslaaptrein were advertising NL-Koper for this year but don't know if it runs.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Autoslaaptrein were advertising NL-Koper for this year but don't know if it runs.

The much lamented Thomas Cook timetable shows eastbound on Friday and westbound on Saturday Koper-s'Hertogenbosch with dates but no timings available.
August 31 was its last day of operation, much like the timetable :cry:.

 

[30907]

Which rules it out for the date of the OP's sighting.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Which rules it out for the date of the OP's sighting

Not necessarily. Last return Koper >>> s'Hertogenbosch was 31/8, and the OP referred to "yesterday" on 1/9... it could conceivably have been the northbound service.

I think it is more likely that this was a freight movement of new cars manufactured by Revoz in Novo Mesto. Revoz is owned by Renault, and the Novo Mesto plant currently manufactures the Renault Twingo and Renault Wind. The plant was most famous for building the Renault 4 up until the eighties.

I don't know for sure if Revoz export cars by rail, but the plant has a pretty substantial rail facility.

Edit: looking for pics, I found this from 2007. They look like mk. 5 VW Jettas, which I think could have been built in Germany or Slovakia.

 

[Eagle]

And have there ever been cars moved by freight in the United Kingdom?

Yes, all the time, mainly as containerized traffic from various car factories in Britain to and from Southampton or Felixstowe for exporting.

 

[AJP62]

There were also new cars carried in specific trainsfrom factory to distribution point or port.

There were several flows too/from Scotland through Carlisle during the 70s.

Chrysler (previously Hillman I think) produced cars at Linwood by Glasgow airport. These would be taken south to Coventry and used a mix of Cartic-4s (double deck trucks in articulated sets of 4) or flat wagons (usually old carriage frames the same as Motorail used).

British Leyland and Ford moved cars to or from Bathgate (the reason the Bathgate branch was retained I recall) and there may also have been trucks moved from there.

Further south I think cars moved from Dorridge and Longbridge from the many car factories then in the West Midlands to Southampton.

More recently I've seen cars on more continental style wagons with raising covers going south on the WCML at Nuneaton possibly from Halewood for export.

 

[MacCookie]

Autoslaaptrein were advertising NL-Koper for this year but don't know if it runs.

It did run over the summer. I photographed it at Venlo a few weeks back where it changed from NS traction to DB.


NS 1764 and DB 101 101-4, Venlo by MacCookie, on Flickr


101 101-4 and 1768, Venlo by MacCookie, on Flickr

Although they had a slight problem...


Forgotten?! by MacCookie, on Flickr

All the photos of the AutoSlaap Trein (including the second one to Livorno, which had far more interesting traction going on to it) are on my flickr site.