The story goes that London Midland are HIRING drivers from DB to cover for shortages. Ive passed a few familliar ex-colleagues during my sporadic forays down the West Coast. I suggest, that with the current turmoil and uncertainty, LM would be grateful to acquire a set of fully trained drivers and certain drivers currently of DB would be grateful to depart for pastures more secure. Win Win situation all round then.

But going on from this, the answer to the question that is this thread: End of the line for EWS?

Yes, it most certainly the end of a chapter in Britains colourful railway heritage. The only question now is should we mourn its loss, or say like many customers and staff "The king is dead, Long live the King".

les what about motherwell tmd ?
is it still going

hi i was a passed cleaner at thornaby from 1961 to 1965 plenty of steamers but quickly dieselised after 1963 the year of frost only the steam engines coped the diesel freezing

The end is nigh for Ayr depot and Falkland yard. Both to close, and planning permission has been sought for housing on Ayr sheds. Doubt it will be given but just goes to show that no matter the size of a company, asset stripping is not taboo subject. A real lack of forward thinking by management when you consider Prestwick Airport (freight) is 3 miles away and Ayr harbour is as busy now as it has ever been. A shame and a disgrace.:(

Hi Sou-West
And welcome to the forum i hope you like it
I used to work at St Blazey depot in Cornwall and i dont think it will be long before the same happens there they have very little work there now it is a shame i suppose its a sign of the times :( :( :(
Cheers
ccmmick.

Looking on other forums (fora?) it seems closure is not particularly imminent for Ayr depot and Falkland yard and someone is guilty of making up malicious stories. :mad:

I cant say for any other depots but i do know that St Blazey doesn't have much work now and there aint all that many drivers there, in years to come i can see houses there.
When i was there it was a busy depot the clay was thriving and
we used to flood Fowey docks with train after train load, boats would come in on the high tide and go out on the next high tide :)

ccmmick.

For all the talk of there being some big percentage or other increase in railfreight since privatisation, I get the impression this is mostly down to coal being shipped further and the actual tonnage of freight carried had barely risen (and will have fallen now in the recession). I commute between Cheltenham and Bristol and while the M5 (like most motorways) is awash with lorries, I pass next-to-no freight on the railway. The few freight terminals that remain in the west country seem to be slowly shutting (Bristol East Steel, Bath waste, Quidhampton china clay just a few in the last year or so); the Enterprise network seems to barely exist; Advenza Freight has gone belly-up. It would be interesting to hear from current freight company employees what their 'take' is on what the future holds?

Hi,
At 71 years old and have worked on the od British Rail,I still like Trainspotting EWS locomotives with there large Numbers helped,but DB Schenker's numbered Locomotives don't help old people to get the numbers.

I'm all for that! When I was a kid in Reading in the 50's, it was nearly impossible to read the cast brass GWR numberplates at any distance, it was great whwn I went home from school, there was always a SR loco with an inter-regional passenger service crossing Scours Lane bridge (if I was quick), and the numbers could easily be read at about 350 yards. After doing a lot of spotting in France, I strayed upon a couple of Belgian (SNCB) locos - they had huge numbers at both ends! I spent a lot of time in Belgium after that - AND Holland, where loco numbers were equally large. And all that was BEFORE my eyesight started to go downhill! :D:D

why on earth would 23404 people want to hit on this thread?? That is so massive I just wondered how far across Europe this has travelled. Does EWS have another meaning...!!

Engines Wagons Slaves :D :D.

ccmmick.

THE MOST OBVIOUS ONE IS Early Warning System ESPECIALLY WITH CLIMATE CHANGE HAPPENING SO FAST IN THE UK AND NO WHERE ELSE!!

Bring back the Lion and Wheel !

48111

I'd settle for putting back the red cross on our white flag!:mad:

Empty Wagon Sidings,

Ed Was Sacked

Eat Work and Sleep

Les

Thanks Les for them
I have heard of Eat Work and Sleep before but not the other two.

ccmmick.

WEFOC will soon have no regular traffic, DBS will soon only be using C Fan comprising 8 roads. When you consider the huge waste on Stratford and Wembley Inter-modal terminals installing new cranes and facilities. The former completely gone, the latter not now in use. Who can say the Public money spent on Channel Tunnel Rail infrastructure has not been wasted?

I agree. The amount of Channel Tunnel-specific taxpayer money 'lost' since the opening of the tunnel in 1994 is quite staggering really.

On just the intermodal side of things, the sums are quite massive. Take for example, the three pairs of Morris cranes bought. The units meant for Stratford of course didn't get used there and went for use at the Freightliner Manchester terminal. Last year these cranes, like the pair of Morris cranes that went to Landor Street, were replaced and scrapped.

In the meantime, the last remaining pair, which stand at Willesden, has not been in use for several years.

Then there are the two pairs of Armund cranes. The pair in place at Willesden, like the Morris cranes, has not been in use for years. As for the units at Manchester, according to several press reports, DB Schenker is mothballing the Trafford Park terminal this month, so these cranes will be doing nothing from now on.

So in the space of 16 years the British taxpayer has purchased fives pairs of RMG cranes, none of which are now in use. I think that's quite an achievement.

As for changes at the Wembley yards, I confess I don’t know what you mean by the C Fan. I pass the yard every day, and looking at an aerial photo of the yard, are you saying that the long 750m tracks are the ones that will remain in use? Do these make-up the C Fan?

By implication therefore, will the shorter lines, especially those that are effectively sidings, be taken out of use?

'C Fan' are the 8 tracks next to Wembley Carriage Sidings the furtherest away from the main line. From the Main Line you first see the Reception Sidings which are the longest tracks, Then 'A fan' which is through tracks, 'B Fan' consists of tracks with stops and finally 'C Fan' has through roads directly in front of Wembley Signalling Centre. My information directly from DBS Traincrew based at Wembley.

I can understand why the B Fan are seen as redundant, as they have always been a bit of design weakness of the yard.

But I struggle to understand why the C Fan tracks are seen as more valuable than the reception sidings adjacent to the mainline.

Looking at an aerial photo, the C Fan tracks are only around 450m in length. Surely if one is wear a cost-cutting hat one would abandon Fan C in favour of the seven Fan A rception tracks, which are 750m-plus in length.

Don't know which train crew you have been speaking to; C fan doesn't have 8 tracks, only five (six if you include B8) and one of those is out of use at one end! Also A fan only has five roads as well and one of those is out of use at the south end.

Most likely outcome is to concentrate remaining trains on the Reception roads of which there are seven, fully track circuited and signalled.

B Fan is quite useful for doing repairs and suchlike, especially as much of it does not have OHL to complicate matters.

Thank-you 33056; regarding the actual number of roads in Wembley EFOC I stand corrected. However what might seem as common sense to you will not necessarily be the action DBS take. The only update I can give is, it is the intention to only use 3 roads in 'C Fan'.

I must say, the only only logical rationalisation seems to be a retraction back to using just the reception roads. After all, DBS still needs the capability to 'hold' Channel Tunnel trains, and, therefore, I'm sure the company will indeed carry on using these 750m-plus tracks in preference over the shorter Fan C tracks.

If the Fan C tracks do fall out of use, I'm not sure this ought to be seen as any major loss.

A more worrying development is the moth-balling of the Trafford Park terminal. Is DBS is not able to drum up enough Channel Tunnel traffic from the Manchester area then things must be bad.

I very rarely travel by train nowadays so I often see big changes between trips. A recent weekday journey from Dundee to Sheffield produced just three freight trains on the 300-odd mile route including areas of heavy industry. Should the question be "End of the line for freight?"

No, it's not the end of the line for freight.

In terms of intermodal trains carrying shipping containers to and from British ports, they will always exist and will rise in number as world trade grows again.

In terms of intermodal trains carrying European swap bodies and containers, be that traffic via the Channel Tunnel or via the East Coast ports, these will carry on running so long as the costs of running them do not rise to a prohibitive level - cost has historically been the major barrier to growth for these services.

In terms of trains carry bulk products by the train-load, these will carry on running.

Also, I expect the tiny number of wagon-load trains to carry on running along the same core network that exists now, bolstered by the continuance of MOD traffic.

The reason why you did not see many freight trains during your journey between Dundee and Sheffield is not because the railway is failing in any way. If you want to see large numbers of freights, many of which running one after the other, pop down to southern section of the WCML.

I hope that you are right, I'm sure you are when it comes to container traffic - I sometimes work next to the main line at Romford & there are always plenty of containers passing. When I moved to Sheffield in 1980 I often got the Master Cutler to London and freight trains would be literally nose to tail on the goods lines from Tapton Jct (Chesterfield) to Clay Cross. On a similar journey today I would guess that you might see one freight all the way to St Pancras. I didn't know that any wagonload stuff still ran - do you have any details?

Regarding Wembley, I read in one of the railway magazines that much of its Enterprise/wagonload work is transferring to Didcot. Does this imply that these services are to be integrated more with the MoD network (Didcot being a hub for this)? Also read that Trafford Park's traffic is transferring to Wakefield Europort, as the latter has 'better transport links'. As for money wasted on under-used/unused freight infrastructure, a prime example must be the new terminals built for the Royal Mail traffic, most of which can only have seen a couple of years work. At the other end of the scale would be the siding built at Kyle of Lochalsh for wagonload freight - did it ever generate any? And what has become of the new terminal in Portsmouth - I haven't read of anything out of there yet.

. At the other end of the scale would be the siding built at Kyle of Lochalsh for wagonload freight - did it ever generate any?

Not in the last 11 years!

Les

I am ex BR and also worked for EWS from day 1.
As a trade union rep at National Level and also at my depot I have worked with company directors and local managers.
The whole management culture on EWS revolves around bully boy tactics from all levels of the management strata.
They do not care about certain sections of staff, and thier MO is to reduce staffing levels at all costs, using any means at thier disposal.
This includes implimenting work rosters, ignoring local agreements made under the Partneship Agreements.
The managers will lie and cheat in thier dealings with staff, and cannot be trusted in any way shape or form.
We had an MD from Canada, and now he has gone home, in my view thats the best place for him.
I am glad that I took the money when I did, cos that brass is better in my pocket then in EWS's pocket.
This is my opinion on this company but is bourne out all over the system when you talk to other staff.

I think this is the description of most companies in this day and age sadly. All too familiar story.

I couldn't agree with you more mate,I spent 43 years on the footplate at Saltley and upto "privatisation" the job was brilliant,even when we were "sectorised" in 1994 and became an Railfreight Distribution Depot,things were fine.Then in 1998/99 RfD was "given" to EWS and the rot well and truly set in
I lasted until 2006 and thankfully "threw the towel" in and got out.The so called management of EWS are the worst managers I've ever worked under/with in all my 43 years service,and you're right they are just a bunch of "bully-boys" and nothing else.I realy feel sory for the younger drivers with no where else to go,however things might now change with DB in charge,I certainly hope so.

Thanks for that Brother, I'm glad someone I do not know concurs with what I have written.
Do you work for West coast Railways?

No sir when I retired in 2006 that was the end for me,I haven't really been near a railway since.

I met a driver on Saturday who was with EWS in Birmingham with the same amount of service as yourself. This driver now works for West Coast Railways.
I had just gone to Dawlish on a Green Party Express, that originated in Leeds.
He brought the train from Birmingham to Dawlish and return back to Brum.

I think that one of our "retired" drivers may have joined WCR and also a couple of ex Saltley DSM's (I think in the good old days they would be known as "Traction Inspectors")although in the case of the two in mind I use the words very liberally!

I hope you don't blame EWS completely for the problems that they had with the RfD section. I think the guy in charge of that company prior to privatisation was Ian Brown and if I remember correctly, he spat his dummy out and poisoned the well just prior to him leaving because he didn't get his own way, and EWS had to pick up the pieces.

The true fact of the matter is that RfD and Freightliner should never,ever have been separated and should have continued as an entity,this stupid decision was made by the same "stupid" government that "privatised" the railway system in 1994 and we now know the consequences ! Typical Tory party Dogma !!
Ian Brown was indeed the CEO of RfD and was dedicated to the cause of making RfD a major player in European Freight haulage through the Channel Tunnel,however certain things prevented this,one was the increase of "illegals" who seemed to travel thro' the Tunnel at will,which didn't do the "cause" much good,also you still had the "road haulage lobby" to contend with, something that is still and will be with us for the forseeable future.
The truth is that nobody wants "Railfreight" to succeed because it could be too cost effective !

'RfD and Freightliner should never,ever have been separated' The truth is Freightliner were taken over by their management who understood the strengths of the product and had built up good relationships with the transport and shipping companies they served. RFD on the other hand had a new business, new or refurbished terminals mainly sighted in places for political reasons. Stratford, Willesden, Manchester, Wakefield, Wentloog. Most now closed or hobbling along. RFD was a company whose entire business was dependent on the vagaries of French Trade Union disputes, something which would cause them damage when their trains couldn't run. The problem being they had no control of the running of their services being resourced by third party carriers. Whilst I would like to see all rail companies succeed I feel all RFD would have done is bring Freightliner down with it.

Lol..........:D