Piggyback and the flexible Mega3 will start two years of trials with Lafarge Cement UK (ex-BCIBlue Circle Industries), following the roll-out of the equipment ordered under the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA)'s 2000 award scheme - 22 Babcock-built Mega 3 wagons, 16 tank trailers from Feldbinder and six bag trailers from Montracon's Dutch parent Pacton, with Boalloy curtain tops.
It has taken almost two years to rework the Mega-3 and obtain group standards approval. "The wagon acceptance process in the UK is very complex," was how David Simms, Lafarge Cement UK's director, land and planning, put it laconically at the launch. The wagons have ELF bogies which can operate at 140 kph @ 14.4 tonnnes axle load, although they are approved for 75 mph operation in the UK....
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Approx 1220 words from WorldCargo News, September 2002,
page 48.
