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Using a road rail vehicle to pull freight wagons?

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Murray J

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They are specially made RRV trailers not wagons. They are much smaller and lighter than wagons. Not sure how many fully loaded ballast wagons an RRV is going to be able to pull and most importantly stop.
ah ok, but they weren't ballast wagons, they had new rails on them, so flatbeds?
 
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zn1

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i have reliably seen a Mk3 Astra Van drag a Mk1 a couple of yards - (the clutch was buggered by the end)
 

gg1

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That is an odd thing as usually road rail vehicles are road vehicles that have been modded to run on rails whereas that looks like a shunter that has been fitted with road wheels for some reason.

As interesting and clever as it is, I'm struggling to see what advantage that would have over a shunter built to the same basic design.

The tractor conversions covered earlier would have been far cheaper than even the smallest shunter while the ability of the Unimogs and many other RRVs to travel by road to where they're needed is a huge advantage. This is different as it's obviously a purpose built machine which is unlikely to be road legal, a version built as a rail only shunter would be both simpler and cheaper.
 

Dunfanaghy Rd

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The advantage of the road-rail shunter is that run-rounds are via the roadway. All you need are suitably located hard standings for on / off-roading and you have eliminated propelling moves. This makes 1 man operation of a terminal potentially viable, and simplifies the track layout and its maintenance.
Pat
 

Dr Hoo

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I came across this picture of a Class 47 pulling a single HEA wagon down the Pensnett Branch and it made me wonder if BR or private companies have ever considered using road rail vehicles to pull short freight trains on short freight only branch lines? I know that they have been used as shunters across the world, but have they ever been used to pull freight trains? Would it be actually feasible or are they too slow? I don't know if the economics would work as I guess it might be cheaper to just use a spare loco, but wasn't the cost of the trip workings one of the reasons why Speedlink was losing so much money?

Whilst this has been a fascinating thread the real point is that there is basically no such thing as a "short freight train" in Britain any more. Shunting a few wagons at a terminal or working within an engineering possession is not really a train as exampled in the first post.

It is not without significance that the low powered 'Type 1' diesels from the Modernisation Plan were the first to go as their envisaged work largely vanished. There were obviously some exceptions, like Class 20s in multiple, but they were for longer trains anyway.
 

themiller

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Whilst this has been a fascinating thread the real point is that there is basically no such thing as a "short freight train" in Britain any more. Shunting a few wagons at a terminal or working within an engineering possession is not really a train as exampled in the first post.

It is not without significance that the low powered 'Type 1' diesels from the Modernisation Plan were the first to go as their envisaged work largely vanished. There were obviously some exceptions, like Class 20s in multiple, but they were for longer trains anyway.
Really? They come past my house all the time. 2 locos and 1 to 6 flask wagons. Also running around here this week was a weedkiller MPV top and tailed by class 66s.
 

Dr Hoo

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Really? They come past my house all the time. 2 locos and 1 to 6 flask wagons. Also running around here this week was a weedkiller MPV top and tailed by class 66s.
I hadn't thought that the OP was seriously thinking about operating a 'trunk' move such as Bridgwater or Dungeness to Sellafield with road-rail vehicles. There was specific mention of "short freight only branch lines". Similarly operations like weedkillers, de-icing, adhesion improvement, etc. obviously have to operate widely across the network at speeds congruent with the prevailing traffic.
 

themiller

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I hadn't thought that the OP was seriously thinking about operating a 'trunk' move such as Bridgwater or Dungeness to Sellafield with road-rail vehicles. There was specific mention of "short freight only branch lines". Similarly operations like weedkillers, de-icing, adhesion improvement, etc. obviously have to operate widely across the network at speeds congruent with the prevailing traffic.
Sorry, I was just answering your statement that there’s no such thing as a short freight train anymore.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Back in the day - some modest ballast trains were worked on the Cambrian Coast section by "borrowed" bogie parcels units , as a result of the locomotive ban on on Barmouth JUnction. Nothing "commercial" to my understanding.
 

montyburns56

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The advantage of the road-rail shunter is that run-rounds are via the roadway. All you need are suitably located hard standings for on / off-roading and you have eliminated propelling moves. This makes 1 man operation of a terminal potentially viable, and simplifies the track layout and its maintenance.
Pat

Right, I never thought about that. I guess it must make economic sense for some circumstances.
 

montyburns56

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Whilst this has been a fascinating thread the real point is that there is basically no such thing as a "short freight train" in Britain any more. Shunting a few wagons at a terminal or working within an engineering possession is not really a train as exampled in the first post.

It is not without significance that the low powered 'Type 1' diesels from the Modernisation Plan were the first to go as their envisaged work largely vanished. There were obviously some exceptions, like Class 20s in multiple, but they were for longer trains anyway.

I know that they would not be of much use nowadays, but I was thinking more of the time when Speedlink was still running and BR still had a lot of freight only lines that served businesses that only required the odd wagon or two. And even if they did lose their original purpose I should imagine that they would still be of use for engineering works etc or could even sold to private industry.
 
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