The Railway Magazine – August 2019

August2019 •TheRailway Magazine•87

Maritime opens

Tilburyrailterminal

MARITIMETransporthas

openedanew rail-connected

distri butionterminalat the Port

ofTilburyinE ssex. Althoughthe

companyhas beenatTilbury

for15years,ith as relocated

to the new facilityaspartof

its increasing presenceint he

railfreightmarket–which

includesits partnership with

DB Cargo. Maritime handles

mostly steelforexpor t, and

has relocatedabuilding from

another partoft he port to

provide coverage storage,

and modified anexisting

rail terminalto handle both

intermodalandspecialist steel

wagons.

NewTeesport

trainforIKEA

PD Portshas launched a

dedicatedrailfreightservice

forIKEA betweenTeesport

and Doncaster,inp artnership

with GBRailfreight(GBRf)and

Containerships.The twice-daily

trains carrying upto 56‘boxes’

each remove around 120 daily

lorrymovements of180miles

each fromtheUKroadnetwork.

Freightliner takes

topfreight award

FREIGHTLINERwasnamed

Rail Freight Oper ator of theYear

at the 2019 MultimodalAwards

in BirminghamonJune18.

TheGenesee&Wyoming-

ownedoperator haswonthe

awardint hree of thefour

years sincethe ca tegorywas

introducedin 2016.

SIDELINES

DCRail expandswith

newbulkmaterial flows

DCRAILstartedanew service

on June 24 which isconveying

usedrail ballast fromWestbury

to Southamptonforrecycling by

L&SWaste.

Thenew flowfollows shortly

afterthe introduction ofasimilar

‘as-required’flowofused ballast

fromCarlisle Kingmoorto Boston

in Lincolnshire.

On arrivalat Southampton the

ballast is processed and usedby

the localconstruction market.

Theuse of rail transportremoves

morethan 200 lorrymovements

per week,with the traffic

expectedtor un onacampaign

basis as stocksat Network Rail’s

Westburyfacilityallow.

DavidFletcher,direc tor, Rail for

DCRail’s parentCappagh Group,

toldTheRM:“We areverybusy at

the momentstartingnew traffic

and preparingforthe opening in

2020 of ourconstruction materials’

handling facilityatWillesden‘F’

Sidings in northLondon.

“OnJuly 5weoperatedatest

train to Maltby CollieryinS outh

Yorkshire, the first train into the

sitefor morethan fiveyears,

and anew flowofconstruction

soils from AngersteinWharfin

south-eastLondonto Rossington

in SouthYorkshireisa lso dueto

startshortly.”

DCRail operatesasmall fleet of

ex-BR Class 56s on bulk services,

but has also nowacquiredfour

Class 60s from DBCargo

(Nos.60028/038/046/055),

which will enterservic eafter

refurbishmentand repair atToton

depot.

WORKto lengthen freightsidings
at the Port of Southampton’s
SolentRailTerminal has been
completed,allowing more
container trainsto serve the port.
SolentStevedores and ABP
Southampton have extended
tracksby 70m to allowtwo 645m
container trainsto be handled
simultaneously.
Previously,only one shorter
train could be accommodatedin
the terminal per day.

Capacityhas been morethan

doubled from fivetrains per

week to apotential maximum

of 12, and from 60,000cont ainer

rail freightmoves eachyear to

apotential of 180,000 moves

per year.

TheSolentRailTerminalat the

Port of Southampton handles

around 1,600container trains each

year,contributingto the 1.9mTEU

(20ftequivalentunits) thatpass

through the portevery year.

GB Railfreightstarted anew short-termfreight contractforBritishSteel in la te-July,moving18,000tonnes

of coke nutsfromRedcartoScunthorpe .The tr ainisr unningfour da ys aweek until thestockpile has been

transferred from themothballedsteel plantonTeesside.Open boxwagons arebeing used to transportthe

commodityfor useat British Stee l’sremaining blastfurna cesinN orth Lincolnshire.GB RAILFREIGHT

Southampton readyfor longer

trains aftertrack extensionwork

THORNEYHill aggregates

terminal,ont he Colnbrook

branch, sawits first trainforsix

years on June 21.

GB Railfreight(GBRf)operated

atest train into the reactiv ated

facility, which is three miles

to the north of Heathrow,and

closeto the siteofthe planned

thirdrunway.

Class 66 No.66775HMSArgyll

hauled what is hopedtobe

the first of manytrains into the

sidings.

Landowner LinkPark and site

operatorAshvilleAggregates

reinstatedthe unloading sidings

in Januaryand Februarythis

year.They werelast used in 2013

andsubsequentlyremoved.

Theformer sidingswere

retrieved from beneathalayer

of compactedmaterial,the

track work lif tedand relaid to a

new layout,with replacement

sleepers andrails asrequired.

Afte rthe successful test run,

the sidings arenow onceagain

operational,and it is hoped

they will playamajor role in

deliveringconstruction materials

from theMidlandsto Heathrow

whenexpansion starts.

John Smith, managing director

of GBRf,said:“GBRailfreightis

pleasedto have been ableto

help in thereopening of this site.

“With major new infrastructure

projects plannedto happen

closeby,including the

Heathrow thirdrunway, the site

offersapotentially usefulrail

headto transportmaterial to

the area and potentially spoil

away.”

In afurther signofthe

increasing importanceof

construction trafficto GBRf,

the companyhas ordered 100

JNA-Tbogie boxwagons from

Greenbrier in Romania.

Financedby wagon lessor

ERMEWA,the first 25wagons

areexpectedtoarriveint he UK

by mid-August with therest due

by mid-October.

According to GBRf,the

new JNA-Twagons will be

usedforbulk minerals traffic

and willfeaturebetter ride

characteristics,because of their

modern designofbogie and

brak esystems.

GBRf Class 66 No.66767 pulling

awayfrom Shirebrook on

June 27 with 12 new‘cut-and-

shut’bogie hoppers,modified

by WHDavis fromex-DB Cargo

and Fastlinecoal hoppers.

AllcarryTouax/GBRf/Cemex

liver y, and will be usedfor

Derbyshirestone traffic.

Inset:Thecompanyalso has a

further 100 bogie boxwagons

forconstruction traffic on order

from Greenbrier in Romania.

DEREK WILSON/GBRF

DC Rail operated

thefirst trainfor

around fiveyears

to visitthe bunker

line at theclosed

MaltbyCollieryin

South Yorkshireon

July 5. Hired GBRf

Class 60 No.60096

and arakeofJRA

bogie boxwagons

workedatest train

from Chaddesden

Sidings in Derbyin

preparation foranew

flowofspoil from

MaltbytoWillesden.

CHRIS BOOTH

DCRail Class 56s Nos.56103 and 56091 powerthe 15.24

Westbury-Southampton UpYard used ballast train through

Nursli ng,ont he outskirts ofSouthampton, on June 24.

This wasthe first dayofthe newservi ce.DAVID FLETCHER

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Test runpaves wayfor Heathrow construction railhead