Washwood Heath

[Zunnan]

I drove past Washwood Heath sidings for the first time in a few months today and noticed that track clearing is now under way. I knew that Tarmac had eyes on the site but haven't really paid much attention for a while, I take it this is finally the end for the old yard in what has been a long drawn out curtain call.

 

On the plus side, the original plans submitted mention rail-borne traffic. So with a bit of luck an aggregates flow is still on the cards, Bromford Bridge may one day become interesting again and not just the site of decaying Rover relics.

 

Has anything concrete (pun entirely intended) been made public about the future of the site?

[black and decker boy]

HS2

[Rugd1022]

Two of the remaining sidings are still in use, or were until fairly recently, for a DB train which recesses there while the driver has his PNB.

[Phil Bullock]

Cant have a Washwood Heath topic without Stacker Steadman!

 

https://thumbsnap.com/s/Yd4M7Xyn.jpg

 

 

 

Phil

Edited March 28, 2019 by Phil Bullock

[Compound2632]

O how the mighty are fallen...

 

 

NRM DY 2798 released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence.

[John-Miles]

Lawley Street is still busy so there is a remnant of the Midland's goods activities in Brum. I suspect that a few years after they have got rid of Washwood Heath, they will find they need further siding capacity in the area. 

[woodenhead]

1 minute ago, John-Miles said:

Lawley Street is still busy so there is a remnant of the Midland's goods activities in Brum. I suspect that a few years after they have got rid of Washwood Heath, they will find they need further siding capacity in the area. 

There's still Bescot if siding space was needed

[Fat Controller]

37 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

There's still Bescot if siding space was needed

Somewhat less convenient for the Freightliner terminal.

[woodenhead]

4 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Somewhat less convenient for the Freightliner terminal.

Didn't say it was, but it is accessible still from the Washwood Heath line in both directions.

[Covkid]

On 01/04/2019 at 16:59, woodenhead said:

There's still Bescot if siding space was needed

 

On 01/04/2019 at 17:37, Fat Controller said:

Somewhat less convenient for the Freightliner terminal.

 

On 01/04/2019 at 17:43, woodenhead said:

Didn't say it was, but it is accessible still from the Washwood Heath line in both directions.

 

The capacity on Bescot's Down side is about to be massacred by the new sleeper factory.  I imagine those super long roads which were converted in the early oughties from the storage sidings will be compromised.

Seems freight marshalling is definately a dirty word now and trains are having to be A - B, apart from the few LDCs.         

 

[phil-b259]

4 hours ago, Covkid said:

 

Seems freight marshalling is definately a dirty word now and trains are having to be A - B, apart from the few LDCs.         

 

 

That is a direct consequence of wagon load / part load traffic being distinctly unprofitable for decades - and nothing to do with an aversion to Marshaling per say.

 

As I mentioned on another thread rail freight traffic in the UK is a strictly commercial enterprise and FOCS cannot afford to squander cash on flows / practices that run at a loss.

 

Shunting wagons about takes extra staff, extra locos and above all extra transit time. Hence the concentration on bulk hauls between terminals with minimal messing about in between.

[Fat Controller]

2 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

That is a direct consequence of wagon load / part load traffic being distinctly unprofitable for decades - and nothing to do with an aversion to Marshaling per say.

 

As I mentioned on another thread rail freight traffic in the UK is a strictly commercial enterprise and FOCS cannot afford to squander cash on flows / practices that run at a loss.

 

Shunting wagons about takes extra staff, extra locos and above all extra transit time. Hence the concentration on bulk hauls between terminals with minimal messing about in between.

And before anyone says it's different elsewhere.. It's very difficult to find anywhere in most of Western Europe that still marshalls individual wagons. Yards such as Grande Synthe and Somain may have  wagons in them, but most will be being staged.

[Covkid]

7 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

That is a direct consequence of wagon load / part load traffic being distinctly unprofitable for decades - and nothing to do with an aversion to Marshaling per say.

 

As I mentioned on another thread rail freight traffic in the UK is a strictly commercial enterprise and FOCS cannot afford to squander cash on flows / practices that run at a loss.

 

Shunting wagons about takes extra staff, extra locos and above all extra transit time. Hence the concentration on bulk hauls between terminals with minimal messing about in between.

 

But with respect, there is a network connecting LDCs up and down the country.  Seeing as TOPS knows down to the kg what each wagon is carrying, consignee etc, it actually would be possible to move traffic around, provided it was paid.  The trouble is that our industry is sooo bloody fragmented, it is just too difficult. I remember back in the early days of EWS, when it was sacrosant to send engineers traffic on "commercial" trains, cewn rthough TOPS coulsd easily have "accounted".

 

No I am not say we should bring back marshalling yards etc, but the other administrations do still handle some wagonload, or manifest as our North American folk would call it.      

[Edwin_m]

Intermodal freight is in some ways the modern equivalent of wagonload, avoiding the high costs of a private siding that may serve only a few wagons a day as well as replacing what could be a long stop for shunting with a quicker trans-shipment of the load.  Intermodal can be competitive where the distance is long enough and the source and destination of the rail leg are big enough to generate economies of scale, such as a port or a large freight terminal. 

[phil-b259]

8 hours ago, Covkid said:

 

But with respect, there is a network connecting LDCs up and down the country.  Seeing as TOPS knows down to the kg what each wagon is carrying, consignee etc, it actually would be possible to move traffic around, provided it was paid.  The trouble is that our industry is sooo bloody fragmented, it is just too difficult. I remember back in the early days of EWS, when it was sacrosant to send engineers traffic on "commercial" trains, cewn rthough TOPS coulsd easily have "accounted".

 

No I am not say we should bring back marshalling yards etc, but the other administrations do still handle some wagonload, or manifest as our North American folk would call it.      

 

I didn’t say wagon load traffic was a problem logistically speaking - as any engineer knows if you throw enough money at a problem it can usually be resolved. It’s rather the point such traffic is very unprofitable - regardless of how big or centralised the organisation concerned is (under British Rail, the loss making wagon load traffic was subsidised by the profitable bulk haul traffic).

 

private sector companies to not generally undertaking loss making activities for any length of time before withdrawing from said activities.

 

If it is desired to bring back a wagon load style service then state subsidy will be required year on year to provide it (grants towards new sidings or wagons are not good enough in this instance).

[Enterprisingwestern]

On 05/04/2019 at 09:52, phil-b259 said:

 

I didn’t say wagon load traffic was a problem logistically speaking - as any engineer knows if you throw enough money at a problem it can usually be resolved. It’s rather the point such traffic is very unprofitable - regardless of how big or centralised the organisation concerned is (under British Rail, the loss making wagon load traffic was subsidised by the profitable bulk haul traffic).

 

private sector companies to not generally undertaking loss making activities for any length of time before withdrawing from said activities.

 

If it is desired to bring back a wagon load style service then state subsidy will be required year on year to provide it (grants towards new sidings or wagons are not good enough in this instance).

 

I think any improvement/alteration to the way we move freight around the country in years to come, be it on rail or road, will only come about under the "environmental improvement" banner. Then, to a certain extent, money will be irrelevant.

 

Mike.