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May 2017 Issue - Bulk Trains


KymN
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I picked up a copy of the May issue of Hornby Magazine from my local newsagent earlier this week. Here in South Australia British mags seem to get to newsagents via square-rigger ship around Cape Horn, they take so long.


I am curious about the articles in this issue about bulk trains.  I found both Tim Shackleton's article and that by Mark Chivers on the 'Bulk' theme to be at odds with my understanding of what bulk freight is. Tim does, however, refer to 'Block Trains, carry large volumes of a single type of traffic.


Here in Australia at least, ‘bulk trains’ are only those trains that carry commodities such as coal, minerals or grain in hopper wagons, loaded from stockpile or silo and unloaded similarly. The term does not include trains of structural steel, motor vehicles, oil, cattle or containers, even if the train is exclusively made of the one type of goods.  These are known as ‘block trains’, or are referred to by the cargo carried.  Thus we have ‘the steel train’, carrying slab steel, structural steel, coil and wire between the various steel works. Trainloads of containers – the usual means to move general freight and consumer goods by rail these days – are ‘intermodal’ services. The distinction is as much related to handling methods as it is to the volume of freight.


Likewise Mark Chivers’ article headed ‘Bulk Handling’ is equally confusing.  All but one illustration is of passenger trains.  The one freight with a few bulk cement wagons would not be regarded as a bulk train here.  It almost appears that this article started out as a layout based on Exeter Central and was retitled to suit the ‘Bulk’ theme.


Notwithstanding all of the above, Hornby Magazine is a great read, and I have now taken a subscription so I’ll get it in a more timely fashion by air mail!

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