Small car (railway)
Small cars (Kl) and Schwerkleinwagen (Skl) are auxiliary vehicles in railway operations .
definition
Small cars are lightweight vehicles and therefore do not reliably influence rail contacts. Small car journeys are treated operationally only within train stations as shunting journeys and on the free route as well as when passing from or to the train station as restricted journeys , for which main signals and the route block may not be activated. For this reason, the dispatcher has to put up notices and auxiliary barriers in order to prevent accidental release for a regular train .
Heavy-duty vehicles are vehicles that, due to their heavier design, are able to trigger track contacts, but are still not part of the standard vehicles . Journeys with small cars are treated operationally like train journeys, so main signals and block devices are activated. In the driving service regulation for non-federal railways , a small car is defined as an auxiliary vehicle with an axle load of at least 3.5 t.
Small cars have become rare in Germany - with the exception of road / rail vehicles and a few trailers. Due to the higher number of employees, small cars are mostly used today.
Types
Typical heavy small cars are the Rottenkraftwagen , which are used to transport workers (the Rotten ) and / or building material to and from track construction sites. Each railway maintenance office had one or more Rottenkraftwagen available. Due to the large number of them, the German state railways developed and procured standard designs quite soon after the Second World War. At the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR , for example, these were the series SKL 24 and SKL 25 , at the Deutsche Bundesbahn , the series Klv 51 and Klv 53 should be mentioned here. The German track is especially the types GAF100 and Robel Bamowag one. Inspection vehicles such as the Klv 11 / Klv 12 of the DB or track- laying machines of all types that can be moved on rails are also classified as small cars.
