7th March 2017

7th March 2017 - Shifting Stuff, The Story of Freightliner

Ken Duffy

On 7th March, the Club listened to a fascinating account of the Freightliner rail freight company, given by Ken Duffy who worked for the Company for 33 years. After WW2 and nationalisation in 1948, railway passenger numbers started to increase while goods traffic declined. The goods network was run-down, slow trains hauled individual wagon loads, there were vast marshalling yards using hump-shunting and most stations had goods yards. Lorries provided a much faster and more efficient door-to-door service. When Dr Beeching arrived in 1961, he was a great believer in rail freight and wanted the whole operation to be slimmed down, improved and re-branded. He favoured "containerisation" with fewer yards and faster non-stop services. The first "Condor" container train ran in 1965 and the watchwords were "investment" and "standardisation". Trains were to run at 70 mph and haul sets of wagons of standard length and weight. At first they catered solely for the domestic market but, with the spread of deep-sea containerisation, international traffic was soon taken on board. The National Freight Corporation infrastructure included big gantry cranes at depots, 2 ships operating the Harwich - Zeebrugge route and a fleet of road vehicles. Trains served the Rootes factory at Linwood, and there was a special Royal Mint train guarded by armed police. From 1971 on, a period of rationalisation began. Some depots and terminals were closed and the domestic market gradually gave way to deep-sea traffic. Big investment took place at Felixstowe and Southampton, Mossend terminal was opened and of course the Channel Tunnel was built. As part of the railway privatisation in the late 1990s, the main BR freight segment was sold and became EWS (English, Welsh and Scottish). The Freightliner sector was bought by its management and is now a fully commercial company. It has acquired a fleet of Canadian built diesel locomotives and also has many electric locos for working wholly "under the wires". The Company operates container trains across the country and also hauls coal, aggregates, cement, waste etc. keeping many heavy lorries off the roads. They now operate also in Poland, Australia and Holland. They employ 2500 staff, 250 locos, 5500 wagons and 170 road vehicles. Ken's most interesting talk was illustrated with many first-class pictures and had obviously involved much time and effort in its preparation. The members showed their appreciation accordingly.

The next meeting is at 10.30 am on 14^th March when Eric Melvin will speak on Thomas Muir, a Scottish Revolutionary.

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