HST Power car used for passenger luggage.

[jimm]

Nice to see you're all so positive about someone providing this service. Red Star used to be a very nice revenue stream for BR - would you rather this traffic goes by road instead?

Can't you see past the PR/marketing waffle which modern life is cursed with?

As well as shellfish, the trains from Cornwall (consignments carried on three trains per day apparently) are now carrying cakes http://intercityrailfreight.com/news/a-cake-a-train-and-a-brian/

 

[Ash Bridge]

Nice to see you're all so positive about someone providing this service. Red Star used to be a very nice revenue stream for BR - would you rather this traffic goes by road instead?

Can't you see past the PR/marketing waffle which modern life is cursed with?

As well as shellfish, the trains from Cornwall (consignments carried on three trains per day apparently) are now carrying cakes http://intercityrailfreight.com/news/a-cake-a-train-and-a-brian/

I agree, and I would think some of the top restaurants in London would be more than happy to receive this top quality seafood a couple or so hours sooner than they would if it travelled by road, the fresher the better and good luck to them with this operation, just hope there will be somewhere to convey it when the AT300s take over.

 

[LowLevel]

EMT's HSTs and 222s also carry express parcels between London and Nottingham/Sheffield, a locker on each type (the 'crusher' cupboard on HSTs and the former train manager's cupboard by the bike space on 222s) being dedicated to it. Very good in my view.

 

[centraltrains]

A company has been using the power car space to convey freight. Not sure what routes they are still operating on.
http://intercityrailfreight.com/

Who said this?
http://intercityrailfreight.com/news/what-the-forums-say-about-us/

 

[najaB]

Who said this?

They have a link to the thread on the page: link

 

[Phil.]

Wasn't that after a mixture of complaints from the guards that it was too noisy and also that the doors had a habit of opening at 125mph?

Too true. You got bounced around like a pea in a cocoa tin. The GRP constructed doors used to flex and occasionally whip open if the train lurched through a set of S&C.

 

[Master29]

Nice to see you're all so positive about someone providing this service. Red Star used to be a very nice revenue stream for BR - would you rather this traffic goes by road instead?

Can't you see past the PR/marketing waffle which modern life is cursed with?

As well as shellfish, the trains from Cornwall (consignments carried on three trains per day apparently) are now carrying cakes http://intercityrailfreight.com/news/a-cake-a-train-and-a-brian/

It`s not because it`s a bad idea. It clearly isn`t but the website is pretty naff considering they claim "their trains" carry the consignments. They don`t have their own fleet of high speed trains so why the bull dump.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

With the small amounts it can carry in a HST I've always suspected it to be little more than a publicity stunt....

or conversely it;s serving a specific (fine dining) market that wants the product in the tiem frames that this provides ... and are willing to pay handsomely to do so ( given the alternative will be to bung a few hundred kilos into a van and get someone to drive it up to London which may be slower end to end and also has to account for the 'dead' mileage to get the vans back )

 

[Cliveblackpool]

Back in Red Star parcels days, the power car was very much used for parcels. I watched them put my 'parcel' weighing 2 cwt in! Brilliant service!
Back in the 80's I had to put my bicycle in one at Penzance - (after the guard insisted I bought a ticket for my bike!)

 

[PermitToTravel]

guess the same as the people loading vans for a living have to ...

It's rather easier to guess the weight of uniform pallets than of suitcases packed by the general public, though.

 

[221129]

It's rather easier to guess the weight of uniform pallets than of suitcases packed by the general public, though.

I would suggest you are most definitely wrong there...

 

[BestWestern]

Just to clarify a couple of things then; GWRs HST fleet are fitted with hanging racks for three cycles in each power car luggage van. Whilst they are useful if a train is swamped with bikes, they do see only limited use. They were generally only to be used for bikes boarding/alighting at the origin/terminus stations, due to potential delays, and their use is likely to decrease further now that cycle reservations are mandatory.

The vans are used for luggage on busy services between Paddington and Plymouth. This is loaded and stored in old fashioned luggage cages.

The space is used perhaps most frequently by Rail Gourmet, for the shipment of buffet fridges between depots.

In all cases, access has to be (or should be) maintained to the end gangway door into the coaches, to the cupboard housing the drawbars and associated emergency coupling gear, and to the access door leading into the noisy and oily bits of the power car. There is also now an additional sand cannister placed at a specific location, which also needs to be easily reached. So in short, anything in there has to be carried thoughtfully!

 

[PermitToTravel]

I would suggest you are most definitely wrong there...

?????

 

[ffm]

At Kings Cross VTEC and its predecessors regularly have the luggage compartment of the HST power car, or the 225 DVT open and encourage large items of luggage to be put in there, along with bikes

 

[talltim]

I've put my bike in one (a Western Region one IIRC) in the dim and distant past.
The EMT ones have a sticker in the window of the sliding door that says either Maintained for use or Not maintained for use

 

[jimm]

It`s not because it`s a bad idea. It clearly isn`t but the website is pretty naff considering they claim "their trains" carry the consignments. They don`t have their own fleet of high speed trains so why the bull dump.

Why are you so worked up about a website, for goodness' sake? It's their problem if bits of it are nonsense.

The key thing is that they (and GWR and EMT) are delivering it and the customers are happy to use it - they must be, given that the shellfish traffic was originally a three-month trial and now seems to be regular traffic.

 

[221129]

?????

Pallets (which wouldn't ideally be put in a van) are definitely a lot harder to guess the weight of than smaller items such as luggage cases.

 

[PermitToTravel]

They're usually uniform, as are cases or smaller units. It's easy to look at a cuboid and reason that a pallet of orange juice cartons 10 wide, 16 deep, and 6 high will weigh about a tonne - far easier than guessing the weights of various suitcases you're handed and adding them up

 

[richw]

Pallets (which wouldn't ideally be put in a van) are definitely a lot harder to guess the weight of than smaller items such as luggage cases.

Generally speaking pallets are easy to calculate as it will be known they have x cases of product A, each case weighing y amount and so on.
The seller of the shellfish will know the weight of each case on their pallet, so pallet weight equals sum of all case weights.
Majority of pallets are used for uniform products

 

[Clip]

Generally speaking pallets are easy to calculate as it will be known they have x cases of product A, each case weighing y amount and so on.
The seller of the shellfish will know the weight of each case on their pallet, so pallet weight equals sum of all case weights.
Majority of pallets are used for uniform products

And pallets are built to carry a certain weight too so if you always go for the max weight of the pallet then you know where you are with them and how much you have loaded through how many you have on there.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

It's rather easier to guess the weight of uniform pallets than of suitcases packed by the general public, though.

i'm guessing you've never worked in a courier or retail logistics environment ...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Nice to see you're all so positive about someone providing this service. Red Star used to be a very nice revenue stream for BR - would you rather this traffic goes by road instead?

ah red star - great if your customers were close to a station directly served by a train from your locla station ...

or maybe you are unaware of where the late 'Citylink' courier firm got their name ...

 

[221129]

Generally speaking pallets are easy to calculate as it will be known they have x cases of product A, each case weighing y amount and so on.
The seller of the shellfish will know the weight of each case on their pallet, so pallet weight equals sum of all case weights.
Majority of pallets are used for uniform products

I wish that was the case, would make my job so much easier, but I feel this is going off topic.

 

[jimm]

i'm guessing you've never worked in a courier or retail logistics environment ...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


ah red star - great if your customers were close to a station directly served by a train from your locla station ...

or maybe you are unaware of where the late 'Citylink' courier firm got their name ...

I'm not sure what your point is. BR earned money from Red Star over many years and it was a useful service in my experience. Someone having to go to a station to collect was hardly the end of the world if it meant you could get a package across a lot of the country on the same day without faffing around with couriers.

Thanks to the wonders of privatisation, that revenue was lost to the railway. Citylink's role in that outcome and what eventually became of that company are probably best forgotten.

If InterCity RailFreight sees value in adopting certain elements of the Red Star/Citylink business model - and GWR and EMT earn money from it - good luck to them.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

I'm not sure what your point is. BR earned money from Red Star over many years and it was a useful service in my experience. Someone having to go to a station to collect was hardly the end of the world if it meant you could get a package across a lot of the country on the same day without faffing around with couriers.

Thanks to the wonders of privatisation, that revenue was lost to the railway. Citylink's role in that outcome and what eventually became of that company are probably best forgotten.

If InterCity RailFreight sees value in adopting certain elements of the Red Star/Citylink business model - and GWR and EMT earn money from it - good luck to them.

you quite clearly are unaware of the original modus operandi of red star point to point without chage of train ... there in came about city link collecting from one station and transporting across London to another station to complete the journey ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Link_(company)

a carrier who only offers point to point service is on a loser as the gold standard is 'overnight' and 'door to door ' by 9am if required as a standard service and 'same day' at a suitable premium or within a tight geographical confine ( e.g. 'biking' stuff within the M25 whether that;s motorxcylce , pedal or a combination thereof)