EWS/DBC FIA “Megafret” intermodal twin wagons

[TravisM]

I’m sure there’s been a thread about these before but I’m thinking of getting several of the Bachmann FIA intermodal wagons but I’m finding it hard to find any up to date information about them. I know that EWS inherited these wagons from RfD but are they still in service with DBC?

 

If they are still in service are they still green, been repainted into EWS maroon or a mixture of both? Also are they used on set routes or diagrams as I’m not sure if I’ve seen any at Peterborough on DBC intermodal trains.

[jbqfc]

yes still been used one flow they are used on is the scunthorpe to Europe steel train this passes Peterborough  north bound at around 12.40 sound bound at around 22.30

as for colour last week when i saw some they where so dirty that i don't think they have ever been cleaned 

 

John 

Edited July 11, 2018 by jbqfc

[The Fatadder]

In EWS days some were repainted in black with a white panel with the EWS 3 beasties crest where the RFD diamonds were originally painted.

a lot were still in green for a long time, not that you could easily tell given the amount of dirt.

 

I certainly never saw an EWS red example in the time I was following modern Intermodal operations, although that did end towards the end of the EWS era.  Whether any have since been painted into DB red, or whether they continued to paint them black is outside of my knowledge.

 

EWS did paint some of their intermodal wagons in maroon, the low deck wagons for 9ft boxes for example.  

[Steadfast]

There's still quite a few in green as far as I'm aware. Was the black an EWS repaint? I thought it was some were built green, others black?
I have seen some in DB red but don't think there were any in maroon

As ever with modern wagons, here's a link to Martyn Read's site, a red one coupled to a green one in 2016 https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/F/FIA-intermodal-flats-Sfggmrrss/i-tTgsgRD/A

Jo

Edited July 11, 2018 by Steadfast

[The Fatadder]

There's still quite a few in green as far as I'm aware. Was the black an EWS repaint? I thought it was some were built green, others black?

I have seen some in DB red but don't think there were any in maroon

As ever with modern wagons, here's a link to Martyn Read's site, a red one coupled to a green one in 2016 https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/F/FIA-intermodal-flats-Sfggmrrss/i-tTgsgRD/A

 

Jo

I had stopped paying attention by the time DB started painting everything that ghastly shade of red.  I dont recall ever seeing a black one with RFD branding, were they originally intended for one of the other tunnel partners I wonder (if not an EWS repaint).

[Steadfast]

Although not the be all and end all, Bachman have done black ones with RfD logos. 

Some had these EWS stickers put over the RfD logos, https://gingespotting.smugmug.com/Wagons/F-TOPSCode/FIA/i-zQr62xb/O but many seem to still be running around with heavily faded white/grey RfD logos

 

Jo

[TravisM]

yes still been used one flow they are used on is the scunthorpe to Europe steel train this passes Peterborough  north bound at around 12.40 sound bound at around 22.30

as for colour last week when i saw some they where so dirty that i don't think they have ever been cleaned 

 

John

 

I didn’t realise that these were the same vehicles but I was aware the the steel coil carriers are based on a 40ft container footprint. I must admit that I thought the wagons were a dirty maroon colour but it must have been just pure dirt lol.

[Fat Controller]

When the 'Euro-twins' (not Mega-frets, which have an even lower floor, and were introduced by AAE) were delivered to the UK in anticipation of the Channel Tunnel opening, there were two batches of British-registered vehicles. The green ones were operated by Railfreight Distribution, whilst the black ones were initially operated by one of the three 'retailers', who sold container space to the freight-forwarders, hauliers and others. I think the firm was called ACI, and was based in the Reading area. i do remember thinking the black ones had either come from someone apart from Arbel-Fauvet, or were a cheaper specification, as some of the finishing of things like buffer stocks was pretty rough.

Almost all carry their original livery, albeit hidden under 25 years worth of brake-dust. The dark-red/ maroon vehicles, to an almost identical design, arrived a few years later, and were initially used on the 'Norfolk Line' trains from Hams Hall. The owner was a French company called TOUAX, originally an operator of canal barges. When the Norfolk Line traffic died, after the stow-away problems at the Channel Tunnel, TOUAX got the steel slab traffic from Scunthorpe to Ebange; I think they've still got it, from the wagons I've seen.

The former RfD wagons are used for various flows, such as maritime container traffic, MoD and British Gypsum.

There were also some French-registered wagons of identical design; some of these can be seen in 'domestic' French traffic, whilst a few have been modified into vehicle-carriers for STVA, yet another SNCF subsidiary.

Here are some links to Martyn Reed's excellent site:-

https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/F/FIA-intermodal-flats-Sfggmrrss/ shows the former RfD wagons- note that one seems to sport a rather scrappy 'DB' colour scheme.

https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/I/IFA-flats/IFA-European-registered/ shows both the original SNCF fleet and the TOUAX wagons, which have deeper side-members.

[Fat Controller]

To add further to notes of current usage of the IFA/FIA employment: an appreciable number are employed on delivery runs of new multiple units from mainland Europe to the UK. Several have been modified as coupling adaptor wagons, the bar couplings within the pairs being replaced by ones compatible with those on the stock being transferred. The others (which include UK-registered FIAs alongside French-registered examples and some from the TOUAX fleet), are used as brake-force runners, each carrying a ballasted 20' container. From personal observation, I would say each stock movement employs eight or ten pairs, which probably means between fifty and a hundred pairs being used in total.

[njee20]

Yes, Megafrets are the AAE-made blue IKA pairs, the FIAs are more commonly known as "Multifrets".

 

The maroon ones are FKAs aren't they? They look more like IKAs than FIAs, but like others I don't think any FIAs made it into EWS maroon. They're definitely still around, and generally so filthy I've no idea what colour they are underneath, but would hazard a guess that green still proliferates with a few exceptions.

 

Edit: not mine, but some reasonable photos here which definitely show mainly green ones where the colour can be determined!

Edited July 17, 2018 by njee20

[Glorious NSE]

To add - I'm not sure I've ever seen an EWS maroon repaint (EWS stickers maybe, but not repaints) but there's at least one with a repaint in DBS bright red as linked in the collections above. The livery on the vast majority though is 20+ years of brake dust with maybe a slightly cleaner patch on the data panels.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were more than one in DB red, DB seem to be much more generous with paint than CN used to be.

DBS does use them on both the Scunthorpe steel flow and intermodal flows - on 'deep sea' flows (to/from Felixstowe and Southampton) my impression is they are easily outnumbered by other wagon types though (lots of the various ex-FCA derivatives, plus FKAs, and new FWA 'shortliners'). 

Be aware the "45 container" (which actually isn't a 45' container) that Bachmann supplies with some of these is a pretty rare prototype nowadays though, and isn't especially likely to turn up on a Felixstowe or Southampton train even then.

If you fancy modelling the Scunthorpe flow, there's some images of the 20' platform containers used here:
https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/The-Humble-Box/TheHumbleBox-Operator/Container-operators-E/EWSU-English-Welsh/






 

[Fat Controller]

The '45' container' is actually a 13.6m swap-body, isn't it?

[Steadfast]

Yes, Megafrets are the AAE-made blue IKA pairs, the FIAs are more commonly known as "Multifrets".

 

The maroon ones are FKAs aren't they? They look more like IKAs than FIAs, but like others I don't think any FIAs made it into EWS maroon.

Maroon ones here https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/I/IFA-flats/IFA-European-registered/i-z9n2bCS/A though coded IFA rather than FIA, a very similar design nut a couple of differences. It was on the Barry flow linked to here that I first noticed these. Never did get around to modelling it

 

Jo

[Fat Controller]

Maroon ones here https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/I/IFA-flats/IFA-European-registered/i-z9n2bCS/A though coded IFA rather than FIA, a very similar design nut a couple of differences. It was on the Barry flow linked to here that I first noticed these. Never did get around to modelling it

 

Jo

French-owned ones, operated by ERMEWA, a subsidiary of SNCF; the traffic is silica sand from Amberieu, north-east of Lyon, to Cadoxton.

[Glorious NSE]

The '45' container' is actually a 13.6m swap-body, isn't it?

Yep, 13.6m (43'6") and from memory 9' (rather than the usual 8'6" or 9'6") tall.

 

Maroon ones here https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/I/IFA-flats/IFA-European-registered/i-z9n2bCS/A though coded IFA rather than FIA, a very similar design nut a couple of differences. It was on the Barry flow linked to here that I first noticed these. Never did get around to modelling it

Think there's a bit of cross purposes going on - those are French IFA - the EWS purchased FKA he was referring to are the ones roughly similar to the AAE owned IKA (Megafret) lower deck wagons.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Glorious NSE

[Steadfast]

Ahhh I assumed "marron ones" was referring to the earlier comments of possible EWS repaints of the FIAs

 

Jo

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hello all,

 

Just a small contribution - I see the Scunthorpe steel flow pretty regularly through Huntingdon, and many (though I can't say all) of the wagons are green underneath all the filth.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[njee20]

I was just thinking of EWS maroon flats that looked roughly like the FIAs (as something which could have been mistaken for an FIA painted maroon), I was aware of the FKAs which look a lot more like the IKA Megafrets than the FIA Multifrets. I wasn't aware of IFAs though, so I've learned something!

[hmrspaul]

Yep, 13.6m (43'6") and from memory 9' (rather than the usual 8'6" or 9'6") tall.

 

Think there's a bit of cross purposes going on - those are French IFA - the EWS purchased FKA he was referring to are the ones roughly similar to the AAE owned IKA (Megafret) lower deck wagons.

Totally agree, the OP didn't provide either number range or international code for the wagon he asked about. I still don't understand. At least some of what I, and Ginge, called Twin Megafrets were built at York and introduced in EWS maroon http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ewsmegafretfka

 

Could someone give the number series of the wagons being asked about by the OP, PLEASE!

 

Paul

[TravisM]

Totally agree, the OP didn't provide either number range or international code for the wagon he asked about. I still don't understand. At least some of what I, and Ginge, called Twin Megafrets were built at York and introduced in EWS maroon http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ewsmegafretfka

 

Could someone give the number series of the wagons being asked about by the OP, PLEASE!

 

Paul

I think the wagons you are thinking about which were built for EWS by Thrall at York are spine wagons, totally different design.

[njee20]

Totally agree, the OP didn't provide either number range or international code for the wagon he asked about. I still don't understand. At least some of what I, and Ginge, called Twin Megafrets were built at York and introduced in EWS maroon http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ewsmegafretfka

 

Could someone give the number series of the wagons being asked about by the OP, PLEASE!

 

Paul

The wagons produced by Bachmann are FIAs (although they just call them "intermodals" unhelpfully), which according to gingespotting's page have numbers:

 

Number range 31 70 4908 654 through to 749.

Number range 31 70 4938 000 through to 224.

Number range 31 70 4938 300 through to 743.

 

Part of the confusion seems to be the use of "Megafret". I've not heard of FIAs being called Megafrets (except by gingespotting), they're normally "Multifrets". The Thrall built Megafrets are the FKAs, they're EWS maroon and aren't available RTR in model form. The AAE built Megafrets are IKAs, they're blue and are available from Dapol. The EWS spine wagons the OP mentions above are FCAs and are effectively the EWS equivalent of the FEAs used by GBRF and Freightliner.

 

The answer to the OPs question on the FIA is that they are still operating, most are still green, probably, but they're so dirty it's hard to tell. I don't believe any are EWS maroon although it appears some are DBC red.