Politically, the death-knell for mixed freight was sounded in the 1960s, when the obligation of being the national carrier was removed from the railways.
Until then, the nationalised railway was obliged to carry whatever cargo was offering, and in whatever size of load. Hence almost every station had its goods yard for picking-up and dropping-off the odd wagon or two and the daily pick-up goods would meander along, shunting the yards and picking-up wagons here and there, taking them to a major centre for re-marshalling. A local farmer might ring-up the day before, saying he would be bringing cattle for transport to market the following day, and it was the yard shunter's job to ensure sufficient empty wagons were in situ. Also odd wagons would be dropped-off at the yards, for example conveying coal, which would be transferred into motor vehicles via the coal drops, which were often a prominent feature of the yards, by the local coal merchants, who often had their offices at the yard.
This, and the large workforce involved in loading, labelling and invoicing, disappeared overnight when the railways could then pick and choose what they wanted to carry and in what bulk. And they moved to liner trains, carrying in bulk from point "a" to point "b".
Ironically, the need for large marshalling yards such as Tinsley and Healey Mills, was disappearing almost as they were being built.
