Road-rail Co-operation Speeds Beet Harvest
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A PILOT scheme recently introduced
in the Chichester area is helping West Sussex farmers to speed the delivery of sugar beet to the factories at Kidderminster, Worcestershire, The scheme is a result of co-operation between British Road Services and British Railways, Southern Region, and follows an experiment carried out last year.
Formerly. farmers had either to transport their own sugar beet, or to arrange transport for it, on the 160-mile haul. Last year a joint scheme was introduced whereby British Road Services vehicles collected from farms and delivered the beet to a railhead at Barnham, where the beet was loaded into rail wagons by means of a conveyor. Eight farmers participated in the experiment. This year, however, the system was streamlined so that B.R.S. vehicles fitted with special 14-ton containers could tip the loads direct into the rail wagons, considerably simplifying the operation, and reducing the time taken to load each wagon to about 10 minutes on average.
Three eight-wheeled. FI.R.S. flat lorries have been fitted with tipping containers manufactured by N. Tamplin and Co. Ltd.. of Birdham. near Chichester. These are loaded from stockpiles at the farms by tractor-mounted shovels feeding on to special cleaning conveyors, which remove the bulk of the loose earth from the beet as it is lifted into the containers. A special ramp has been constructed at Levant. the head of a short branch line from Chichester, and the B.R.S. vehicles deliver to this point where the beet is loaded into the rail wagons. The containers are designed so that a full load equals the capacity of an individual rail wagon, Before the scheme was introduced, one individual lorry would take two to three days for a round trip to the factory and back. Now the B.R.S. vehicles can make five to six round trips each day to the railhead. Provision is made at Levant for farmers who wish to do their own loading, by hand, direct from farm trailer to rail wagon, an operation Which takes the best part of a day. Trucks loaded in this way do, however, increase the potential output from Levant, and a complete train leaves from there each day during the sugar beet season. Only two railway personnel are required at Levant. and farmers utilizing the new system do not require to have any personnel at the railhead. Furthermore, the Lavant site. whilst quite central to the area covered (about 15 sq. miles), does not interfere with other railway operations, and can be devoted almost entirely to the sugar beet traffic.
Five of the farmers who participated in last year's scheme were unable, for domestic reasons, to join in again this year, but the remaining three were joined by another 21 farmers—a substantial number to take advantage of the new service. Farmer T. Rusbridge, of Earnley Grange. Earnley, told me last week (when I saw the service in operation) that he was completely in favour of the scheme, which was a very great help to him, and his brother, J. W. Rusbridgc. of nearby Manor Farm, had done.so well out of it that his sugar beet harvest was already completed. This would have been impossible before. F.K.M.