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New flow of containers via Channel Tunnel


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Over the last couple of years, there has been a regular flow between Ditton and somewhere in Germany on behalf of Novelis, consisting of large ingots of semi-processed recycled aluminium from the UK, and aluminium coil in the opposite direction. This was conveyed in Cargowaggon (now Touax) Sfsn2 sliding-hood wagons, but has now gone over to dedicated curtain-sided swap bodies. There have been some pictures of these published on this site:- http://lapassiondutrain.blogspot.co.uk/

The trains have also included some similar boxes lettered for Jaguar-Land Rover.

By using containers, the trains may run at Class 4 (vice Class 6) timings in the UK, and as ME120 vice MA100 from Dolland's Moor onwards, which will make pathing them a bit easier.

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That's an interesting train, thanks for sharing it Brian. A sign of the changing times, the JLR branded containers say DB Schenker, whereas the Novelis branded ones just say DB, the logo being used now the company is known as DB Cargo.

I'm used to seeing continental registered wagons in the UK, but it still seems weird seeing UK wagons running abroad. Even stranger than the DB multifrets are some pics further down of a new Kirow for Network Rail running with EWS branded FCAs!

 

Jo

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There's quite a lot of 'UK' vehicles in the pics, the EWS liveried ECR 66 and the 700 on delivery to the UK. I spose that what its like being a European country! I only wish more use was made of the Tunnel for freight.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's not gone completely yet Brian, it's still about a 50/50 mix of containers and the old cargowaggons.

 

Phil

I saw it formed like this yesterday lunchtime as I headed to work at Coquelles; it seemed to be a portion of Novartis containers, and another of Cargowaggons. I wonder if they've increased the frequency; I think it used to be twice-weekly. The Cargowaggon portion seemed to be about half the length, or perhaps less, that the original Cargowaggon train was ( it used to be about 25, and I counted ten yesterday).
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I saw it formed like this yesterday lunchtime as I headed to work at Coquelles; it seemed to be a portion of Novartis containers, and another of Cargowaggons. I wonder if they've increased the frequency; I think it used to be twice-weekly. The Cargowaggon portion seemed to be about half the length, or perhaps less, that the original Cargowaggon train was ( it used to be about 25, and I counted ten yesterday).

 

Yes it's 6 days a week now (Saturday's service goes south on the Sunday)

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  • 8 months later...

The last couple of days I've seen something similar to this passing through south london around midday. (Running on a Daventry to Dollands Moor path). Is this a retiming of the overnight Ditton service or a new one? Train has comsisted of a relatively short rake of the novellis wagons similar to those in the photos above.

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The last couple of days I've seen something similar to this passing through south london around midday. (Running on a Daventry to Dollands Moor path). Is this a retiming of the overnight Ditton service or a new one? Train has comsisted of a relatively short rake of the novellis wagons similar to those in the photos above.

I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out. In pathing terms, it makes sense to divide the train into two, if the traffic level justifies it, as the container wagons can run  to Class 4/ME120 timings, whilst the other wagons are restricted to 100 kph/ Class 6. I have noticed some unfamiliar train IDs, but it's been at night, when it's well-nigh impossible to tell what stock  these are.

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  • 6 months later...

For anyone interested, the Dollands Moor - Ditton train usually passes through London in the middle of the night so I don't usually see it in daylight. Today however, it did run in daylight, video here:

 

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