Wimbledon TMD

As we pass on the adjacent District Line, the extensive trackwork of Wimbledon Traincare Depot can be seen, with a selection of Class 455 and 456 commuter units of Southwest Trains taking the weekend off. On the extreme left, a Colas Rail Class 47 can just be seen, together with two ex-First Great Western Motorail Vans.

Motorail was once a common practice here in the UK before the construction of the motorways, where cars would be loaded onto what were originally open flatbed wagons, but later covered hollow carriages, and transported with the entire passenger train over long distances whilst the car driver's enjoyed the comforts that long distance train travel had to offer. But as mentioned the advent of the motorways and the availability of more reliable cars quickly diminished the Motorail services, and the last ones operated in September 2005 for First Great Western between London Paddington and Penzance.

Today, a majority of the Motorail vans are in storage, but their large open internal space means that they're ideal for hauling cargo, a plan experimented with by Colas Rail in recent years for operating Supermarket Services into London Euston at night.