66 099 with a wagonload remnant in Kingmoor Yard.
BR knew it as "Speedlink" and pulled the plug in July 1991 then in the run up to privatisation it was revamped by the Trainload Freight company Transrail as "Enterprise" which new owner EWS embraced and tried to develop further with some initial success but with the increasing fragmentation of railfreight in the UK in the last 15 years driven by stiff competition it makes pretty well all wagonload flows unviable now as the core traffic on the trunk sections have been stripped away by other companies. EWS and new owner DB ran down the wagonload network to a skelton service based around the Government Stores traffic, this was known as the GFN (General Freight Network) but everyone still called it Enterprise traffic. Sadly when GBRF took the MOD contract off DB Schenker in 2016 DB pulled the plug on the remaining traffic as none of it was viable as stand alone flows and road haulage was the winner.
One flow did slip through the net and must make money else DB simply wouldn't shift it. It's the Welsh Anthracite house coal traffic from Onllwyn to Mossend. The coal in 30ft open top containers makes its entire journey tagged onto the back of other block trains. So the spirit of "Enterprise" lives on albeit in a very small way.
Here 66 099 having arrived with 6C48 14.15 ex Workington Docks (retimed on this date from its usual 11.20 slot) is seen after backing into the Up Departures headshunt in Kingmoor Yard and collecting four FCA container flats loaded with 8 Celtic Energy house coal containers. They would have arrived overnight on the back of 6M75 20.26 ex Margam Yard a trainload metals working. The train here will recess until the early hours departing as 6S30 the 03.03 to Mossend Yard. The tanks from Workington collecting others from Irvine at Mossend to make 6A32 to Aberdeen while the house coal gets tripped across to the Mossend Euro Terminal to be unloaded. It will then repeat the journey in reverse using the same block trains back workings.
66 099 with a wagonload remnant in Kingmoor Yard.
BR knew it as "Speedlink" and pulled the plug in July 1991 then in the run up to privatisation it was revamped by the Trainload Freight company Transrail as "Enterprise" which new owner EWS embraced and tried to develop further with some initial success but with the increasing fragmentation of railfreight in the UK in the last 15 years driven by stiff competition it makes pretty well all wagonload flows unviable now as the core traffic on the trunk sections have been stripped away by other companies. EWS and new owner DB ran down the wagonload network to a skelton service based around the Government Stores traffic, this was known as the GFN (General Freight Network) but everyone still called it Enterprise traffic. Sadly when GBRF took the MOD contract off DB Schenker in 2016 DB pulled the plug on the remaining traffic as none of it was viable as stand alone flows and road haulage was the winner.
One flow did slip through the net and must make money else DB simply wouldn't shift it. It's the Welsh Anthracite house coal traffic from Onllwyn to Mossend. The coal in 30ft open top containers makes its entire journey tagged onto the back of other block trains. So the spirit of "Enterprise" lives on albeit in a very small way.
Here 66 099 having arrived with 6C48 14.15 ex Workington Docks (retimed on this date from its usual 11.20 slot) is seen after backing into the Up Departures headshunt in Kingmoor Yard and collecting four FCA container flats loaded with 8 Celtic Energy house coal containers. They would have arrived overnight on the back of 6M75 20.26 ex Margam Yard a trainload metals working. The train here will recess until the early hours departing as 6S30 the 03.03 to Mossend Yard. The tanks from Workington collecting others from Irvine at Mossend to make 6A32 to Aberdeen while the house coal gets tripped across to the Mossend Euro Terminal to be unloaded. It will then repeat the journey in reverse using the same block trains back workings.