Transporter Wagons

A transporter wagon, in railway terminology, is a wagon ( UIC) or railroad car (US) designed to carry other railway equipment. Normally, it is used to transport equipment of a different rail gauge. In most cases, a transporter wagon is a narrower gauge wagon for transporting a wider gauge equipment, allowing freight in a wider gauge wagons to reach destinations on the narrower gauge network without the expense and time of transshipment into a narrower gauge wagons.

This is an attempt to overcome one of the primary problems with differing gauge systems—gauge incompatibility. However, it means that the narrower gauge network must be built to a structure gauge large enough to accommodate the loading gauge of the wider gauge equipment, negating one of the cost advantages of a narrower gauge construction. Additionally, a large wider gauge wagon balanced on a narrower gauge transporter wagon is not very stable, and is generally restricted to low speeds of or so.

Transporter wagons have seen varying popularity. They were quite common in Germany (where they are called '), Austria, Switzerland (here called ' in German and ' in French) and Sweden.

Transporter wagons were uncommon in North America, where the practice of exchanging trucks was more common, as was at one time the case on CN's Newfoundland Railway at Port aux Basques. They were used on the Paw Paw Railroad of Paw Paw, Michigan for a short time, and on a short stretch of track of the defunct Bradford, Bordell and Kinzua Railroad by lumberman Elisha Kent Kane.
They were used in the United Kingdom on the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway.

Transporter flatcar

Transporter wagons were used extensively for a great many years in Germany, Austria (gauge ), Switzerland ( Brünigbahn) and Sweden (gauges , , and ). This was a boon especially to exchange traffic on the extensive Swedish network, which once comprised almost - in fact a number of local country areas in southern Sweden had nearly no lines at all, just narrow gauge ones. On the other hand, ''Rollböcke'' were not much used there.

An interesting development of the original transporter wagon concept (with bar couplers between each wagon) was that the bar couplers were discarded in favour of connecting all standard gauge wagons directly with each other by means of their ordinary buffers and chain coupler. This was tried for a few years in Sweden just before the last narrow gauge freight lines were closed in the 1980s.

Special adaptors could be employed to couple a set of transporter wagons onto the end of an "ordinary" narrow gauge freight train. Continuous braking was no problem, either, as the train air line could be incorporated into the bar couplers, too.

Judging from early literature, the transporter wagon idea came about in Germany sometime around 1880 or 1890 (where in fact, later, ''Rollböcke'' were used a lot more than transporters). Transporter wagons with the unique '' Heberlein-''type friction brake system were in daily use in the old GDR (East Germany) well into the late 1980s.

In Britain, they were introduced to the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway in 1904 by Everard Calthrop, who also introduced them to the Barsi Light Railway in India of 1897. They carried the bulk of the freight traffic on the Leek and Manifold Valley.

Transporter wagons are widely used to get rolling stock including locomotives from gauge-isolated branch lines to main maintenance centres.

Crocodile wagons

The South Australian and Victorian Railways used broad gauge transporter wagons to carry narrow gauge rolling stock and locomotives to workshops and other isolated narrow-gauge sections. In South Australia, these were called crocodile wagons.

The GWR also had crocodile wagons. One is in the Didcot Railway Centre

Transporter train in Australia

In 1955, during an intermediate phase of the replacement of the narrow-gauge () Port Pirie to Marree railway with a standard gauge line, train-lengths of standard-gauge flat wagons were fitted with narrow-gauge rails, allowing narrow-gauge trains carrying coal (from Leigh Creek coalfield), livestock or general freight to travel more quickly by standard gauge on the new, well-engineered alignment. The rails on the flat wagons were continuous, so that the upper train could be rolled on and off in one piece. The leading wagon on the narrow-gauge train was also secured to anchoring on the front wagon on the standard gauge train. Air brakes on the narrow-gauge train were connected to the standard-gauge train's air brakes. A narrow-gauge locomotive pushed the narrow-gauge train up an earthen ramp to the deck of the standard gauge train. There were no overhead structures to restrict operation of the trains.

Train on Train

"Train on Train" was a Japan Railways concept, similar to the South Australian scheme above, for hauling narrow-gauge container wagons at speeds of up to on standard-gauge Shinkansen track through the long, undersea Seikan Tunnel.

Transporter transfer stations

Between c1900 and c1950 transporter trains were used to carry narrow gauge () rolling stock between four separate narrow gauge branchlines and the workshops. The main lines were gauge. A ramp joined the narrow and broad gauge track end to end in a straight line and the ramp lifted the narrow gauge track by about one metre to the level of the rails on the broad gauge flat waggons.

* Upper Ferntree Gully - Gembrook
* Colac- Crowes
* Moe - Walhalla
* Wangaratta - Whitfield
* Newport workshops

Transporter trailer

Also common on German and eastern European narrower gauge are transporter trailers, which are small-wheeled full trailers that fit beneath each pair of the wagon's wheels or each bogie of the car and are hauled by a drawbar. These are ''Rollböcke'' in German. Some times ''one long'' small-wheeled full trailer carries the entire rail car.

Road Transporter Trains

Transporter Trains are also used to carry road vehicles such as cars, lorries and buses through long rail tunnels.
For long distance freight transport, trucks with trailers or semi-trailers (without tractor) are loaded on specialized rail vehicles. See articles about

* Autorack
* Car shuttle train
* car transporter
* Modalohr
* Motorail
* Rolling highway

See also

* East African Railway Master Plan
* Keith Smith (engineer) - devised transporting vehicles by the trainload in Australia the 1950s
* Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway 1904 used a Rollbock like wagon.
* Padarn Railway
* Piggyback (transportation)
* Weltrol – a standard gauge well wagon for carrying narrow gauge rolling stock; built 1960

References

*

External links

Wooden toy Transporter Train

WorldRailFans

Lötschberg Tunnel

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transporter Wagon
Freight rolling stock
Track gauges