DB Cargo ‘jumbo’ freight trials success
DB Cargo UK says it has successfully operated ‘combi-consists’ that increase capacity and efficiency. In March DBC ran a unique ‘jumbo’ train from Belmont Yard, Doncaster to Barking, East London, carrying a mix of wagons for two completely separate customers.
The train consisted of two sets of empty wagons – 21 x MBA wagons for Ward Recycling and 18 x JNA wagons for FCC Environment – with an isolated DIT (dead-in-train) locomotive – in the middle.
The MBA wagons had previously been discharged at Immingham in North Lincolnshire and the JNA wagons emptied at FCC Environment’s new waste transfer facility at Tinsley in South Yorkshire.
Both sets of wagons were then taken to Doncaster, where the jumbo train was assembled. The train travelled from Belmont Yard to Barking via Lincoln Central, Spalding, the East Coast Main Line, Hertford North and Canonbury Tunnel.
DBC says that combining two services into a single train allowed it to reduce the required number of traincrew, freeing up resources to use on other services. It also enabled the operator to significantly reduce fuel consumption, with obvious environmental benefits. Special permission was required to run the service with a locomotive in the middle dead-in-train but this reduced the need for complicated shunting at both ends of the journey. FCC Environment’s wagons were attached to Ward’s wagons without having to remove the locomotive and run it round, which also resulted in greater yard management efficiency.
DBC now intends to take the trial one step further by proving the concept on longer sections of the East Coast Main Line and Midland Main Line.