Vacuum Braked Container Services
Prior to the 1960's containers were
moved as single wagon loads in standard mixed goods trains, the pre-war RCH
approved container designs continuing in use into the 1970's. One reason there
was little change in container designs was that the railways already had
experience of the RCH boxes and the cranes in smaller goods yards could handle
them. By the 1960s BR were using hefty fork-lift trucks which could handle the standard pre-war containers using a set of chains attached to the forks that hooked onto the roof mouted lifting rings on the containers.
Before the second world war there had been some experiments with
all-container services, notably on the LNER for the meat trade from Scotland,
but these were never really fully exploited.
Condor
The
all-container express Condor (container-door-to-door) service was introduced in
early 1959, offering collection and next day delivery of railway owned
containers. This service ran between London and Glasgow and initially the
original make up was about twenty seven wagons, all standard four wheeled
vacuum braked container flats of the type offered by Peco. The rolling stock
was rated to travel at up to 75 mph, the brake van was always a long wheelbase
type and the rake was usually hauled by a pair of Metro-Vic Co-Bo locomotives.
By the end of the year the rake was reduced to thirteen wagons hauled by a
single Co-Bo locomotive. In subsequent years there were occasionally
non-container wagons included in the rake. As well as the standard container
flat wagons this service featured modified plate wagon chassis coded Conflat P
to carry one of each of the old wooden bodied A and B type containers. By the early 1960s there were also some converted 52 foot bogie plate wagons, these had their body removed (including the floor) and fitting added to secure the containers. Although
marketed as an 'all container' service some non container wagons were also
included in both Condor and the later Speedfreight trains, I have seen a
photograph showing two 5 plank wagons loaded with bricks and some old style oil
tanks similar to the Peco ten foot wheelbase chassis models heading the rake on
a Condor service. The Condor service was withdrawn in 1964, the ex plate wagons
were not then used for general container traffic as the future lay with more
modern container designs. The majority of the Conflat Ps were stored until
conversion to timber carrying Timber P wagons (in about 1964/1965) although a
few were modified for the Speedfreight service discussed below. The containers
and rolling stock used for Condor service are discussed in the section on Unit
Loads - Early container types.
Speedfreight
In 1961 the
London Midland Region introduced a container service called Speedfreight, initially
between London and Manchester. This was not a single express liner service like
Condor but an attempt to update the type of container service offered by the
railway, the container used had a lightweight body and were lifted using brackets set into the base (rather than the old stule roof mounted rings). Speedfreight used a new design of container fitted
with special anchoring sockets on the bottom which mated with cone shaped
anchors on the specially modified container wagons. The new containers took
less time to load and unload than the older type with their chains and bottle
screws but they required a specially built crane that had a frame with four
rigid arms to reach down to the lifting points on the bottom of the container
sides. This is known as a grapple lift and it was not a new idea as they had
used similar kit to lift the old style 'coach built' passenger coach bodies
onto their chassis in the carriage works for many years. The cranes used for
Speedfreight were small gantry types (at least the only one I ever saw was of
this type). The cranes were painted a light colour, possibly yellow or light
grey. A Speedfreight container could not be delivered to a small local goods
yard equipped with only a normal yard crane hence this service ran only between
specially equipped yards.
Speedfrieght services extended to any yard equipped with a suitable crane (either a gantry type with special 'grappler' lifting arms or a large fork lift truck, also fitted with grappler arms to reach down to the base of the container. In the event I believe only about a hundred Speedfreight containers
and their wagons were built however the containers appeared in the London-Glasgow Condor trains in later years and some Speedfreight containers had additional lifting points that
could be handled using Freightliner cranes but to date I have not been able to
confirm the depots served. The cranes used for Speedfreight services are more
fully discussed in the section on Railway Company Goods Facilities - Container
handling, the containers are described in the section on Unit Loads - Early
container types.
To carry the Speedfreight containers British Railways
converted a number of both the older Peco type Conflat A and re-converted some
of the Conflat P wagons from the Condor service. In about 1961 or 62 a number of 52 foot bogie plate wagons were converted to carry Speedfrieght containers, these had the body removed, revealing the metal underframe, to which Speedfreight securing points were fitted.
Although Speedfreight services
could only operate between the small number of specially equipped yards they
were (I believe) operated as wagon load traffic, not as block trains (I might
be wrong on this).
By the time the Speedfreight services had begun
operating the ISO container was being developed for use carrying goods on ships
and by the mid 1960's it was clear that the new standardised and widely
accepted rectangular boxes were the future. This lead to the introduction of
the Freightliner service and Speedfreight operations finally ceased in about
1977.
Vacuum braked ISO Container services
In the early
days of the ISO container BR converted a number of vacuum braked wagons to
carry them. Notably they added a frame to several Lowmac wagons to carry the
twenty foot versions of these new boxes. The modified wagons were coded CONFLAT
ISO but at least some retained the Lowmac EP code as well (possibly because the
frame itself was removable).
Some of the former Boplate wagons, converted for Condor and Speedfreight services were also adapted to carry ISO containers and also coded conflat ISO, although these could only handle half-height and 'flat' containers due to loading gauge restrictions. In the 1970s one application for these was to carry ISO 'flats' (actiually they had half-height ends) fitted with timber cradles to carry csteel coil from the works in Sout Wales. Subsequently a range of non standard containers were developed that could be transported on this type of bogie flat wagon, they often used standard ISO container securing and lifting arrangements but were built to a reduced height to fit the loading gauge.One example was the use of open twenty foot long but reduced height containers to carry coke in the 1980s (the wagons were by this time equipped with air brakes and TOPS coded FEW), these containers were handled by purpose built large fork lift trucks.
The problem with the ISO 'box' for general BR freight duties was that
the small yard cranes in goods yards were not able to handle it so, until the
arrival of the Freightliner terminals, they had to be handled in larger yards
where gantry cranes could be used. Freightliner services are discussed
separately in the section on Freight Operations - Air Braked Freightliner
Container Services. The use of spreader bars for handling ISO containers, and
the later purpose built cranes is more fully discussed in the section on
Railway Company Goods Facilities - Container handling.