Thus, in order to provide for a large measure of rail participation in countrywide collection and delivery of small consignments, which the railways were never particularly well suited to do, and which they only did because the horse-drawn cart was worse, the railways threw away their main advantages. They saddled themselves with the costly movement of wagons in small numbers over a multiplicity of branch lines, where there were too few wagons moving to make good trains. At the same time, they sacrificed the speed, reliability, and low cost of through-train operation even on the main arteries.
This staging of wagons is carried out in accordance with a set of rules, but these rules, like those of chess, allow a considerable variation of speed and route for a transit between any two points. To a large extent, therefore, we are compelled to think of the system of freight movement as one which produces statistically measurable and predictable results, but which does not produce a known or foreseeable result with any one consignment.
The slow and semi-random movement of wagons, and their dispersal over many small terminals where they cannot be collected or delivered very frequently, has necessitated the provision of an enormous fleet of wagons. Also, because of their random motion, all these wagons have to be capable of coupling and running with one another and of going almost anywhere on the system. This compatibility requirement, combined with the size and cost of the fleet, has been a great obstacle to technical progress, since the new always has to mate with the old. In consequence, evolution of improved rolling stock has been very slow.
The average turn-round time between loading and loading for British Railways' wagons is 11·9 working days. The average loaded transit time is about 1½-2 days, with an average journey length of 67 miles, but individual transit times are bound to vary over a wide range, not merely because of variations in distance but also because of variations in route and in marshalling delays.
These slow and variable delivery times are quite unacceptable for many forms of freight in these days, when road deliveries over comparable distances can be made on the day of despatch. In addition, however, this whole method of rail movement by the staging of wagons is far more costly than movement by through trains.
As we shall see later, the way to break with the past is not to attempt an overall change of the present system but to develop new services, with new rolling stock not compatible with the old, which will progressively displace the common-user wagon fleet and the system of operation which employs it.
The Main Classes of Freight Traffic
Reference has already been made to the main classes into which freight traffic is traditionally divided.
They are:
- Coal class traffic, which includes coal, coke, and manufactured solid fuels.
- Mineral traffic, a more mixed class, which includes true mineral traffics such as iron ore, limestone, china clay, etc., but which also includes steel industry semi-finished products, ashes, iron and steel scrap, bricks, creosote and tar, fertilizer, and even sugar beet.
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