Narrow-gauge transport wagons
Narrow -gauge transport cars are standard-gauge railway service vehicles that are used to transport narrow-gauge railway vehicles.
They are required to exchange narrow-gauge railway vehicles between different narrow-gauge networks or to bring them to a workshop or a repair shop . Today this task is often taken over by road low-loaders .
These cars usually consist of a frame on two or four axles or two bogies on which a narrow-gauge track is attached. This does not have a closure so that the vehicles to be transported can be rolled up via a so-called equipment transfer ramp. The gap between the car and the ramp is bridged with suitable pieces of track. The narrow-gauge vehicles are secured on the trolley with chains, wheel chocks or a safety plank. Most of the narrow-gauge railways connected to standard-gauge railways had a corresponding equipment transfer ramp. In some cases, standard-gauge locomotive sheds were equipped with corresponding elevated tracks so that the narrow-gauge locomotives could roll off the transport wagon at the same level.
During transport, it is not uncommon for the narrow-gauge transport vehicle to cross the vehicle gauge. Then the journey must be carried out as a loading gauge excess .
The Deutsche Reichsbahn maintained narrow-gauge transport cars with gauges of 750, 900 and 1000 mm for the transport of their narrow-gauge vehicles.
Even today, railway companies use such wagons to transport narrow-gauge vehicles, for example for historical narrow-gauge railways, but also for trams.
Narrow gauge wagons should not be confused with trolleys used to transport standard-gauge vehicles on narrow-gauge railways. Compared to them, they only serve for internal transfer; the use to transport loaded narrow-gauge wagons on standard-gauge lines for the transport of goods was and is unusual.
literature
- Kieper, Preuss: Narrow Gauge Railway Archive. transpress, Berlin, 1980
- Preuss: Everything about narrow-gauge railways in Saxony. transpress, Stuttgart, 2009