First delivery with tilt wagon in Bulgaria - voestalpine Railway Systems

3 February 2022 |

End of October 2021, voestalpine Railway Systems Bulgaria delivered the first pre-assembled turnouts to the National Railway Infrastructure Company NRIC.

voestalpine Railway System is running 30 tilting wagons all over Europe for countries using European 1435 gauge. With over 10 years of experience, we are market leader in this segment.

A few months back the first three pre-assembled turnouts were delivered in Bulgaria by voestalpine Railway Systems Bulgaria from the plant directly to the construction site of the corridor project Sofia Central Station – Voluya.

A festive day

The event was attended by several representatives of NRIC, the National Bulgarian Railway Infrastructure Company. As special guests, Mr. Biser Minchev - Deputy Director General of NRIC as well as Mr. Hristo Tsakov - Director of Railways and Facilities NRIC Head Office, Mr. Dancho Georgiev - Director of Train Movement and Capacity at NRIC Head Office and other ladies and gentlemen have attended this first delivery via tilt wagon.

Congratulations to the teams of voestalpine Railway Systems Bulgaria and WS Logistik.

Shorter construction time, less downtime

voestalpine Railway Systems offer complete logistic handling including technical advice for the design of the turnout is offered as well as the operation of the tilting wagons by specially trained personnel. Furthermore, just in time transport with block trains from the switch plant to the construction site is carried out.

Technical Details – Tilt Wagons

A standard turnout cannot be transported preassembled on a flat wagon, because it is too large for the clearance gauge. The major advantage of using a tilting wagon is that after it is loaded with turnout components, it can be maneuvered obliquely upwards in just one minute by means of a hydraulic system.

The loading floor is therefore positioned at an angle of approximately 60 degrees during transport. This allows turnouts or switch turnout components with a length of up to 24 meters and a width of up to 4.50 meters to be easily transported. With tilting wagons it is also possible to transport turnouts with a width of up to 4.80 meters (1435 mm gauge). Despite this length and width, the machine and its load remain within the limits of the UIC G2 loading profile. On site, the tilting wagons are flattened and the fastening devices are released by our specially trained personnel so the turnout can be lifted into the track bed by car or rail crane. In the course of the delivery of the new turnout, the old turnout can be loaded on the tilting wagon in one working step. This saves a lot of time and the construction site is “tidied up” after use.