Civil Engineers Wagons Volume 3 – Later
British Rail: 1978-1994
by David Larkin
The first five Kestrel
Railway Books volumes
by David Larkin looked at the
revenue-earning wagon fleet operated by British Railways and its immediate
successor, British Rail. This volume is
the third of three looking at the substantial fleet of specially-designed
wagons that were used for track maintenance, and covers a significant change to
the wagon fleet from 1978 to 1994.
Concurrent with British Rail freight operations
generally, there was a positive move towards fully-fitted
trains on all regions of the system. On
working ballast trains, this could be accommodated by using the vacuum-braked
examples of suitable designs, and the early years of the period saw the gradual
elimination of unfitted stock, either through withdrawal or by the application
of automatic braking systems. To get
Civil Engineers materials to the various depots, air-braked stock was either
built new, transferred from the revenue-earning fleet or, eventually, rebuilt
from existing stock.
Finally, the on-track plant fleet became more
standardised and a new concept of "virtual quarries" was introduced,
where ballast was stockpiled at specified yards and reloaded into hopper wagons
or other types at those locations, rather than at actual quarries, such as
Meldon.
Softback: 96 pages
273 x 215mm
978-1-905505-25-8
Price: £15.00
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The
third of three volumes in this series…