First class 325 scrapped

[Kevo00]

Haha! I don't think it could undercut trucks though, what with the involved transhipment time.

[Dave]

Yeah, because north of Birmingham we don't have bogs.

Observe:

...at all shacks up to Birmingham that have a bog, and so on...

Birmingham was just the prodigal "example", darling.

[supermop]

You could run them overnight, maybe not right into London Termini. Pallets might make sense in some cases, but then you are relying on forklifts or pallet lifts waiting on the platform. Might be easier to run them like a big UPS truck - boxes and parcels stacked on racks, guy with a hand truck wheels out the 12 or so parcels that get dropped at that station, hops back on and the train heads off.

[Pilot]

They Mainly are run in the Late Evening to Early Night. Their are currently Three terminals on the West Coast Main Line, Shielmuir (Glasgow), Warrington and Willesden (London) and I think their is one on the East Coast Main Line, Doncaster.

[Dave]

They run fairly consistently during the day these days, they're very well used compared to previous years. Warrington's a big old depot that you can see into in the middle where there's an access crossover from the loop, looks a lot bigger than it needs to be but oh well. You could get a forklift on some of these places though - Euston, Liverpool Lime Street both spring to mind with road access to platform side (that right?) might be a couple of others too. You're only struggling at places like New Street. Obviously you're gonna need small vehicles to distribute the items from central rail hubs, but if it reduces the number of long distance HGVs that can only be a good thing right? The average carriage must be able to carry more than an articulated lorry wagon... 12 of those in one train would make for an excellent little parcels service - we've seen a small modal shift as container companies look to be more green and reduce the time they're on the road, so we could theoretically see something similar?

[Pilot]

I think Lime Street, Euston, Preston and Definately Stafford have dedicated Platforms.
In Manchester they could convert the old Eurostar Depot, which I don't think is used, or Mayfield (Yes, It may sound dumb but could work) to Mail Stations, Birmingham, I don't know that well, but I'm sure DB could free up some tracks at Bescot for one.

[Dave]

I think Lime Street, Euston, Preston and Definately Stafford have dedicated Platforms.
In Manchester they could convert the old Eurostar Depot, which I don't think is used, or Mayfield (Yes, It may sound dumb but could work) to Mail Stations, Birmingham, I don't know that well, but I'm sure DB could free up some tracks at Bescot for one.

Stafford does. Preston's "RES" platform is just the old L&Y building that was conveniently situated next to the local RM depot, but it could be pressed into use, for sure.

Bescot's too far away from Birmingham - if you were going to use a freight depot you'd want to use Lawley Street. You'd be better off re-opening Curzon St if we're talking massive ambition, but that'll never happen. To be honest, using either platforms 1 or 12 at New Street could work - they're a bit more isolated than the middle platforms - but obviously there's no road access into them which would be the problem. Places like Warrington and Wigan are also no good cos they're two sets of island platforms, but just think of the possibilities of somewhere like Stafford. I wish they hadn't desecrated Wolves Low Level either, as that'd be perfect for mail and goods - it's right next to the massive regional depot.

[Pilot]

Because that is highly stupid. Their is no need for mail to travel at 125mph, it is fine at 100mph. The 325's can make it along the WCML fine around the Passenger services and are quicker than All freight trains which are around 75mph.

[61653]

I see that Royal Mail only uses trans on intercity main line services (e.g. WCML, ECML, GWML, GEML and MML), yet the 325s can only do 100 mph, so why don't they get a mail version of the 390 so that it can make the most of the clearence to do 125 mph?

It wouldn't be such a bad idea if the railways still carried enough mail for it to be worthwhile making the investment in such rolling stock. It's quite amusing to imagine say a 390/9 with a TPO on board though. If the TPO still operated, those old mk1 vehicles would be in dire need of replacement now... But I think we should leave the Mail Pendolinos in OTTD!

[Pilot]

We can always bring back loco-hauled and add Mail Cars to them.

[Dave]

We can use 390s for EVERYTHING!

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 903_NR.jpg

[Dave]

Some decent liveries for non electrified lines:

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 004_RM.jpg

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 01_RfD.jpg

[Geo Ghost]

Some decent liveries for non electrified lines:
http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 004_RM.jpg

That livery actually looks pretty good with the Voyager!

[Pilot]

We can use 390s for EVERYTHING!

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 903_NR.jpg

Yeah, seen that before, decent replacement for Mentor, one Pantograph the power one, the other, the recording one.

Some decent liveries for non electrified lines:

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 004_RM.jpg

http://fictitiousliveries.co.uk/photo.p ... 01_RfD.jpg

The Liveries look quite nice, but would we really want more Vomiters?

[Dave]

It'd make no difference to me if they were like that Haha.

[Dave]

An increase in average speed of 8-10mph over the course of a six hour journey is NOT going to make my parcel from Amazon arrive quicker!

The French use TGV mail trains because their country is huge - double the size of the UK.

[Dave]

The trains will be 25% faster and based on other WCML journeys done by class 390s, it will take 4 hours

We should also have High Speed Mail trains on HS2 and HS1

Yes but will the average speed be 25% faster? No it wouldn't.

There aren't any spare 125mph paths as it is man! Pipe Dreams!

[Ameecher]

It won't make Amazon deliveries faster because all will happen is your parcel arrives at the sorting office faster. Postman pat isn't going at 125 mph! Most stuff arrives from Amazon the next day anyway!

[orudge]

The Royal Mail and other couriers already send some domestic UK mail by air, anyway (remember the Top Gear vs the Royal Mail challenge? The letter went on 4 plane journeys) - in terms of speed, your 125mph train is going to be beaten by a ~550mph jet, I imagine.

[orudge]

Well, Royal Mail themselves have at least one aircraft, but they do use scheduled aircraft in many cases (ever noticed that British Airways jets have the Royal Mail logo on them?) along with some other cargo companies, etc. Obviously this isn't for all mail, but to get bulk mail from one end of the country to the other, it works out a lot quicker than the alternatives.