Far North timber traffic revival?

[Railfreight1998]

3 WCRC 37s took a train of BTA(?) wagons from Mossend to Inverness on Saturday, continuing to Georgemas early this morning, as a trial for possible new timber traffic.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roddymacphee/50177849727/ (not my photo)

 

Anyone have anymore information about it? Hopefully we'll hear more about this, unlike the long mooted supermarket container flow for DRS. 

[cunningduck]

2 hours ago, Railfreight1998 said:

, unlike the long mooted supermarket container flow for DRS. 

Is there enough populace between Thurso and Wick to justify a train? I’m not a supermarket logistician but can’t imagine there being much more than 2 lorries per town per day?

[adb968008]

I’d love to think this would work..

 

But I’m not sure how this would wash its face in commercial terms.. you still need lorries & drivers to move logs to the loading point, and at the off loading point.
Supply becomes constrained by train schedules & loads, rather than a few hours drive..then there’s the added costs of Extra loading & unloading.
 

Now add in the railway costs of locos, crews & wagons..

All on top of what is an established practice.

 

A business switching to rail isn’t going to increase revenue, so this is all about savings... what would they be ?

Edited September 27, 2020 by adb968008

[Reorte]

12 hours ago, adb968008 said:

But I’m not sure how this would wash its face in commercial terms.. you still need lorries & drivers to move logs to the loading point, and at the off loading point.

 

...

 

A business switching to rail isn’t going to increase revenue, so this is all about savings... what would they be ?

 

Just going to and from the loading point needs fewer lorries and drivers than doing the entire journey by road. Whether or not that adds up to enough to offset the additional expense of the railway depends of course; my guess (which is all it is) is that it depends just how far the logs are going, with the advantage of rail increasing with distance and volume of goods (and assuming it all needs to go to the same place). If it's coming from northern Scotland the distances can be quite long (by UK standards), that can add up to a lot of lorry drivers.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Reorte

[icn]

13 hours ago, adb968008 said:

A business switching to rail isn’t going to increase revenue, so this is all about savings... what would they be ?

"Carbon" (CO2) savings - certainly good PR, don't think it influences operation costs yet (except for sufficiently large polluters subject to emmissions trading).

[Fat Controller]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

Just going to and from the loading point needs fewer lorries and drivers than doing the entire journey by road. Whether or not that adds up to enough to offset the additional expense of the railway depends of course; my guess (which is all it is) is that it depends just how far the logs are going, with the advantage of rail increasing with distance and volume of goods (and assuming it all needs to go to the same place). If it's coming from northern Scotland the distances can be quite long (by UK standards), that can add up to a lot of lorry drivers.

The ultimate 'win' would be if the wagons worked up from Hartlepool with pipes, then reloaded with timber.