The deal will also see Cooper occupying a purpose-built reach stacker workshop, which will act as a hub for the region as a whole as well as maintaining iPort Rail’s burgeoning fleet.

The new machines will be four Sany 4540GS machines with a 7000mm wheelbase and support jacks to handle fully laden containers from the second rail line (load centre 5.3m) at iPort Rail. They will join two Sany 4535 reach stackers supplied when the terminal first opened in 2018.

Sany reach stackers with a 40 tonne (2nd row) capacity – for 35 tonnes second rail – have already been supplied by Cooper SH to ABP’s Hams Hall intermodal facility in the West Midlands.

iPort Rail is now hosting five daily container train pairs linking it with the ports of Southampton (one), Felixstowe (two) and PD Teeesport (two), all operated by GB Railfreight. It is also a Channel Tunnel (SACTFF) compliant terminal and there is existing capacity to handle more trains.

The Teesport services, operated by GBrF in conjunction with PD Ports, are particularly interesting in that the rail haul is just 100 miles. They show that intermodal rail can work if there is aggregation, which is provided by PD Teesport’s customer Containerships.

The workshop was purpose-built to accommodate reach stackers, and which represent the highest property standards for this niche handling sector. Cooper will adopt this workshop and equip it in order to deliver a total maintenance facility.

This will include a stores and stock-control system together with dedicated on-site resident staff enhance machinery uptime on the terminal. This same facility could additionally help iPort Rail’s customers with a trailer and container repair service.

David Cooper, Executive Director of Cooper Handling Group said: “This is a perfect win-win for Cooper and iPort Rail. iPort Rail’s customers benefits from a growing fleet of state-of-the-art machines for second-rail handling and an on-site engineer. Cooper’s gain an operating depot in a strategically-important location from which we can distribute machines and rentals as well as undertaking machine repairs and overhauls for the wider community.”

Steve Freeman, Managing Director of iPort Rail said: “The addition of these new reach stackers will be a welcome enhancement to our fleet, boosting our overall loading and unloading capacity, minimising downtime and helping our customers to save on valuable time and costs.”

Cooper will take occupation of the workshop with immediate effect, with the four extra machines coming into operation in late spring of this year.