Motorail, Carflat Transporter – Era 6/7

Motorail, Carflat Transporter – Era 6/7

British Rail’s Motorail brand was the name given to the car transportation services operated by BR from 1955 to 1995. The service was first introduced as the Car-Sleeper Limited in 1995, a service that ran between London in England and Peth in Scotland. The Motorail branding was introduced to BR’s full range of car services in 1966 along with the opening of the new London Kensington Olympia Terminal.

By the early 1990s the development of Britain’s road infrastructure and an improvement in the reliability of cars meant that demand for motorail had fallen drastically. With motorail making significant losses the privatisation of BR saw all services end in 1995. First Great Western briefly reintroduced an overnight motorail service from London Paddington to Penzance in 1999 however this too ended in 2005. Motorail was operated using a variety of different rolling stock including flat wagons known as Carflats. These simple wagons featured a flat surface with small ramps at either end which would fold down to allow cars to be driven along the train.