FEA Intermodal Wagon Profile

FEA Intermodal Wagon Profile

FEA-S 640690 at Turves - Photo by Gareth Bayer
Seen at Turves, to the west of March, on 4th October 2016, 640690 is entirely typical of GB Railfreight’s FEA-S fleet. Like all of the Greenbrier-built wagons, it features a 60ft long container deck with hinged spigots to allow various lengths of container to be carried, although 20ft and 40ft types are the most common.

With the 2000s bringing considerable growth in intermodal traffic, both Freightliner and GB Railfreight invested heavily in new container carrying wagons to meet this demand. One of the most popular designs during the decade was the FEA spine wagon offered by Greenbrier Europe, both freight companies ordering fleets of twin-sets as did Balfour Beatty and the short-lived Fastline Freight. These twin-sets encompassed two wagons with couplings and buffers at the outer ends only and with a bar coupling between them. Due to design differences across the various batches, the GBRf fleet eventually contained wagons coded FEA-A, FEA-B and FEA-C while those operated by Freightliner, Balfour Beatty and Fastline were all FEA-B. In both N gauge and OO gauge, the FEA-B is offered in ready-to-run form by Dapol.

In addition to the twin-sets, Greenbrier Europe produced a single variant of the FEA, this having drawgear at both ends of the wagon in conventional fashion. Although not as popular as the twin-sets, Freightliner and GB Railfreight each acquired over 60 examples of the Polish-built wagons in 2004. These were intended not only for container traffic but also infrastructure purposes as, with suitable modules fitted to the deck, they could variously carry sleepers, rail lengths, complete track panels or even ballast. The single-sets are available in ready-to-run forms by Hattons.

This versatility was recognised with further orders for FEAs, such as for the Metronet/GB Railfreight London Underground sub-surface lines maintenance contract. Both TransPlant and Balfour Beatty also acquired small quantities of the wagons to form the basis of track renewal trains, while Network Rail plumped for a further variant of the flats to create its Railhead Treatment Trains.

Single FEA Container Flat Build Details

Further Information

Read more about the Freightliner FEA-E	Read more about the GBRf FEA-S
Read more about the Metronet/ GBRf FEA-S	Read more about the TransPlant FEA-S

Read more about the Balfour Beatty FEA-D

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