Off The Rails: British Rail Motorail 

Car reliability is a factor that I think is worth mentioning. In the Motorail days, some motorists didn't trust their cars to make it on very long journeys without incident. Cars would regularly overheat at 70mph. Also that's even with fewer motorways than we have today. Nowadays a modern car can just shrug a long motorway run off as a gentle cruise. That said, I do wish Motorail was still a thing alongside sleeper journeys. Could be quite useful if electric cars could trickle charge en route.

Every time I find myself driving from the North of England down to Cornwall, I can never understand why this is no longer a thing. To be able to relax on a train instead of spend 8 hours in the car dealing with the stress and fatigue of long distance driving and then have the convenience of your car when you arrive, seems like a no brainer to me. Guess it would just be prohibitively expensive at the end of the day but considering I probably spend nearly £150 in fuel on that trip, if a ticket was around that price or even slightly more, I'd be very happy to pay.

We took our Citröen Dyane on a single deck Motorail from Perth to London and return in the early 70s. The cars were loaded by railway employees. This resulted in our car ignition being left on at Perth and flat battery. The car was (presumably) manhandled off at London destination. All this was going on while we enjoyed Sleeper travel on the same train. I had my reservations about the wheel retainers, hammered into the wooden wagon decks, being able to hold cars but obviously they did. It was a great way to travel overnight.

Thank you. My father took the family in his Mk 1 Jag on a 10 day camping holiday in Scotland in 1964/5. We caught the Night Motorail in London, serious stress because of poor local signage, but the overnight train up to Perth was excellent. I have taken my own classic Jag up to Scotland a couple times now and would appreciate a Motorail service today.

Why do all the most sensible ideas rarely last? An excellent film. Thank you.

I wish this were still a thing - I'd love to drive onto the train down here in the south, get off the train in Inverness and have my car there waiting. The market is small though sadly, most people would either drive all the way, or fly and hire a car when they got there.

Hi, I grew up in Dorridge and remember that crash. It closed the main line for three days I believe. At the time the relief lines were still in use so traffic could get by with delay. I began my own railway career at Dorridge as a checker in the car yard in 73. I also remember the old TIERWAG car carriers in use, but they were gone by the time I started work. The CARTIC4s were also used by private shipping companies MAT, to whom I was attached at Dorridge, and Sillcock & Collins who had a depot at Bell Green in Coventry. From Dorridge we loaded cars from Longbridge, brought in by carriers, and Rover/Landrover/Range Rovers from their Solihull plant, brought in by carrier or ferry drivers. Destinations were mostly Dover or Harwich for export. Occasionally a train would be sent to Bathgate in Scotland. In the summer the company also imported Massey Ferguson hay bailers from France, loaded six to a flat. Sadly the traffic was moved to Bordesley, near Birmingham in the 90s, and the site is long gone, with not even a landmark remaining.

That 3D per mile would have been written 3d, spelled out as threepence and pronounced thruppence. Never ever pronounced three dee.

Late 80s early 90s trains of new cars and vans would arrive at Bathgate yard where we would watch them being unloaded for hours! Cartic's and carflats, some adorned in the Silcock Express orange livery. Class 47s and 37s in all the liveries, railfreight sectors and coal sector or parcel red. I recall seeing a 47 named Silcock Express in grey or red a few times. Them long hot summers we used to get back then, we'd stand up on our bmx's or sat on the wall at the end of the yard waiting. Then an unmistakable distant racket of the metal flaps all clattering as the cars went over the wagons one after another down the ramp at the end onto the tarmac, tyres squealing as they turn around and shot up the yard to be all parked up in neat rows. There would be a squad of lads unloading so there was a non stop flow of cars until the whole train was unloaded ready for its return trip. Bloody good days.

When I was at High School in Dunfermline back in the 60s, the Edinburgh-Perth line ran past the end of the playing fields. At the time, the London-Perth motorrail service ran past around 3PM and featured the closed carriages marked "Anglo-Scottish Car Carrier" and pulled regularly by DP2 or by a Deltic. We used to pester teachers to let us go to the line to watch the "experimental" engine (DP2) close up.

One location I think you did miss was Brockenhurst in the New Forest. The loading dock is still there and for many years a cycle hire firm had a GUV on a piece of track in the dock. The GUV now resides at the North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone Dorset.

My first trip on Motorail was from what had been Holloway Cattle Sidings joutside Kings X to Stirling. This was in covered coaches. I recall awaiting our car to be driven out at the destination when there was a loud clang and a particularly noisy Mini came out followed by a man carrying its exhaust. The second time, on flat trucks this time, was from Olympia to Perth. On this occasion, about 15 miles outside the town our car puttered to a halt. The problem was eventually traced to a loose cable which has shaken loose on the journey. One problem not mentioned was damage to car windscreens: it was found if one shattered (or was broken by a stone), the shards of glass hurtled down the train breaking every windscreen behind. After this a windscreen cover was introduced.

This is a great little documentary, well-done. Well worth the subscription.

Again, nice little film about this BR service. We used to go to Brighton and Hove in the late 60's by train, a fantastic and exciting time for a child to be growing up. I used to take in all my surroundings and was fascinated by the, trains, underground, Routemasters, RT's and RF's that were all over. Seem to remember Motorail at Olympia too whilst waiting for a train in the summer sun, the smell of trains, tarmac and Ambre Solare. Even at that time, I thought, why have a car to drive then take it on train!

this service (autovlak) still runs between Slovakia and Czechia and during summer there is an additional route between Slovakia and Croatia. It's great for people who don't feel comfortable driving long distances but really want to use their own car in their destination

Apart from the Eurotunnel service (which I’ve used a few times with cars) that carries passengers in the cars, there are also open trains full of brand new cars, used by Toyota between Toton, Nottinghamshire, and other factories like Valenciennes, importing right hand drive ones for sale in the UK, and vice versa from Burnaston, Derby. So a couple of my cars travelled that way empty!

Fantastic little micro-documentary! Thank you

Went from Kings Cross to Aberdeen, and back, via Motorail in October 1983 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

A great bit of research. Excellent footage. A super watch.

Hi, thanks for this edition. I grew up in Dorridge, and remember that accident being on local TV news. I didn't actually see it myself. I later worked as a checker/shunter in the nearby goods yard. This particular accident did not involve any motorail vehicles. They were indeed carflats, but owned by a local transportation company M.A.T. who operated from the said nearby yard. On this occasion the flats had been end loaded at a bay siding at the station, an old horse and carriage dock. The forerunner of the CARTIC4s was a bogie vehicle, called TIERWAG, with a lifting central well to take two cars, which then lowered between the bogies and an upper deck loaded over. The lifting gear was electrically driven, the plug posts still being extant when I worked there. However they proved very unreliable, and impossible in winter. I remember them in traffic in my childhood as I frequently passed the yard on my way to school. They were withdrawn before I worked there. (Incidentally, Triang made a very popular model of the TIERWAG many moons ago.). However I had plenty of hands on with the CARTICS. My job was to scotch and label them for transit. The maximum load was seven sets to a train, or mixed with carflats at three flats to one cartic. Maximum flats was twenty. Most trains went to Dover or Harwich for export to the continent. Occasionally a train would be sent to Hamworthy, near Southampton, or Bathgate in Scotland. Cars were brought by road carriers from Leylands at Long Bridge, or the Rover Works in Solihull. Silcox and Collins was another user of a fleet of CARTICS from Bell Green at Coventry.

Great video. We travelled by Motorail from St Austell to Kensington Olympia in July 1969, hauled by Western Renown D1071. It was diesel hydraulic ‘heaven’ all the way to OOC. We also took the Kensington Olympia to Perth Motorail in or about 1972. The train included sleeping cars (my brother and I had bunk beds). The loco changes took place at Willesden and Crewe Basford Hall yard.

Until its demolition in 1997, the former Olympia Motorail booking offce was known as Olympia Bridge Quay and was home to the offices of my family business and the Free Tibet Society.

Really interesting and well produced video. I lived opposite the Motorail terminal at Kensington Olympia a decade ago and always found it fascinating. I used the shed a few times for the car hire and there were lots of reminders of what was once there. Kensington Olympia's subsequent evolution to be a fully equipped International terminus - as a backup if Waterloo was unavailable - is another interesting chapter in that station's history.

When I was young, my parents took us on holiday from Kent to Scotland on Motorail. This was in the early to mid 1970s (possibly late 1960s but I have no memory of that). We went from Dover once but mostly from Olympia. I'm sure there were one or two departures from Euston too. We travelled to Inverness once and Stirling once or twice, but mostly to Perth. Arrival was very early in the morning. I don't remember the sleeping arrangements but they certainly weren't sleeper bunks so it must have been passenger coaches. It was quite expensive but saved the stress of driving 400 odd miles. It was very exciting for us kids.

Great footage my friend. I will shortly be making a video of what remains of the MotoRail terminal of my local station

The ImperialnWar Museum has photos of WW1 tanks on flatbeds, and, of course, the very first coaches were quite literally that, horse-drawn coaches mounted on trucks.

Nice potted history - thank you.

I remember there was an equivalent in France until the late 2000s. Used it twice with my family at the start of our summer holidays in 2003 & 2006 when I was still a kid. You'd get off the ferry at Calais, let the train take the strain through the night, and then by morning you were in the south of France. Certainly saved a lot of driving. Though that said, many of the places we visited on our summer holidays, you can now reach by plane from Edinburgh (my nearest airport) - which is probably why it no longer runs (starting at Calais, it was almost certainly aimed at Brits). Though using the plane does make it easier to visit places (indeed, I can be in sunny France and my dull hometown in the same day) and as much as I love flying, it's not quite as romantic as the old days.

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The Knowle and Dorridge crash didn't involve a Blue Pullman but a locomotive hauled Pullman train. The train consisted of 9 coaches built in 1923 plus a Western locomotive.

Not Cartac, Cartic. Car carrying articulated vehicle.

Only sorry he didn't say more about the early days to feed my nostalgia. I was a frustrated train fan as a child but because my father always had a car I never got to go on one (except the underground central line which didn't count). Then in 1957 my mother's sister who always came on holiday with us persuaded us to go to Cornwall by motorail. Wow! The most exciting day of my eight year old life so far. Paddington to Plymouth on the Cornish Riviera (cars travelled down on a separate train the night before) behind King Edward VII, double heading from Newton Abbot over the Devon banks and feeling very superior to the nose to tail traffic on the A38. Change trains at Plymouth as the Riviera didn't stop at St Austell and the panorama from the Royal Albert Bridge. Return journey was overnight so first experience of a sleeper (pre-BR Mark one). Two years later we went from Marylebone to Perth overnight rooted by the old great Central to Leicester where we changed engines, then to York, where we changed engines, then up the east coast to Edinburgh where we changed engines. Only problem I hardly slept at all and was a complete zombie for the first day of the holiday. Return excitement from Perth to beyond Edinburgh was steam hauled but when we got back to London there was a type IV diesel on the front. Later did two more journeys to Cornwall (sadly by now steam haulage would have been a treat) and then with my own car to Inverness and back from Perth. However despite being green you can't expect the taxpayer to subsidise a loss-making service that only benefited a tiny minority of people.

Many railways offered open and then CCTs (Covered Carriage trucks) used for initially the carriage of horse drawn private vehicles. The Great Western MOGO CCT is a case in point. Do wonder if limited electric car range could lead to a revival of motorail.

My parents took the Stirling to Dover service in 1981 when I was just a year old, then drove on to Switzerland and back.....in a 1937 Riley 12/4. I think my dad was the mobile breakdown cover on that trip !

Remember my dad looking at this in the mid 70s, but it was very expensive and living in the West Midlands the time needed to get to the station and load meant that you could drive in the same time to your destination. I would challenge that it was ever popular, it was one of those things BR felt it should be doing rather than a viable commercial service.

In 1968 I drove my blue Isetta bubblecar from Watford to Paddington to go via the Lawn at Paddington Staion, into a CCT and thence overnight (me in the sleeping car), Western diesel-hauled to (I think) Fowey. Also return in a week's time. Many staff at that time recognised the GW coat of arms I had painted on the front of the car, The yellow tennis ball sized hooter below had the GW 'shirt button' monogram painted on for good measure.

Austrian railways still runs a Motorail service to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and the Netherlands as part of its Nightjet sleeper service.

Good video mate. Subbed and look forward to more👍

How much nicer everything looked in those days

If I was going to the South, from North Wales, I would certainly consider using the Motorail service. Assuming that it is still available for me to use. To make it worth my while, the Motorail station will have to be in either Llandudno Junction, or Rhyl, instead of Crewe, and the station at the other end, will also have to be a similar distance to where I am going to, otherwise I will be spending more time traveling to and from the station, than I would be driving all the way there.

Used it many times between Kensington to Inverness and Euston to Aberdeen, absolutely loved it and cannot understand why it stopped, when booking to Aberdeen, if you had not booked by June for October , you ewould be unlucky as it would be fully booked,

As a kid I well remember travelling overnight to Perth from Kensington Olympia with my dads Vauxhall Viva on a flat bed truck at the rear of the train. A magical experience. Given the range issues with electric cars I wonder if some similar kind of system might reappear.

Having driven from Kent to Westeross I wish that this was still in operation.

I remember the loading ramps near Kings Cross, one drawback was damage enroute when yourgsters would drop bricks etc. off bridges to smash car windows as the train passed.

I remember watching the car's being loaded at the Brockenhurst terminal on a Sunday evening in the 70's as I was being sent back to school in Dorset by train often wondered where they might be going and what adventures lay ahead for there owners.

uk company Rail Europe used to provide a motorail service for well-off British holiday makers in the early 2000s. The chartered SNCF trains ran overnight on two lines (Calais to Avignon and Nice, and Calais to Brive, Toulouse, and Narbonne). I worked on the trains for the 2002 summer season, assisting passengers and serving them drinks in the bar. The passengers absolutely loved it, and for me it was a fantastic summer job, but the service ceased in 2010 due to astronomical running costs and running at a loss.

Good video thanks👍

The railways have always carried motor vehicles. It goes right back to the origin of railways when "carriage trucks" were available to send your horse and carriage by rail.

When I was a kid in 1973. They had Auto Train which was separate from Amtrak. That ran from Lorton Virginia to Sanford Florida. Then Auto Trim Corporation went bankrupt period and then In 1983. Amtrak revived Auto Train and it's been going on ever since. And when you mention 1963. My dad was stationed in Germany and he just met my mom. And he was in England in 1966. And he did see the changing of the guards

A minor point about your commentary, the U.K. pre decimal currency used the letter "d" to signify the old penny, 3d would have been pronounced as "thruppence", 2 1/2d was tuppence ha'penny and so on. The pronunciation as "3 dee" was never used. That all changed in February 1971 when British currency (thankfully in my opinion) changed to the decimal system.

I remember my dad taking us on a monorail from London to Scotland (Sterling possibly) on one of our annual visits to see family in the highlands. In the late 1980's / early 90's I thought it would be fun to do the same thing with my young family. We lived just outside Bristol and the GWR service ran from Bristol Parkway (I think) to Glasgow and so I made a phone call to get a price for a return trip, at the time the petrol to drive probably cost no more than £20 each way. The price of the tickets was HUGE, I could have bought an all inclusive package holiday for two weeks in Spain for less money. Needless to say... we drove.

I remember the Motorail terminal at Penzance. I suspect that must have been one of the last, probably because the roads into the West Country were then hopelessy choked in summer. Still in 2023 they're nothing special with no motorway west of Exeter. Once the motorway network developed and even ordinary family cars were capable of cruising at 70 mph or more the great time advantage of rail over road in such a small country was lost.

I actually when working for BR lived in Sinclair Road just behind the old terminal, I used to go drinking with the KO's charge hand in the Hand & Flower pub up on the bridge as he was a mate of me old man. I was one of the few using the shuttle to Clapham and if not any service I would usually ring down to Stewarts Lane to see if a loco driver could pick me up at Latchmere Junction and if no movement it was shank's pony but I always stopped in at the signalbox at KO for a warm and brew as my old uncle Ray a 33 driver was always well remembered by the signalmen when he used to drag the Ford trains from Hoo to KO. We used the 1970's Motorail a lot to north of Scotland and I will not recount the hellish experience of those journeys save one where another mate of me father's was shuntman, he was just moving between the last coach and the first flats to be coupled when the train shifted, only a few inches but enough power to drive the hook clean through the poor shunter, me father being senior BR man on site ended up having to stay behind whilst us others were whisked to a sleeper train over at Euston, first class too and then put up in hotels whilst the cars were transported up a couple days later.

There was the early 1960's Anglo-Scottish Car Carrier, Holloway-Edinburgh, a while before the catchy new Motorail branding. Also, a Car Sleeper from Dover to points north, in 1962.

Great video. Shame its gone.

Superb

Nice I think they should bring this back

i remember seeing these as a kid going to and from newton abbot long the river teign , think you can still see the on off ramp at newton abbot to the left of the station

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Exellent😊

If that was an option to the channel tunnel terminal I’m sure it would thrive. I’d definitely use it.

Interesting Video. Did you know that there was also a Motorail service running from Brockenhurst in Hampshire?

Hi. An informative video which I found interesting.

Lovely old cars.

I never knew that motorail was a thing, but I used to live in a house between two rail lines, one of which shared passenger and freight traffic. One day, I looked out of a window to see a line of cars on their way to I don't know where.

I travelled on that to Scotland. It was fun.

I used to lust after the Hornby / Scalextric (weren't they linked through Triang?) late 60's OO Motorail set! Ooh! Be still my beating heart!

Great exploration of the car-by-rail thing. One small error: the loco involved in the very sad fatal crash was a Class 52 Western, not a Class 50. Keep up the interesting presentations!

I heard a rumour that the owner of West Coast Railways (major railtour operator) had a makeshift motor rail ramp built in Carnforth depot so he could send his car to Fort William by rail in the summer

Why is there no mention of the service from Marylebone to Perth. This service ran from there before Kensington Olympia.

Pilning was the first motorail station used before the seven crossings

I lived near a port and the speed of the cars coming from the rail was insane but only ever see one crash

For a Channel Tunnel Motorail the formation needs to be two class 92s between Nightstar Coaches assuming they got them from VIA rail spares or new builds

I wish we had more of those kinda services on the mainland of Europe

Doesn't show it but there was also Motorail from Brockenhurst which would join up in London. I presume from there on to Scotland.

Cool

I think my parents used this service to Weymouth from London in the 1960's if that's possible. I would have been very young at the time.

You can still see the concrete loading ramps at Bristol temple meads opposite platform 4

where did you find refrence to the motorail in lincoln ? ive never seen this before

Shame this isn't still going across the UK and in Europe. I moved to Austria in 2017 and there were still a few from places like Dusseldorf but sadly they are now very few and far between.

I had no idea bits of it were still operating into the 1990s. I often wished it _was_ still operating: Since I travelled from initially Essex, then Kent, to visit friends in Newcastle several times a year (for long enough that I wanted my car while there), I would have definitely used it, unless the cost was exorbitant. (I wouldn't have wanted the luxury shown - something like the chunnel, with just toilets and maybe vending machines, would have suited me.)

The Gary Newman song cars always reminds me of car transporter trains

I wish this still existed! It would reduce traffic on motorways and reduce carbon emissions from longer journeys.

They had one at Aberdeen on the back of the sleepers, think the headcode was 1M10, i worked it once Aberdeen to Edinburgh

Hi Jack. Who doesn't like a bit of history!?

Of course, these days, getting a car to Kensington Olympia would probably be far more hassle than taking it along the Motorway to your destination!

The Ramp is still in place in Fort William station

Even though there is a d after a number, we who lived in the '60's used the word 'pence'. We'd say Pounds, shillings and pence. I've no idea what d stands for!

There was similar system on the Polish railways up to early 2000's I think. I believe this service is still on offer of Austrian and Finnish railways.

When we're all driving those electric milk floats, the capability to travel long distances without incessant charging "breaks" could be very useful, especially if you could charge up the battery en route.

Very interesting When I was at school in the seventies I done a School project on Motor rail and won a prize.

Yes I had to laugh at the 3 d per mile as written and said. Thruppence in old money was 3d with D as standing for the latin Denarius.

I would go to Scotland much more often from Manchester if this existed, an hour on the M6 is enough for me.

4:12 Beige Maxi HL with leopard skin cushion and trilby on parcel shelf- no that's a Motorailist!

been a month since this was uploaded without another drop. i sure hope youve got more projects on the way as youre quite good at this. i hope to see you grow and further develop your editing/narrating skills.

I think this could still work but not really in the way it was set up back then. Something more akin to the Eurostar where you drive your own car on and off would be more like it. I don't think the getting out and going into a seperate carriage and all that makes much sense unless you're going on a very long run - for a few hours it would make it a very expensive way to travel - but being able to get some rest instead of driving for hours would be a nicer way to get from one end of the country to the other.

Motorail has been the best logistic transport transporting vehicles by rail from manufacturing plants.

Was it just at Kensington? I have a vague memory of cars driving into Paddington and Victoria in the 80's?

We took several rides on this train as my dad's perants in Paignton I travelled in to no my self being motorway were far and few between

Many factual and continuity errors, but very good. I'm sure it will improve over time.