Merry-go-round train - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a block train

Unit train

A unit train, also called a block train, is a railway train in which all the cars making it up are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route...

of hopper wagons

Hopper car

A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. The name originated from the coke manufacturing industry which is part of the steel industry ....

which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, they are most commonly coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

trains delivering to power stations. These trains were introduced in the 1960s, and were one of the few innovations of the Beeching axe

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

, along with investment from the CEGB

CEGB

The Central Electricity Generating Board was the cornerstone of the British electricity industry for almost 40 years; from 1957, to privatisation in the 1990s....

(Central Electricity Generating Board) and the N.C.B (National Coal Board

National Coal Board

The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...

) into new power stations and loading facilities. West Burton Power Station

West Burton Power Station

The West Burton power stations are a pair of power stations on the River Trent near Gainsborough, in Nottinghamshire, England, located between Bole to the north and Sturton le Steeple to the south. One is a coal-fired power station, which was commissioned in 1968, and the second is a combined cycle...

was used as a testing ground for the MGR system but the first power station to receive its coal by MGR was Cockenzie

Cockenzie power station

Cockenzie power station is a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland, capable of co-firing biomass. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station has dominated the local...

in Scotland in 1966. It was estimated at the time that the 80 MGR hoppers needed to feed Cockenzie would replace up to 1500 conventional wagons. A 1.2GW power station, such as Cockenzie, receives up to 3 million tons of coal a year, whereas a larger 2GW plant, like West Burton, up to 5 million tons per year.
Power stations that were built to handle the new MGR traffic were Aberthaw

Aberthaw Power Station

Aberthaw Power Station refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations situated on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is actually located on the waterfront of the nearby villages of Gileston and West Aberthaw on Limpert Bay...

, Drax, Didcot

Didcot Power Station

Didcot Power Station refers to a combined coal and oil power plant and a natural-gas power plant that supply the National Grid. They are situated immediately adjoining one another in the civil parish of Sutton Courtenay, next to the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire , in the UK...

, Eggborough

Eggborough Power Station

Eggborough Power Station is a large coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire, England, capable of co-firing biomass. It is siuated on the River Aire, between the towns of Knottingley and Snaith, deriving its name from the nearby village of Eggborough...

, Fiddlers Ferry

Fiddlers Ferry Power Station

Fiddlers Ferry Power Station is a coal fired power station located in Cheshire in North West England, which is capable of co-firing biomass. It is situated on the north bank of the River Mersey between the towns of Widnes and Warrington. Opened in 1971, the station has a generating capacity of...

and Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station is a coal-fired power station operated by E.ON UK at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, England. Commissioned in 1968 by the then Central Electricity Generating Board, the station has a capacity of 2,000 MW...

, all of which are still open for traffic at the present time. Many of the older power stations were gradually converted to MGR operation.

Balloon loop

Associated with merry-go-round trains are the construction of balloon loop

Balloon loop

A balloon loop or turning loop allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or even stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains, such as coal trains....

s at the origin and destination so that the train doesn't waste time shunting the engine from one end of the train to the other. However, whilst power stations such as Ratcliffe, West Burton and Cottam had balloon loop

Balloon loop

s, few if any colliery/loading points had them and thus true merry-go-round operation never really existed.

Daleks

This is the nickname (from its appearance) given to the automatic door opening/closing equipment located on the approach to and from the bunker in the power station.

Wagons

When MGR services were first introduced, British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

designed an all-new wagon with air brakes

Air brake (rail)

An air brake is a conveyance braking system actuated by compressed air. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on March 5, 1872. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell...

and a capacity for 33 tonnes of pulverised coal. The prototype was a 32 ton unit and was built at Darlington and tested in 1964. Before the introduction of TOPS

TOPS

Total Operations Processing System, or TOPS, is a computer system for managing the locomotives and rolling stock owned by a rail system...

these wagons were referred to by the telegraphic code name "HOP AB 33", this was an abbreviation of Hopper Air Brake 33 tonne. With the introduction of TOPS in 1973 the wagons were given the code "HAA", over the years with modifications to wagons other codes have been allocated including HDA and HMA.

With the coming of privatisation to Britain's railways, new wagon types have been introduced by EWS (HTA), GBRf (HYA), Freightliner

Freightliner (UK)

Freightliner Group Limited is a rail freight and logistics company, founded in 1995 and now operating in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Australia. It is the second largest rail freight operator in the UK, after DB Schenker Rail .- History :...

Heavy Haul (HHA and HXA) and Jarvis Fastline (IIA). These new wagons have increased tonnage and air-operated doors that do away with the need for the "Dalek" release mechanism at the power station end of the trip.

Locomotive control

Locomotives used on the MGR trains needed to be fitted with electronic speed control known as Slow Speed Control, so that the driver could engage the system and the train could proceed at a fixed very slow speed under the loading and unloading facilities. The system was originally fitted to some members of Class 20

British Rail Class 20

The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part because of the failure of other early designs in the same...

, Class 26

British Rail Class 26

The British Rail Class 26 diesel locomotives, also known as the BRCW Type 2, were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company at Smethwick in 1958-59. Forty seven examples were built, and the last were withdrawn from service in 1993...

and Class 47

British Rail Class 47

The British Rail Class 47, is a class of British railway diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. A total of 512 Class 47s were built at Crewe Works and Brush's Falcon Works, Loughborough between 1962 and 1968, which made them the most numerous class of British...

. Later, some members of Class 37

British Rail Class 37

The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the Class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan....

were also fitted, while the system was fitted to all members of classes 56

British Rail Class 56

The British Rail Class 56 is a type of diesel locomotive designed for heavy freight work. It is a Type 5 locomotive, with a Ruston-Paxman power unit developing 3,250 bhp , and has a Co-Co wheel arrangement...

, 58

British Rail Class 58

The British Rail Class 58 is a class of Co-Co diesel locomotive designed for heavy freight. Introduced in 1983, they followed American practice of modularisation. From new they were painted in grey Railfreight Sector livery, instead of BR blue...

, 59

British Rail Class 59

The Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives were built and introduced between 1985 and 1995 by Electro-Motive Division of General Motors for private British companies, initially Foster Yeoman...

, 60

British Rail Class 60

The British Rail Class 60 is a class of Co-Co heavy freight diesel-electric locomotives built by Brush Traction. They are nicknamed Tugs by Rail Enthusiasts.-History:...

and 66

British Rail Class 66

The Class 66 is a six axle diesel electric freight locomotive developed in part from the British Rail Class 59, for use on the railways of the UK. Since its introduction the class has been successful and has been sold to British and other European railway companies...

. Additionally, all Class 50

British Rail Class 50

The British Rail Class 50 is a diesel locomotive built from 1967-68 by English Electric at their Vulcan Foundry Works in Newton-le-Willows. Fifty of these locomotives were built to haul express passenger trains on the, then non-electrified, section of the West Coast Main Line between Crewe,...

s were originally fitted, although the system was later removed due to non-use.

Balloon loop

Daleks

Wagons

Locomotive control

See also