CargoSprinter

The Sprinter Cargo (Series 690/691 ) was a produced in two versions of the Rheinermark Windhoff web and system technology as well as the Aachen wagon factory Talbot freight railcars for rail freight. The EMUs consisted of three non-motorized intermediate cars and two powered end cars.

Use

The first, built by Windhoff Cargo Sprinter was introduced in October 1996. In February 1997, the first set of Talbot followed. A total of seven copies of the freight multiple units were built ( four Windhoff, three of Talbot ). From 1998 to early 2000, they were used for the forwarding Hellmann between Hamburg and Osnabruck and Cargo City South at Frankfurt am Main airport.

The vehicles were planned as a replacement for trucks. You should pick up the goods in companies, then drive over large parts of the track in a more favorable multiple traction and be separated again for delivery. Due to the absence of large shunting they were more flexible and with a maximum of 120 km / h faster than conventional freight trains. The payload is for a garnish 160 t, or 10 containers. The first prototype ran in 1996, wrong in 1997 7 units (each containing two railcars ) in test operation between Hamburg / Osnabrück Hannover (where coupling to 2- units ) to Frankfurt airport. For large-scale production, it did not come to Germany because of various reasons:

• Technical problems on the vehicles - not least because of the serious differences between the two versions - disabled use
• Construction work at the Expo 2000 in Hannover related many delays during test operation
• The vehicles were twice as expensive as originally planned by the manufacturer
• There was hardly any traffic political support for this type of freight
• DB AG changed its goods transportation concept still during the test period in favor of other long-range solutions.

Whereabouts

Siemens and RWTH Aachen developed in 2002 from the two end cars CargoSprinter two prototypes of its concept for driverless and automatic " Cargo Mover ". This should be an automatic signal -run train for wagonload traffic. The project was discontinued in 2005. One of the two converted vehicles is located in the Siemens test center in Wegberg-Wildenrath and is sometimes still used for shunting, the other is in the possession of the Institute of Rail Vehicles at the RWTH Aachen where it is used for measuring and test drives.

The German railway had tendered their six remaining Sprinter Cargo for sale in late 2003. The car parked in Osnabrück vehicles should achieve a sales revenue of at least € 250,000.

Three prototypes were sold to ÖBB 2004. There they were converted to 2008 to the tunnel rescue trains X690.002/502, X690.003/503 and X690.004/504. They are stationed at the Tauern railway stations in Bockstein, Mallnitz and Spittal - Millstattersee. There, they replaced with ÖBB 2043 -covered breakdown trains.

Two Talbot railcars ( 691 002 and 691 502) came the end of 2008 in Switzerland and came after various adjustments as cargo shuttle used. A train carries gravel since April 2009 for the site of the Zurich diameter line. A second set has been operating since June 2009 Raillogistics on the track Felsberg - woman field Härkingen - Dailliens.

Development

Windhoff developed the concept of a Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV ) mentioned further modular vehicle system. This is not primarily designed for container transport, but on special vehicles. For example, as track cleaning vehicles, adapted to local conditions in Australia and modified variant in the UK. In addition, these vehicles are also called cabooses and as fire and rescue.