REDISCOVERING THE MERCHANDISE DESPATCH SERVICE.

Europe looks to rail to move parcels and small-volume freight.  Read on, and discover that the light rail and tram operators are getting in on the act.  Let's start in Karlsruhe.

Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft photograph by Michael Krauth retrieved from Trains.

Here's the prospectus.

Tram-train operator Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG) is planning trials of a freight-carrying streetcar, using a converted tram-train vehicle, to move goods and packets between town centers and the city center, reducing road congestion and pollution.

Freight-carrying streetcars would use the existing extensive Karlsruhe city tram system and the tram-train network to move small batches of freight to hubs in city centers, from which the goods could then be further delivered in a “climate friendly” way, such as by means of electric bikes.

Once upon a time, there were purpose-built streetcars doing this work.

Fox River Trolley Museum, August 2018.

As I noted at the time, "Imagine sorting the letters while the car is making its way through the streets of Chicago, or dropping off a letter as the car passes by to be delivered to grandmother across town the same day."  The Germans are considering a little more flexibility.  "A demonstrator streetcar or tram-train is planned by 2022 that can be used for passenger transport in peak hours and mixed passenger/goods operation during off-peak periods, removing the need to add specialized freight-carrying trams."

Does that sound, dear reader, like a combination car?

When passenger loads are heavy at the Illinois Railway Museum, these trunks provide overflow seating capacity in North Shore Line combination car 251.

The next step might be to create a strictly-for-parcels multiple unit car, which you could tack onto a passenger train. That's how South Shore did it, when you absolutely, positively had to get it there overnight.

South Shore baggage trailer 503 at Michigan City, 19 April 1963
Photograph courtesy Mike Condren.

In its original incarnation, that was a powered postal-baggage-parlor combination car on the Indiana Rail Road.  The shop crews at Michigan City did a pretty good job of concealing all those details.

The Europeans, however, are in the act of converting entire multiple-unit formations into parcels trains.

Andrew Garrett photograph retrieved from Trains.

The British, previously, rolled out fixed formation postal electric multiple unit trains.

Keith Fender photograph retrieved from Trains.

My one complaint is these are fixed-formation trains.  The concept, though, is the same as that of the interurbans, a century ago.  Consider this North Shore Line Merchandise Despatch box motor, in preservation at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The museum will sometimes roll out a train of these for special occasions.  I have not seen them run such a train with The Milwaukee Electric's merchandise despatch car in the formation, although such did happen years ago, and there aren't enough operable despatch cars off other interurbans, yet, to re-enact the through service laid on by Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana interurbans of years ago.  As the museum line does not extend far enough to compete with FedEx or Amazon, your donations are what would make such a train happen.