Utility vehicles

The need for a general purpose on-track maintenance machine to enable the day-to-day track maintenance to be done in the most cost effective manner was filled with the locally designed and built Utility Vehicle, owned and operated by Lennings Rail Services. The basic machine layout can accommodate 5 people in the driving cabin, 12 people in the transport cabin and has additional loading capacity of 5 tons for perway material.

Standard equipment on the UV is as follows:

• Heavy duty 8-tool tamping heads suitable for open track and switch tamping
• Telescopic crane for lading/unloading
• Rail saw, rail drill, impact wrench, welding machine and track jacks
• Storage bins for various other perway equipment

Optional equipment that can be fitted to an UV on request:

• Sleeper replacing head - production up to 200 sleepers per day
• Brush cutter
• Spot weed spraying
• 10-ton trailer
• Ballast regulating blade
• Back-actor for drain cleaning

A unique feature of the UV is the provision, as optional, of an electronic geometry defect detector. Using a measuring trolley and suitable transducers, a display of slack, twist and joint parameters is seen on a console in the operator's cabin.

Thresholds can be set for any of these functions, setting off a warning light and buzzer when defects exceeding these thresholds are encountered. The on-board crew can immediately attend to the defect or the equipment can be used for planning of the maintenance.

Another option is to utilise the measurements to produce a workload planning report enabling prioritising of the work.

The machines can be used on main lines and branch lines for various maintenance activities - on-track or off-track.

Copyright © 2004 Lennings Rail Services

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