Tartan Arrow in Dentdale: the birth of intermodal in the UK

            Apologies for the quality of this image, but I think the rarity of the subject matter makes it worthy of sharing.

This is likely to be D1866, heading north high above Dentdale on the Settle and Carlisle line, with the overnight London to Glasgow ‘Tartan Arrow’ intermodal. This was taken in April 1967.

ISO containers were first carried on the British railway network in November 1965, being operated by British Railways under the Freightliner brand. Tartan Arrow was different: it was operated exclusively for a single customer, served private terminals and conveyed traffic using both containers and also conventional parcel vans.

Tartan Arrow was a parcels company that was nationalised via National Carriers in the early 1970s. In April 1967 the company initiated an overnight train running 5 nights per week from Kentish Town to Bridgeton in Glasgow and vice versa. The trains left their origin around 2000, arriving before 0530. Both terminals were built by Tartan Arrow on land leased from British Railways. The train was normally routed via the West Coast mainline north of Nuneaton, but clearly on this day it had been routed over the S&C, and was running unusually in daylight.

An unusual feature of the containers used on the Tartan Arrow was their bevel edged containers. The reason for this is not clear, but it seems when the service first launched it used (or planned to use) flat wagons with a higher floor than the first Freightliner flats. The bevels were to bring the containers within gauge. However, this image shows a mix of container shapes, apparently running on permanently coupled Freightliner flats, meaning that conventional 8 foot containers could be carried across the network.

The image here shows a variety of containers, including conventional shapes, bevel edged containers, some open containers, as well as a string of CCV vans. The train was air braked, with the CCVs being dual braked specially for this service.

Photograph by an unknown photographer, now part of my collection.

Taken on: April 1, 1967

Sets appears in: • Nic Joynson Collection

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