GOODS TRANSPORT
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Y ROAD AND RAIL
An Increasing Network of . Adjacent to the Systems of I
ad Services in Rural Areas Four Great Railway Groups
THE railway companies have made very good use of their time since that day in 1928 when they were granted powers to operate road services. Their activities in the road conveyance of both passen
gers and goods are extensive and are rapidly growing. The pro cedure they are adopting in con nection with the former has already been described and dis cussed in these columns. The method is one which inevitably involved publicity, and any description could only be more or less a summary of known farts. The development of goods services is proceeding just as energetically, but is not so obvious to ' the casual observer.
There are three principal phases of the railway companies' road-service operations for the transport of goods. They are rural deliveries, railhead storage and container service. The three are, of course, linked and combined wherever necessary, in fact wherever feasible.
The rural deliveries may most simply be described as extensions of the comoanies' old-time delivery radius. Instead of that being confined to an area which could conveniently and normally be served by horse-drawn vehicles, it is now extended so as to take advantage of the distance capacity of the motor vehicle. The charges for this service are, of course, in proportion to the distances over which the deliveries are made. The principle underlying these services is that of making it more and more convenient for traders, farmers and other transport users to send their goods by road and rail rather than by road direct, but, where the circumstances compel, the railway companies will take goods direct by road rather than lose the traffic.
Railhead storage provides a method whereby a merchant or manufacturer may send his goods in large consignments yet have them delivered in small lots from a central railway storage depot. He is charged comparatively small amounts both for the storage and handling, and gains, , therefore, a considerable advantage from the lower rates which apply to the bulk loads which he sends by rail.
The container system provides -a means whereby door-to-door delivery can be given without intermediate handling. Empty containers of stated capacities are delivered to the trader's premises. He can load them, lock and seal them and have them delivered direct to his customers.
It should be noted that all these schemes, effectively worked in connection with an efficient railway service, comprise a properly co-ordinated system of transport offering advantages in the way of economy, rapidity of delivery and freedom from risk of damage in transit as well as elimination of the necessity of complicated packings which 1 altogether is a formidable element in the competition which road-haulage inter 1 ests have to face. _ _The rural services develop along two lines, closely connected and sometimes even combined, but generally, for the Moment at any rate, separate. There is a regular weekly or twice-weekly service of collection and delivery within a stipulated radius for and from railhead, that being a particular station from which the service is operated, and there is a daily delivery and collection of larger consignments over the same area. All the railway companies do not work to the same schedule. Minor differences are to be noted in all the four companies' schemes. None of them is rigid either, in its adherence to the letter of the distinction between these two kinds of service. Goods arriving at a station, for example, on a day distinct from that devoted to the weekly or twice-weekly service will be delivered at once if the lorry happens to be going anywhere near the address of the consignee. This kind of flexibility is a great asset.
There does not appear to have been any consultation
between the four companies in drawing up these services_ There is no co-ordination between them and their schedules differ, sometimes to a considerable extent. The L.M.S., for example, works to an 8-mile limit and calculates charges up to 3 miles radius, between 3 miles and 5 miles, and from 5 miles to 7 miles. The minimum charge is 8d. for a package weighing up to 1 cwt. and up to 5 miles and the charges increase more or less regularly up to 4s. 6d. for a c.onsignment weighing 1 ton to be carried for a distance of up to 3 miles, 7s. 6d. up to 5 miles, and 10s. up to 7 miles.
• The Southern Railway delivers as a regular practice up to a 10-mile radius. Its scale of charges commences with a 56-lb. parcel for which the rate is 6d. for up to 4 miles and 8d. 10d. and is. up to 6, 8, and 10 miles respectively. ior a 1-ton package the charge is 7s. 6d. up to 4 miles and 9s. 6d., 13s. and 15s. respectively for the other distances.
The Great Western scale of charges is rather more complicated and differs according to locality. This company will accept a parcel weighing 7 lb. per 3d. for a distance up to 3 miles. The average radius of operation is 15 miles, but the system provides for deliveries up to 20 miles from railhead. There is no point in our reproducing these scales of charges and details of mileages in full. Any reader may obtain them for his own perusal on application to the nearest goods agent of the railway concerned.
All the companies will make journeys beyond the n34
usual radius in case of need, to meet the requirements of a customer or when a load which can economically be handled is offered to them. They will, too, make a direct delivery from door-to-door by road when it is clear that if they do not carry out the work the traffic will be lost to them.
The Southern system provides a series of distributing centres over the whole area from Kent to Cornwall, so arranged that nowhere in what may be called its " district " is there a place which is not within 10 miles of one of these centres. The L.M.S. has a network of these country railheads extending practically throughout its system. The L.N.E.R. appears not yet to have developed the scheme to the same extent. Its system is applied in three areas, one based on Lineoln and extending to the north so far as Gainsborough and Barnetby, to Louth on the east, and to Boston on the south. Another covers a band of country extending from Bishop's Stortford and Chelmsford on the south, along each side of the main line through Cambridge and Ely to King's Lynn and Hanstanton. The third is bounded by Ipswich and Felixstowe on the south, Dies, Burston, Brampton and Hailsworth on the north, the coast on the east and the railway line joining Ipswich and Burston on the west.
The Great Western, proceeding on lines which are more ambitious as regards the development of road transport, has developed country cartage arrangements throughout its system.
It is of interest to note the terms in which this service is described
by the different companies. The L.M.S. refers,. to it as "Radial Distribution " : the Southern as "Railhead Distribution Services" : the Great Western as "Constry Cartage Services" and the .L.N.E.R. as "Farm Collection and Delivery Services."
How the system works, the kind of goods that are being handled and the way in which deliveries are effected are well illustrated by the following descriptions of typical journeys. One of them is an example of the twice-weekly regular deliveries and collections as carried out by the L.M.S., operating from Bletehley. The Other is typical of a daily round of deliveries and collections to farmers as performed from Horsham ,station on the Southern Railway.
Bletchley is regarded as a good centre for the exploitation of rural transport because it is in a way the hub of an area in which there are several small villages and farms which are not served directly by rail. It has been 'found practicable to run a twice-weekly
service from this centre. One half the area is served each Saturday, the other each Wednesday. As a general rule one journey wpekly for each area suffices, the vehicle starting at 8.30 in the morning and finishing about mid-day. In addition, deliveries of agricul tural produce are made during the remainder of the week to meet requirements. It is claimed that practically all deliveries of agricultural produce to farms in that area up to a radius of six miles to eight miles are now made by the railway company. This rural lorry service usually involves about 18 calls, that is for the regular twice-weekly service; the other deliveries vary with the season, being more frequent in the winter when there is a greater demand for cattle cake.
The old regular free-delivery area from Bletchley was up to a distance of a mile. Beyond that, before road powers were acquired, it was customary for the services of local hauliers to be sought by consignees or consignors. Now, in cases where goods are consigned in the ordinary way for delivery outside the " free " area the charge for that delivery is included in the rate and delivery effected without recourse being had to outside hauliers.
On the occasion when we visited Bletchley the following itinerary was followed and deliveries made as described. Six casks of beer and one ease of wine, weighing in all 7 cwt., to an hotel in Loughton and a barrel of oil and a set of tyres, weighing 41 cwt., to a neighbouring garage. Loughton is on the main road from Bletchley to the north and distant about 31 miles. The lorry then went back on its tracks and a crosseountry route was then followed to Simpson, where the local baker accepted a couple of sacks of Hour weighing 2 cwt. This was a further 31 miles,
Prompt Delivery.
The next delivery comprised some pipes, radiators and sundry castings for central-heating equipment for a. country house. The delivery was made at Walton, about one-and-a-half mile beyond Simpson, and weighed 1 ton 4 cwt. The point of interest is that this ironwork was put on rail the night before at' Broad Street and was actually being delivered at 11.30 1a.m.
Little Brickhilf, another 31 miles away, was our next place of call, where three new desks, weighing altogether 2 cwt., were delivered to the village school.
Other deliveries in the same village, included three drums of oil weighing 21 cwt., a small piece of furniture weighing 1 cwt. and a parcel, which had come by 'passenger train, to a farm on the village outskirts.
Another couple of miles brought us to Great 13rickhill, where four deliveries sufficed to terminate the morning's work. After that it only remained to return to Bletchley, about 31 miles away. The total consignment, it should be noticed, comprised 53 cwt. and the mileage was 171. Fifty per cent, of the journey was over good main roads, most of the rest over narrow country lanes and one stretch of a mile or so actually through fields, with, in places, no road whatever.
At Horsham we accompanied a Southern Railway Company's driver on a mid-week journey delivering bulkier and heavier loads. Before making a reference to that particular journey it is of interest to enumerate the class of traffic which is being handled by road in this area. A considerable tonnage of road-surfacing material is carried regularly to the instructions of the county council surveyor, as well as large quantities of Packed manures and feeding cakes to farmers.
The general traffic to and from farms also includes agricultural machinery, hay, straw, grain, cake, manure, potatoes, timber, coal, coke and fencing. The agricultural shows are served direct by road.
Diverse Loads.
The first delivery made on the particular occasion we have in mind was to a farmer, at West Grinstead, the consignmenebeing 14 bags (1 ton 1 cwt.) of feeding cake. A similar delivery was made at Steyning and then, farther along the road, a number of barrels of bitumen for road dressing. Apart from a small consignment of matchbdarding the other deliveries on this journey were all of oil cake and the places visited, besides West Grinstead and Steyning, were Billingshurst and Pulborough On the return journey collections were made at Rudgwick and Broadbridgel The total load carried was about 3 tons* 15 cwt. and the distance covered in the one journey about 40 miles. For the 'host part the roads were good, Some tracks, however, being bad. '
The road-transport operations of the Great Western Railway. Co. differ materially in many respects from those of the two companies with which we have dealt. More especially, it is important to note, does that service cater for door-to-door delivery direct by road. The company even enters into haulage contracts large and small which, from their very nature, do not involve and are not likely to involve recourse to the railway service. The most important district of goods transport services on the Great Western system is that which is centred at Marlborough and controlled therefrom and which covers an area of no less than 1,000 sq. miles. With that and with some of the other activities of the railways we shall deal later.