Speedlink Vol 1, Introduction, Covered Goods Vans and Open Wagons
Published by Crecy Publishing
www.crecy.co.uk
ISBN: 9781800352773
Price: £25.00
SPEEDLINK was launched in 1977 with the aim of arresting the decline in British Rail’s wagonload freight business. All its wagons were air-braked and at its peak in the mid-1980s it carried more than eight million tonnes annually. However, despite this, Speedlink was never profitable and in the run up to railway Privatisation, it was abandoned in 1991.
This 160-page hardback publication is the first of four books, each one complete in itself, that seeks to provide a comprehensive survey of the whole Speedlink wagon fleet.
It sets the scene from which Speedlink emerged and explores the background to BR’s lossmaking wagonload business from the 1960s onwards. The book examines the circumstances leading to the creation of Speedlink as the solution to these problems, before moving on to look at the existing air-braked stock owned by BR prior to Speedlink’s launch. This fleet included wagons built in the 1960s for use on train ferries and vehicles converted to air braking. All the many types of existing covered vans and open wagons
