lankyphil

Station Road level Crossing at March. LNER Beware of the Trains sign 3/8/21

Spotted these in Freightliner at Trafford park. They look to be open tops, judging by the row of eyelets just below roof level, but with an end tipping door (hinged at top not sides)?

Spotted this in the crane lane at Garston FLT (Sept 20). FLLU prefix isn't registered for international use anymore, but given that it appeared to have come off a train, I'm guessing freightliner were using it for inter-site operations. This is one of the old FL boxes that tends to move around Garston. Think they're basically stores boxes as far as I can tell

A quick snap from a storage yard. A Hapag Lloyd 40' high cube with a solid removable roof (as opposed to the tarp rooves that open top boxes normally have). 20 and 40' (tarpaulined) open tops are pretty rare, 20' hard tops even more rare, but I've never seen a 40HT anywhere. As a side note, when you get open tops or tank containers lifted off to go on a train at a railhead, they have the rooves inspected to make sure everything is secure, no danger of striking OHLE etc.

Bit of an odd one, sort of a double ended box? But only 1 door on the headboard? I'm guessing it's an end-customer specific designed box for whatever reason. (Apologies for the dodgy shot, taken whilst queuing in a container yard)

They're sort of common, if you know where to look... (Least helpful response ever, let me expand...) The current trend of using containers as storage units or site units, combined with the general one way trade from China to the west, quite a few companies buy a few hundred 20 or 40 foot units in China, lease them to one of the big Shipping Lines (Normally Maersk or CMA in my experience) who load them for a trip to the UK, then they'll go to a depot for sale or conversions. The double ended ones like that are usually cut in half to make 2 10 foot boxes. We also get side doored versions in 20 and 40 foot lengths as well as double ended 40 footers. They also have the door handles mounted higher up so they're easier to use in a ground mounted storage role. Not very easy to cut a bolt seal off when they're still on a trailer though!

With regards to how 40/45s are loaded, they're not loaded as close to each other as deep sea boats. best example I can find is a BG Freight boat (Afloat.ie pic below) which shows the gaps between stacks.

Almost. It's the dimensions of where the actual ISO castings are. A palletwide or a eurobox can be over normal length and width, say a 45 for example, but the ISO casting (where a twistlock attaches) are at exactly the same place as a standard deep sea 40HC. http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/cldu9615390.jpg If you look at the yellow painted castings, they're recessed a bit so that they line up with the standard ISO dimensions Cunningly, on most of the chemical jobs I do at least, people order in batches of 80 drums. Which fits perfectly 4 drums wide, 2 drums tall, 10 drums deep in a standard 20ft box and doesn't overload them either. IBC's are a little bit more awkward as they're mostly based on a UK pallet. That link shows the difference between a standard and a palletwide box best I think?

So, driving into work last week, I got stopped at the crossing by a GBRF 66 on a liner service. Strange, thought I, as the only container train out of Seaforth is the DBS service to Scotland. After a quick look through RTT whilst waiting for the wagon to warm up, shows the service to have been to East Mids Gateway. I know MSC have diverted a couple of boats to Liverpool from Felixstowe, is this the loaded boxes from that heading south does anyone know? Also noticed there's 2 Freightliner paths from Seaforth, one to Immingham and one to Tees Dock. Add into that the odd steel train for export, it's getting pretty congested up at Seaforth?! Bet Peel Ports are regretting getting rid of the gantry cranes on the railhead!

"Standard" 20s are 20' x 8' wide x 8'6", however, I have recently found a couple of shipping lines that use 20 foot High Cube Pallet Wides. So 20' x 8'2" x 9' (2DG1). An exception to the rule seems to be Huktra, who use 30' part framed tank containers When they're new... They don't last that long IMHO 3 (main) options. Reload for an export, Empty into a depot or port for storage , or for sale for conversions or use as storage units. Waste paper and carboard is a regular export to either Turkey or the Indian Sub Continent, scrap metal is also still commonly exported in 20 footers, mostly fragmented scrap from recycling centres to India/Pakistan where it is sorted and graded before moving onto the Far East. With respect to weights, Verified Gross Mass (as mentioned before) was brought in a few years ago, but I was told after a badly loaded ship capsized. If it isn't submitted to the shipping line, you will not be able to get the box lifted at a port or railhead (unless they're weighing it for you).

In my experience, the orientation depends on how the box has been presented to the train. If the train is loaded by a container handler, it's quite awkward to rotate even a 20, so they just get stuck on the train. Some wagons have a wedge fitted at the end, so even though it looks like the doors are facing outwards, the wedge (only and a foot high) physically stops the doors from being opened.

I had a similar problem with surging on my Bachy Railtruck. Managed to mostly cure it by adding a "brake" on the front bogie from a bit of brass strip. It adds just enough drag so that it has to actually drive down grades so the UJ bevel box is always under a load of some sort?

Courtesy of Private Eye via Fb

Now that HS2 or whatever is taking over the old Washwood heath sidings, the ex Rover KSA have been cleared from the site. I'm pretty sure I saw some of them in Bescot yesterday? Anyone got any info on them? Are they going to be put back into use or are they simply the ones that weren't de-bogied and are just on their way to a scrapyard? Cheers

What page number was that on out of curiosity?