Could road trains work?
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I WAS RECENTLY watching a trade union official from one of the railway unions being interviewed on television and the usual questions of road versus rail transport came up.
The railwayman was understandably scathing about road haulage. He commented unfavourably on the loads which can be carried by maximum weight road vehicles compared with a freight train and he was also very dismissive of suggestions to change certain rail routes into "goods-only" highways restricted to heavy goods vehicles. "What a good idea," he said. "Maybe you could hook them together and put a locomotive at the head, run the whole thing on rails and call it a train!"
His sarcasm can be forgiven. After all, it is his job to do all he can to promote the interests of his railway members but his comments made me wonder if perhaps there was the germ of an idea in his remarks.
We would be foolish indeed to suppose that the heavy truck will ever become really popular with the general public so long as we all have to share the same roads and streets.
The suggestion has often been made that heavy vehicles should be restricted to special roads and the use of disused railways for this purpose is just one of the many proposals which have been mooted.
However, most of these ideas are simply too uneconomic for serious consideration and most disused railway routes would be too narrow for conversion to class A roads.
I wonder though, could that trade union official's throwaway suggestion perhaps be made to work? Could road trains really be a possibility? After all, prime movers with several trailers behind were, and may still be, commonplace in the remoter parts of Australia for moving livestock, so the principle itself is not new.
Would it be feasible, I wonder, to organise some major routes through Britain in a manner which would exploit the door-todoor delivery benefits of the road vehicle with the rapid movement of large tonnages which are the speciality of the railways?
Combinations of road and rail have been tried in the past using semi-trailers or complete vehicles mounted on low-bed railway trucks and indeed West Germany enjoys a fair measure of success with its railway "piggy-back" scheme which is patronised by British and other foreign operators. Supposing though we do away completely with the rails and use the road vehicles themselves as the component parts of the road train?
Let us imagine that a marshalling depot is set up in Manchester for freight to London using a former railway route. Seemingly ordinary four, six or even eightwheeled lorries arrive fully laden for the journey. Although conventional in appearance, they have been strengthened and modified to take the towing strains and their brake systems are adapted to operate in tandem with other vehicles when forming part of a road train.
The drivers deposit their vehicles which are then coupled into others to form the train using brake and towing couplings fitted to the front and rear of each vehicle. The lorries travel backwards to avoid steering problems and, if necessary, the steering systems are designed to be locked in the "straight" position or else give only minimal movement.
The train is hauled by a specially designed high-power prime mover and braking of the whole train is controlled from the prime mover cab just as in a railway locomotive.
When the requisite number of vehicles has been coupled, the train moves off hauling the laden but driverless trucks to their destination. Stops are made en route to detach the rearmost components where they are col lected by other drivers to carry out local deliveries.
The route lies along disused railway tracks metalled to provide a running surface and the various sections of the line are controlled by signals as with rail transport.
At suitable intervals there are service points set up to deal with such problems as tyre failures, etc, but disconnecting one failed unit from the train will not present too serious a problem. Single line working is perfectly acceptable and the savings in wages and fuel alone probably outweigh any costs sustained in setting up the routes.
Motorway and main road traffic would be reduced and British Railways would gain much needed revenue from the use of its facilities. As someone has recently pointed out, road haulage does not own the roads, docks and harbour boards do not operate shipping companies nor do airports own airlines. Why therefore, is it considered necessary for the rail board to own all the transport equipment on its routes?
An alternative, or better still, an addition to my suggestion would be to use tandem and triaxle semi-trailers in a train.
The trailers naturally would be adapted for multiple towing. The tractor units handling the semitrailers at each end could be of somewhat lower engine power than usual in view of the shorter distances being worked and, with day cabs, would be cheaper than the normal long-distance tractors.
It would probably be neces sary to have separate trains complete vehicles as dist from semi-trailer trains bi think my proposals are at I worthy of consideratior those better qualified than self to comment on the ecc mics and engineering involv( Road vehicles and se trailers designed to be usec such road trains would heavier than the present gen tion of trucks and trailers but payload reduction should acceptable in view of the po tial benefits and in any case, governments which set the I limits, not vehicle design per
The potential advantage: my suggestion are obvic Long-distance drfven tr. would be reduced with a coi quent saving in labour subsistence costs. As mentio earlier, fuel and other costs sociated with engine opera would be reduced. Our rc generally would be less con, ted bringing lower costs for t maintenance and building. way assets would be better ised reducing public subsi and, best of all, the benefit road flexibility would be c bined with the undoubted vantages which certain operations can confer.
Being limited to enclo routes free of all other traffic average speed of at least 50r should be maintained and, proper controls, even fog shc not be such a serious hazarc such routes.
I am not advocating total placement of the railway fre system or the closure of all Ii but if my proposed schem workable, then a combinatio rail and road trains could c ceivably produce massive bE fits for relatively low investm As the road trains would be privately, there would be inc tives towards efficiency.
British Railways could bE to act more like a harbour be providing facilities for otlrather than as a monolith pen nently saddled with a virtu impossible task maintaining obsolescent national servi There is talk of "privatising" trains so private road trains ni not be considered such a rev( tionary idea from the viewp( of finance.
No doubt some will say scheme is crazy, unworkablE even impossible. Perhaps t will be right but I put for these ideas to stimulate thou and discussion. After all, i. technically impossible for bumble bee to fly but it dc Maybe my modest suggesti, have possibilities too.
• By Frank Tin sdale