RIP Sir Patrick Moore

Around here they're typically two or three engines at the front, although I have seen two at the front and one at the back a couple of times. They are indeed often a mile or more long, and typically shipping containers are stacked two-high as there aren't bridges and the like to get in the way.

They seem to manage around 50mph on the good track, but you're right in saying that there's a lot of crappy stuff out there.

One method of moving goods often seen here is to put loaded lorry trailers onto the train flatbeds - that way it only needs something to pull them at the remote end and they can be quckly taken out onto the roads for 'local' distribution of the contents.

cheers

Jules

His last program is going out at midnight in an hour and a half