Train World curators, meanwhile, have been grappling with the vast number of pieces they have uncovered: 208 locomotives, passenger and freight cars.

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Passengers sit aboard trains in rail yards as Amtrak attempts to generate revenue by shunting freight cars on and off their trains.

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The latter criterion is especially important: It makes no sense to have a repeat of last winter's food aid fiasco in which, for example, 20, 000 containers and 300 freight cars filled with food were discovered spoiling weeks after they had arrived in a Moscow rail yard.

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But for some freight, from Formula One racing cars stuck in China after Sunday's Grand Prix there to flowers farmed in Kenya and destined for restaurant tables in London, there is no alternative route.

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"We haven't had word from freight yet and we've got to get the cars back, " McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said.

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He added that the more people use bikes instead of cars, the more space that will be left on the roads for freight vehicles.

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F1 freight is transported on charter flights, with six Boeing 747 'jumbo jets' carrying the cars, so F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone's Formula 1 Management company are not beholden to commercial airlines' decisions on whether to fly to Europe or not.

BBC: Volcano cloud threatens Formula 1 preparations