Maintenance
Self-propelled maintenance vehicles for maintenance of the track and for shunting wagons are much more convenient to use if they can transfer to the road to reposition or otherwise get out of the way. Because relatively light loads are involved, the problems plaguing the Road Transferable Locomotive are avoided.
An example would be a forklift truck fitted with railway wheels and a coupling with which to shunt a wagon or two.
In Belgium, the company UCA bvba has been constructing rail/road vehicles since 1981. UCA started with converting WF-trac and MB-trac for rail traction uses. They built rail car movers, shunting locotractors and other rail/road vehicles. Best known is the UCA-TRAC, based on the chassis of a JCB Load-All (UCA-TRAC B) and Fastrac (UCA-TRAC F). The UCA-TRAC provides traction through its rubber wheels.
Read more about this topic: Road-rail Vehicle
Famous quotes containing the word maintenance:
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—George Grosz (1893–1959)