Simple guiding road-rail vehicles onto tracks
Cumbersome and heavy aids for guiding our road-rail vehicles onto tracks are a thing of the past at SPITZKE. Getting our road-rail vehicles onto tracks is not always easy – especially in bad weather or difficult terrain. road-rail excavators manage to get onto the track relatively well because they can support themselves with their excavator arm. However, it’s more challenging for overhead line maintenance vehicles or lifting platforms. Our planning team for overhead line systems (OLA) in our Equipment/Electrical Engineering division has now found a practical solution for guiding their vehicles onto the track with custom-cut and linked plastic pipes.
Positive experience with track guidance aids from Gelsenkirchen’s workshop
On large construction projects, special areas are set up for guiding road-rail vehicles onto tracks. At level crossings the height adjustment to the rail also works without problems. However, if neither option is available, other solutions must be found. In the past, aids which guided vehicles onto the tracks were often made with wooden planks or boards. However, the wooden aids were very heavy and therefore difficult to transport. Preparations for construction were correspondingly time-consuming, especially for work within framework contracts and maintenance orders.
Now, our colleagues working with overhead line vehicles use mats made of plastic pipes manufactured by Werkverein Gelsenkirchen e. V. The workshop in Gelsenkirchen supports, accompanies, and cares for disabled individuals. Employees cut the pipes to fit, drill holes, and connect the individual pipes to create large mats.
“The new track guidance mats are a great assistance to our overhead line teams. They are lightweight, can be laid without an excavator or crane, and require little storage space,” says our overhead line planner Oliver. He initiated contact with the workshop for disabled individuals in 2019. “Since the initial test, we have only received positive feedback. Now our warehouses in Wittenberg, Bochum, Lehrte and Erlensee have these track guidance aids,” he summarizes. Together with his colleagues in the Equipment/Electrical Engineering department, he plans the technology of the overhead lines department, oversees the maintenance and upkeep in a team of nine train operators. Due to the positive experience of the collaboration with the Gelsenkirchen workshops, in which SPITZKE makes a significant contribution to inclusion, the extent to which the cooperation can be extended to other areas of the company is being considered.
