David J. Hayes goes on military manoeuvres by examining the movements of Government Stores for the Ministry of Defence after the end of Speedlink in 1991
Following the demise of the Speedlink wagonload network in July 1991, the Railfreight Distribution (RfD) business arm of British Rail introduced a series of ‘Contract Trains’ to cater for former Speedlink flows, thus enabling many less than trainload customers to remain on rail. Depending on volumes, such workings could run weekly, twice-weekly, thrice-weekly or even each weekday and included UK Contract Services for the Chemicals & Industrial Minerals division, which, in addition to chemical flows, such as the long distance weekly movement of sodium tripolyphosphate between Cumbria and Essex, also included the long standing Monday to Friday movement of china clay from the West Country to the Potteries, amongst various others.
There were also dedicated RfD contract services for European traffic based on the Dover train ferry (these operated as European Contract Services) and for movements of government stores to and from various Ministry of Defence (MoD) establishments. However, providing a service to many of the MoD locations once served by Speedlink was now more challenging than before and in some instances was no longer a viable option after Speedlink was axed, especially to some of the more remote MoD outposts such as Crombie, Ernesettle and Trecwn.
Although this two part article mainly focusses on the movement of MoD traffic during the post Speedlink period spanning July 1991 to November 1997, it does take a nostalgic peek back at the Speedlink era and will conclude in TRACTION 269 by overviewing MoD movements in the rail freight privatisation period, with brief coverage of such operations under the aegis of GB Railfreight.
Table One gives examples of the various locations handling MoD traffic during the last year or so of Speedlink operations, some of which were clearly non military sites. Some MoD traffic, such as that from Longtown and possibly elsewhere, could also be for export via the Dover train ferry, which remained in use until December 1995. Many of the locations
