Product Showcase: Successfully tackling complex projects

Harsco Rail’s versatile and efficient Xem 181 universal vehicles are the heart of maintenance trains and are primarily used as workshops, for transporting track personnel, and for carrying out inspection and maintenance of various infrastructure components thanks to the lifting devices fitted to each vehicle.

THE 22m-long vehicles are 4.4m-high, 2.9m-wide and have an operating mass of 80 tonnes. Each has four axles, two bogies and four electrically driven, water-cooled traction motors, each with a group drive in AC converter technology. With 550kW diesel traction, the vehicles are economical – even if the contact wire is switched off for maintenance reasons. There is sufficient tractive power available for transporting a large attached mass, even on high inclines. Xem 181s are engineered to comfortably travel up steep gradients in both electric and/or diesel operating modes with independently functioning electrical brakes. The hybrid technology installed in the MTU PowerPack combines high tractive force via the contact wire with a consumption- and emissionoptimised diesel-electric drive in partial train operation. 

Capable of travelling up to 100km/h, once the maintenance train has used the contact wire to reach a work site, it can be separated into autonomous sections that take on different tasks simultaneously. If the electric drive’s high power is no longer needed, the power generated by the dual dieselelectric drive will be sufficient, making the vehicle fully independent which satisfies the highest standards for profitability and environmental protection.