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As a privately-owned, private equity company, Buckland Group has the capital firepower to focus investments into growing various manufacturing and service businesses, specifically in the rail, renewable energy and construction sectors. Its integrated rail services company, Buckland Rail, is comprised of WH Davis, Davis Wagon Services( DWS) and Yellow Rail. WH Davis and DWS have been a part of Buckland Rail’ s portfolio for over 12 years, manufacturing and maintaining its freight wagon fleet, whilst Yellow Rail was acquired just two years ago. Specializing in the overhaul of bogies and freight wagons, along with the upgrading of passenger vehicles, Yellow Rail excellently enhanced Buckland Rail’ s existing capabilities, skyrocketing the company to further growth and expansion.
To get under the bonnet of Buckland Rail’ s operations, Transportation & Logistics International sits down with Noel Travers, Chief Executive Officer of Buckland Rail, who offers a deep dive into the company’ s services whilst providing insight into what lies ahead in the company’ s wider dynamic growth strategy.
“ WH Davis, which has been operational since 1908, manufactures rail freight wagons including biomass hoppers, box wagons, intermodal wagons, and specialist containers, such as for the storage of low-level nuclear waste,” Noel begins.“ The business has also recently undertaken a series of wagon repurposing projects, taking stored coal wagons and turning them into box wagons, reusing components where possible to create a much more sustainable solution to changes in traffic requirements.
“ On the other hand, DWS is the biggest independent maintainer of freight wagons in the UK, with over 1900 wagons under
No other business in the UK can provide this full range of services
maintenance contracts, with teams located across the country from Immingham to South Wales. The largest single contract is with Drax for its biomass hoppers, which are maintained, modified, and overhauled at our dedicated workshop in Ferrybridge.”
“ Yellow Rail started out looking after passenger vehicles, but then moved into the freight market where it established itself as the partner of choice to many freight vehicle owners,” he continues.“ Yellow Rail overhauls a large proportion of freight bogies at its site in Derby, and it has just been awarded a contract for the overhaul of bogies for Croydon Trams for Transport for London. With maintenance teams in various locations across the UK, Yellow Rail boasts extensive experience in the modification and upgrade of passenger vehicles at customer depots.” With the acquisition of Yellow Rail, Buckland Group has expanded its capabilities, allowing the company to move beyond freight into passenger services.
“ Yellow Rail takes Buckland Rail into the passenger market, which is an area we will be seeking to develop over the coming years,” Noel elaborates.“ Whilst there are some overlaps in activity across the businesses, the acquisition of Yellow Rail allows Buckland Rail to provide a cradle-to-grave service for wagons to the rail freight industry. This is important as decommissioning and scrapping obsolete rolling stock has been an age-old challenge in the sector, especially now with the current sustainability pressures of metal and commodity prices. We can cover every aspect including new wagon concept development, wagon design, manufacture, approval, maintenance, overhaul, modification, repurposing and eventually scrapping. No other business in the UK can provide this full range of services and therefore the group has unparalleled expertise in this market.”
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