DETAILS FOR THIS VEHICLE.
Location : Hoo Junction Up Yard.
Date : 19/10/1986.
Type : Bogie Covered Grain Hopper Wagon.
Weight : 80t GLW / 21.5t Tare.
Number : 70 938 5 026-7.
Number Series : 70 938 5 000 to 70 938 5 029.
Builder : 1981 by Fauvet-Girel, Douai, France.
TOPS Code : PIB (later JIA).
UIC Code : Udafs.
Design Code : E518.
ADITTIONAL NOTES.
As mentioned in a previous upload for a TSL 'Grainflow' wagon these 80t GLW / 58t capacity covered hopper wagons known by the French title 'Polybulk' were a game changer for BR's cereals and grain business. The UK having signed up to the European Common Market in 1973 stepped up the growing of cereal crops through the 1970's in line with European policy to make the bloc less reliant on imports from North America. What had previously been just internal UK traffic soon expanded into international traffic to mainland Europe too. By 1983 the UK were producing 21 million tons of grain exceeding the UK demand. The EU were adept at creating food surplus and that could be released or sold in large quantities from Intervention Stores in member nations. This generated bulk flows to ports or via the Dover-Dunkerque train ferry dependent on destination.
TSL already had experience of running bulk grain services in France and Belgium and had kick started the 'Grainflow' launch in 1980 with 30 Polybulk wagons abstracted from their international fleet. Very soon after it was obvious more wagons would be required so TSL got continental finance to construct a further 30 Polybulk wagons purely for the UK market which were delivered in 1981. The rapid expansion of "Grainflow" saw another 52 built in 1983-84 after which the original French vehicles that started services off could be returned to mainland Europe in 1984.
A rather grubby example of a TSL Grainflow Polybulk from the 1981 build (Design code E518) is seen here in Hoo Junction Up Yard. This wagon is loaded so its highly likely to be from a UK intervention store being shipped to mainland Europe via the Dover to Dunkerque train ferry. This first batch of Polybulks were fitted with a through vacuum pipe but these were eventually removed changing the TOPS code from PIB to PIA then later JIA after the January 1990 reclassification of private owner vehicles.
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