Whatever Happened To Freight....

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

Having always had an interest in freight operations I'm interested to know what caused the demise of the following freight traffic and when they stopped running.

Petfood block trains from Melton Mowbray.

BOC tanks from Cheshire to Sheffield. I believe the tanks were recently cut up.

Cawood coal containers. I've not seen these mentioned in the railway press for sometime so I'm assuming that they no longer run?

Grain which I seem to remember originated from various places in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome!

I look forward to your responses!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Hopefully a Moderator will be kind enough to change the title to Whatever Happened To Freight

 

[9K43]

We had the Humber gas Oil to Ellesmere Port for 7 years. This job went 6 or 7 days per week.
The Gas Tanks ended up in booths at Rotherham for th chop.
Cawood coal containers finished cos the pit that supplied the coal shut.
Oil trains from Stanlow no longer run to Leeds Hunslet east, the fuel now taken to customer by road, and Hunslet East has been knocked down.
This is a few from on location at HM.
And nowt goes into Healey Mills, cos that been closed as well.
All the pits in yorkshire went up the spout some years ago.
Still there is the Stone out of Rylstone, which goes to Hull and Hunslet East, and the cement from hope and 6E17 from Hope to Stourton.
Car terminal at Wakefield West Gate is now a car park, and COBRA is now closed.
COBRA ran for the time I was on the railway, but now closed.
The list is long

 

[daccer]

I at Leciester TOPS in the late 80's and remember the Petfood trains well. There did also used to be occasional imported wagonloads of offal from Europe - although refrigerated it was not popular traffic!

At the time Petfood traffic was going in trainloads to Cricklewood and Manchester. It would have seemed to be the ideal regular flows that railfreight can do well with. I too wonder why it ended.

Looking back its amazing to see the changes in the railfreight scene in a few short years. Lecieter was a small TOPS office but even then there was a wide variety of flows - many of which have gone for ever.

 

[Wyvern]

Just guessing the BOC trains stopped when the Sheffield steel works went.

 

[Bevan Price]

In general, common reasons for loss of freight traffic can be:
1. Closures of factories or mines.
2. Customer finds cheaper source of fuel / minerals / materials - freight may move to a different location, or changes to road transport.
3. Freight operator wants to increase price on contract renewal - customer rejects new contract and opts for road transport.
4. Customer considers rail freight operator unreliable, opts for alternative operator, or changes to road transport.

 

[Wyvern]

Distance from railhead each end - how much transhipment is necessary - saving in journey time. That's what did for the parcels traffic.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I at Leciester TOPS in the late 80's and remember the Petfood trains well. There did also used to be occasional imported wagonloads of offal from Europe - although refrigerated it was not popular traffic!

At the time Petfood traffic was going in trainloads to Cricklewood and Manchester. It would have seemed to be the ideal regular flows that railfreight can do well with. I too wonder why it ended.

Many thanks for your response. I'm assuming that the service to Cricklewood ran to the disused freight terminal behind the MPD?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Freight got knocked by all sorts of things - being close to the Pedigree traffics - BR service was not an issue - terminal unloading points were ..Leicester based train crews were excellent in handling the Freight Pullman - as it was called locally.

The Thatcher based great road economy did not help - BR managers worked hard against this ....