Containers will have the greatest possible width of opening at sides and end. This will give maximum freedom for loading them by fork lift or pallet truck.
Where the nature and volume of traffic justifies it, suitable containers to carry any commodity now carried by general purpose or specialised road vehicles, will be provided. The use of privately-owned containers, built within British Railways specifications, will be encouraged.
The maximum length of container planned at present is 27 ft. because of present regulations for road vehicles. The wagon, however, is designed to permit an increase in container length to 30 ft. or more.
Depots
The task at the depot is essentially the simple one of transferring, very quickly and cheaply, containers of standard sizes between road and rail. The layout can be equally simple and depots will consist of a siding (or two), sometimes a line to release the locomotive, one or more cranes spanning the siding, a roadway, a park for road vehicles and containers, and a small building for the staff.
The depots, of which it is expected there will ultimately be about 55, fall into three principal groups. Large ones handling over 2 m. tons a year, medium ones handling around 0.5 m. tons to 2 m. tons a year, and a few small ones handling under 0.5 m. tons a year. Since the operation of Liner Trains will be restricted to only a few main routes, it will be possible to serve them through a small number of depots so that the capital cost of depots will be low in relation to their throughput and the unit costs of handling containers through them will also be low.
The depots proposed are marked on Map No. 11.
Transfer Systems The transfer system must deal satisfactorily with containers of varying lengths, shapes and weights; it must be consistent with the use of standard road vehicles since the service should appeal to road hauliers and C licence holders; it must transfer to ground as well as to vehicle; and it must be so cheap and flexible as to give reasonable costs even when not in continuous use.
Many systems, both traditional and newly devised, have been studied. As a result, it is likely that the preferred methods will be the use of straddle cranes and gantry cranes, lifting automatically by means of pincer arms engaging in the base of the containers. At places of maximum and still growing intake and output, there may also be scope for application of the fork-lift principle developed to meet the special circumstances of Liner Trains.
Road Vehicles
Few road vehicles owned by British Railways are capable of carrying the new heavy containers. It is intended to co-operate with British Road Services, with C licence operators, and with road hauliers, so as to avoid an expensive duplication of road transport. As necessary, the Railway fleet will be adapted to the changing pattern which the Liner Train will initiate.
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