Inside a large covered goods depot 1960s

[Michael Delamar]

cheers, heres some shots, some may be staged about the damage that could occur, and also some names of products carried.

 

 

throwing parcels around.

 

 

those trailers were easy to steal from.

 

 

it goes on to talk about the benefits of door to door containers.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Michael Delamar

[Fat Controller]

Careless handling didn't stop with the demise of the traditional goods depot, alas- I have known people think that 'Fragile' is a word in some foreign tongue which translates as 'kick me' in English. Wine packed in proper boxes is difficult to break without serious mishandling, but I've had carriers do so.. (or at least so they claimed..).

With regard to theft from depots, a lot could be laid at the door of management policy; my former colleague Stephen Poole, in 'Behind The Crumbling Edge', relates how 'difficult' cases (including those suspected of dishonesty) were sent to Bricklayer's Arms depot to work after being removed from customer-facing duties, including those that might involve handling cash. The result was fairly predictable. I have heard similar tales about SERNAM in France; wine-making friends stopped using them, due to the amount of 'evaporation' at certain depots.

[Michael Delamar]

it does talk about the importance of packaging, testing packaging and educating the retailer to the importance of good packaging.

claims officer.

[Michael Delamar]

just seen this on the Network rail website 

"We're trialling parcel shops at main line stations"

 

 

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2013/dec/Were-trialling-parcel-shops-at-main-line-stations/

Edited December 13, 2013 by Michael Delamar

[Fat Controller]

just seen this on the Network rail website 

"We're trialling parcel shops at main line stations"

 

 

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2013/dec/Were-trialling-parcel-shops-at-main-line-stations/

I wonder if they're simply providing a collection/deposit centre, which would use road transport, or are they looking to use marginal capacity on trains? I suspect the former; away from the ECML and the GWML, there is not a consistently available supply of secure storage for parcels, such as one finds on the DVTs and HST power cars. The idea they are starting with just one station does rather suggest the road option. Even so, the idea of picking up a parcel at a secure place at one's convenience has to be an improvement to coming home to a card saying 'we tried to deliver your package' or worse still 'we put it in your bin/under your hedge..'

[Enterprisingwestern]

vlcsnap-2013-12-13-13h48m46s123.png

 

 

I'm sure my truss was fitted with the aid of a "Flat Crush and Ring Stiffness Tester"

 

Mike.

[Michael Delamar]

that shot with the class 08 is puzzling me now, dont think its Liverpool after looking at os maps, Crewe maybe?

[Fat Controller]

that shot with the class 08 is puzzling me now, dont think its Liverpool after looking at os maps, Crewe maybe?

I don't remember seeing a large goods handling facility at Crewe in 1972, when I spent a week on a BR student course there, visiting most installations. I wonder if it could be at the former Wavertree Yard, which seems to have had a similar arrangement of track and catenary; some of this is now the site of the Pendelino shed.

[Michael Delamar]

The houses in the background dont match any in the area, this may not be a large yard like all the other shots.

 

Stockport maybe?

[Poggy1165]

A lot of these 'goods handling' photos could have been taken in the 1930s, or even the 1910s. That was probably the root of the problem.

[Michael Delamar]

would it be fair to say in principle that it is the same way that the post office works?

[Fat Controller]

would it be fair to say in principle that it is the same way that the post office works?

Most organisations that have to sort lots of small consignments will have a variation of this; ones with sloping roller conveyors, which didn't require motorising, were quite popular at one time. I dismantled a couple of them that had been used by 'White Arrow', 'Kaleidoscope' and Banbury Tea Warehouses- great fun sliding down them on a board, though you had to be careful lifting your head, because there was another layer on top..

I was amazed how relatively low-tech Amazon's set up seemed to be, relying on people wandering about to pick orders, then take them to the packing area.

[Michael Delamar]

The movement of a to b of the parcels seems to me to be the same, just that it was mixed in with large firms products from factory to shop or ship which tends to move in its own container/lorry now and so doesnt go through the same amount of handling.

[Fat Controller]

The movement of a to b of the parcels seems to me to be the same, just that it was mixed in with large firms products from factory to shop or ship which tends to move in its own container/lorry now and so doesnt go through the same amount of handling.

There will still be quite a lot of Groupage going on, with items from different origins being put into one container or trailer. you'll quite often see adverts for 'container-stuffers' in places like Trafford Park.  Large numbers of the HGVs that come through the Tunnel, for example, have lading bills with dozens of names on them; whole pallets from some, but only a part from another.

[Michael Delamar]

I was thinking of firms like Asda and Tescos, if they were to ditch their lorries for instance and send everything from their warehouses to their stores by Royal mail it would be similar kind of way of how it worked?

[TheSignalEngineer]

But it is on the Midland Region from the number on one of the trailers.

 

Love the shot of the Humber Hawk (399PRO) a rare shot of a British Railways owned car.  BTP possibly.

There were several black Humbers based at Rail House, Birmingham, for use of the Divisonal Manager and various Divisional Engineers. Some had chauffeurs complete with full uniform depending on the rank of who they were allocated to. We were occasionally allowed to borrow them at weekends if we were on awkward shifts in remote places.

 

During Saltley Commissioning in 1969 I nicked one to get some staff out to a fault, promising to get the occupants back on the Test Train. Meanwhile a second fault stopped the train, leaving the CS&TE and DS&TE to hitch a lift back from Water Orton in a yellow van.

[Fat Controller]

I was thinking of firms like Asda and Tescos, if they were to ditch their lorries for instance and send everything from their warehouses to their stores by Royal mail it would be similar kind of way of how it worked?

It would be, yes.

What you'd see as well, from the early 1970s onwards, was that the National Carriers trailers (which had taken over the Sundries traffic post1967 Transport Act) were sometimes being painted into 'customer' liveries, such as Woolworths and Marks and Spencers. Then the NCL livery mutated into the 'Lynx' one on the residual trailers.

[Michael Delamar]

So in effect when the motorways came along they could ditch the railway middle man.

 

Huskisson (and Sandon next door) became NCL depots, but ive never seen any shots of them at that time, my dad remembers them as NCL as he used to go into them at the time.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Michael Delamar

[Fat Controller]

So in effect when the motorways came along they could ditch the railway middle man.

 

Huskisson (and Sandon next door) became NCL depots, but ive never seen any shots of them at that time, my dad remembers them as NCL as he used to go into them at the time.

That was pretty well it; NCL did use trunk rail services at the beginning of the Speedlink era, but not to anything like the extent they'd been used before. Bear in mind their parent company, National Freight Corporation, was very much road-orientated, having a large ex-BRS presence,as well as other specialist smaller operations. Drivers would move from one to another, often for very short periods- I remember having the same driver on Rail Express Parcels, NCL and BRS Parcels in the space of a week over the holiday period.

[Michael Delamar]

can anyone add any more info to this? I take it the number is for a van which corresponds with the item, wondering what the letters after the number would mean..

 

[Michael Delamar]

found this shot of Wavertree parcels concentration depot in 1961.

 

[Fat Controller]

The corrugations on the shed at Wavertree Parcels Concentration Depot look very similar to some of the interior views. I reckon those shots with the 08 could be there also; it's simply the houses in the background have been knocked down in the intervening period. A mate from college lived very close to that junction, and I couldn't find his house in Google Street View when I looked. Some of those parcels looked as though they could be packs of Peco Streamline from Hattons..

[Michael Delamar]

Its definately Wavertee, well done to those who recognised it, totally stumped me, the houses in the background are all still there, they are on Picton Road.

[Fat Controller]

Its definately Wavertee, well done to those who recognised it, totally stumped me, the houses in the background are all still there, they are on Picton Road.

In that first shot of the 08, there are a couple of bufferstops visible to the right-hand side- that's where the Transfesa depot was.

[br2975]

.

vlcsnap-2013-12-13-13h48m46s123.png

 

Excuse my ignorance ... but what is a 'ring stiffness tester' used for ?

 

Brian R

 

(I wonder who'll be first to bite ?)

Edited December 13, 2013 by br2975