Scamell Scarab three-wheeled delivery tractor used by British Railways in the 1950s.

When I was young in the 1940s and 50s, there was a very particular sight around country railway stations that many people today have forgotten.  It was the small three-wheeled delivery tractor with a single wheel at the front and two at the back, pulling a flat trailer of goods from the station yard to shops, farms and businesses.

Many of these vehicles were Scammell Scarabs.  They were not lorries in the modern sense.  They were designed to work in tight spaces.  Their triangular shape allowed them to turn almost on the spot, which made them ideal for crowded goods yards and narrow village streets.

In those days, the railway goods (freight) system was intensely local.    Trains brought coal, fertiliser, food, animal feed and parcels into small towns and villages.  From there, these little tractors took the goods the last mile.  Rail did the long haul.  The Scarab did the short haul.

That system was not scrapped because it was inefficient.  It disappeared because diesel lorries and motorways enabled the centralisation of everything into distribution centres far from where people lived.  For a while, that seemed cheap and convenient.  But ithas tied the whole freight system to liquid fuel and long road journeys.

Now we are moving into a very different world.  Diesel is not literally running out, but it is becoming more expensive, more politically sensitive and more vulnerable to disruption.  At the same time, the government is pushing to end the sale of new diesel heavy goods vehicles over the next fifteen years.

Electric lorries may work well for some jobs, especially where vehicles return to base and can charge overnight.  But for long-distance heavy freight, they remain difficult.  Batteries are heavy.  Charging takes time.  Motorway service areas do not yet have the electric power required to recharge fleets of lorries.

This is why rail will come back into the conversation.   Rail is already one of the most energy-efficient ways to move heavy loads over long distances.  If the main routes are electrified, trains can then run on domestic electricity rather than imported diesel.

But rail on its own is not enough.  Every load still has to get from local stations to its final destination.  That last mile is where modern electric vans come in.  They are the modern descendants of the old Scarabs.

This is where the idea of rebuilding some branch lines and local stations with goods yards becomes essential.  We do not need to reopen every rural railway.  But having more rail-connected local freight hubs would allow containers, pallets and bulk goods to be brought close to where they are needed.

From there, local electric vehicles could quietly and cheaply deliver the goods.  Villages would no longer need streams of heavy lorries coming from distant warehouses.   Instead, they would be served from nearby rail hubs, just as they once were.

In effect, we would be recreating a modern version of the old system.  Rail for the long distance.  Small electric vehicles for short distances.  It is not nostalgia.  It is simple energy logic.

[ChatGPT created the picture at the top of this article.  It shows a Scammell Scarab doing that job in the 1950s.  But it shows the vehicle on the passenger platform.  I could not persuade ChatGPT to place the vehicle on the other side of the building.]