UK-based heavy haulage specialist Allelys has transported a Talgo railcar – measuring 13.7 m x 2.94 m x 3.62 m – from Barrow Hill Railway Roundhouse in Chesterfield to the Global Centre of Rail Excellence in Onllwyn.
Weighing 20 tonnes, the in-house engineering team at Allelys identified a suitable route and transport arrangement to haul the railcar using its five-axle Goldhofer rail trailer.
“The first stage of the operation was to load and secure the railcar onto the trailer. Typically we would use a ramp and winch technique, however due to the complex design and construction of this particular railcar, a solution was designed to complete a tandem crane lift to safely load the cargo,” explained Jamie Woodland, commercial manager at Allelys.
Allelys managed all of the lift requirements internally, including designing the appropriate lifting solution, creating detailed lift plans and providing specific method statements and risk assessments. The team then utilised its 100-tonne and 200-tonne capacity mobile cranes, along with appropriate lifting tackle, to load the railcar on to the trailer.
Once the railcar was successfully loaded to the rail trailer and tractor unit combination, it was then able to begin its transportation to site. Travelling across a long and challenging route, overcoming tight corners and difficult pinch points along the way, the load arrived at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence site in Onllwyn, South Wales, where the cargo was offloaded and delivered via a second tandem crane lift operation.
