Railcar Mover

Overview

A railcar mover is a compact machine that shunts railway wagons without occupying a full locomotive. Its trick is dual running gear: it drives on rubber tires like a road truck, then deploys small flanged rail wheels to centre itself on the track and tow wagons. Because it is far lighter than a locomotive, traction would normally be limited by its own weight, so it grips the coupled wagon with a hydraulic hitch and transfers part of that wagon's weight onto its own drive axles, multiplying adhesion. That lets one operator move long, heavy cuts of wagons around a plant, yard or siding, and then drive the machine off the rails and away on the road when the job is done.

How it works

The machine is built on the Road-Rail Chassis, a welded frame on tired drive axles that also carries ballast weight and the retractable rail gear. Power comes from the Diesel Engine, a turbocharged inline-six with common-rail injection and its own cooling pack. Rather than a gearbox, the engine drives the Hydrostatic Drive: a variable-displacement pump feeds Wheel Motor units at the axles, giving stepless, reversible propulsion and fine creep control for delicate coupling moves.

To run on track, four Rail Guide Wheel units lower their flanged wheels with hydraulic cylinders so the rubber tires roll on the railheads while the guide wheels steer. At each end a Coupler knuckle matches standard wagon couplings. The Weight-Transfer Hitch does the real work of traction: its cylinders pull down on the coupled wagon and shift weight onto the mover's driven wheels so the tires can grip the rail.

The operator works from the Operator Cab with its seat, display and drive controller. Braking has two parts: the Service Brake disc brakes stop the mover's own road wheels, while the Air Brake System runs a compressor and reservoirs that charge the wagons' brake pipe so the whole cut can be braked through the train line. A 12 V Battery starts the engine and runs the control and lighting circuits.