Yorkmover124
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Are Royal Mail planning to run more Parcel trains 2024 from the new South Midlands super hub via Warrington Rail Terminal
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Additional Royal Mail trains to serve South Midlands super hub ?
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XCTurbostar
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Given that the extension isnt proposed to be wired and will require a reversal.. I'm guessing it was just a carrot to get planning permission.
dk1
Veteran Member
Beat me to it. Exactly how I see it. Hope I’m wrong.
There's a fair chunk of infrastructure there, which is a substantial investment purely to dress up a carrot. I would be surprised if RM were funding (even partially) such a specification without reasonable intent to make use of it. It's not like they've got a single line and a crossover into the running line.
Whether 325s use it, or they go for other options (769s under contract from Varamis?, swapbody freights) is another matter though.
Yes, but having done it a couple of times to 'prove' they're using it doesn't mean they'll keep doing it. If there's a spare 66 and a shunter hanging around Daventry it'll be marginal costs, if they need somebody to take something off another job to move it up to the actual loading area then it'll be rather more expensive.
Skimpot flyer
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Depots?
At PRDC, Shieldmuir, Warrington and Low Fell the trains use their own power.
There are four paths to Shieldmuir on weekdays. Whether they are used or not….
Realtime Trains | Departures from Daventry Int Rft Recep Rfd all day on 13/12/2023
Train information at Daventry Int Rft Recep Rfd all day on 13/12/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Adrian Barr
Member
There's been a daily return service operating into the Daventry Royal Mail terminal (1M36 southbound / 1S05 northbound) since the middle of August. It's not run this week but I think that's due to a temporary issue with 325 availability.
Good question... the paths are there but it's not clear there would be enough 325 units to use them. Once the Daventry service started up, I think roughly a dozen units were needed in traffic (out of 15). Not long after that the 1M03 / 1S55 service from Shieldmuir to Warrington and back stopped running, which makes it seem like there were insufficient units to run both, taking into account maintenance requirements.
Daventry is unusual in being the only location the 325s need regular diesel-hauling.
Initially the idea was to use the shunt loco already based at Daventry (I think this was an ex-British Steel Redcar industrial loco) to haul the units from the reception sidings to the mail terminal and back. I think this arrangement lasted a couple of weeks but for whatever reason was found to be unsatisfactory, requiring a class 66 to be based there as a pilot loco. It could be that there was a compatibility issue causing difficulties; perhaps a class 08 would have been more successful.
The Daventry service was mentioned here in the railfreight thread, with a link to a photo of a 325 in the terminal. I've never seen any photo or video of the units being hauled around the Daventry site though!
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rail-freight-flows-and-news-uk.195217/post-6367797
Good question... the paths are there but it's not clear there would be enough 325 units to use them. Once the Daventry service started up, I think roughly a dozen units were needed in traffic (out of 15). Not long after that the 1M03 / 1S55 service from Shieldmuir to Warrington and back stopped running, which makes it seem like there were insufficient units to run both, taking into account maintenance requirements.
Daventry is unusual in being the only location the 325s need regular diesel-hauling.
Initially the idea was to use the shunt loco already based at Daventry (I think this was an ex-British Steel Redcar industrial loco) to haul the units from the reception sidings to the mail terminal and back. I think this arrangement lasted a couple of weeks but for whatever reason was found to be unsatisfactory, requiring a class 66 to be based there as a pilot loco. It could be that there was a compatibility issue causing difficulties; perhaps a class 08 would have been more successful.
The Daventry service was mentioned here in the railfreight thread, with a link to a photo of a 325 in the terminal. I've never seen any photo or video of the units being hauled around the Daventry site though!
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rail-freight-flows-and-news-uk.195217/post-6367797
Stampy
Member
Sounds about right for Royal Mail.... Clueless
And Daventry is their main "hub" - aka Midlands Superhub
Where (no doubt) letters are being stacked up (or hidden) whilst they prioritise the lucrative parcels...
And Daventry is their main "hub" - aka Midlands Superhub
Where (no doubt) letters are being stacked up (or hidden) whilst they prioritise the lucrative parcels...
Liam L
Member
I thought the superhub was only for parcels?
Wouldn't surprise me if there were letters stored there, I only seem to get letters if there a parcel with it
Stampy
Member
I thought the superhub was only for parcels?
Wouldn't surprise me if there were letters stored there, I only seem to get letters if there a parcel with it
That's what Royal Mail are telling you....
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