Coltainer: The COLTainers were originally built for coal service in Alabama, between Berry and Parrish. They were flood loaded at the mine, on intermodal flats, hauled over a railway track to a yard, where they were transloaded onto specially designed trailer, which transported these 8-10 miles down to the power plant and unloaded.
When coal service went down these specially built containers had no further used. However they are now backing in operation for transporting fly ash from power plants or garbage.
Cargosprinter: Cargosprinter is a product of a fast-changing rail freight environment. It is a self-propelled, ‘container train’ which is able to move between 5 TEUs to 30 TEUs, Cargosprinter train essentially consists of a self-contained unit, readily capable of being separated for maintenance and repair.
The modular design of each unit enables a train of up to seven Cargosprinters to be formed, in just a few minutes. Actual physical tests have shown that this procedure can completed in three minutes. This advanced solution which offers the speed and flexibility required by the market, permits speedy and efficient coupling of units to form trains up to 630 m long.
The other important feature of Cargosprinter is that when the train reaching the common way point along their routing, the individual CargoSprinter units can be uncoupled with the same ease to continue their journey to their final destination. This may be a cargo distribution centre, a container terminal or a private siding. The users can run the Cargosprinter train, split it at the terminal and reconnect the set on the return leg. As they have two drive units one at each end, infrastructure at sidings is minimized. Faster terminal turnarounds also ensure higher utilization.
Cargosprinter has strong potential as an effective port shuttle. The introduction of the Cargosprinter could be instrumental in achieving the railways’ target to increase the cargo movement speed from one location to another and using existing lines. In fact the Cargosprinter’s effective traveling speed of 120 km/hr is well above the achievable speed of road trucks on the congested road networks. Plans are in pipeline to raise the speed level to 160/km/hr.
The Cargosprinter represents an immediately available alternative solution offer a solution to the ever-increasing amount of road traffic congestion. The rail infrastructure can become more competitive by meeting the logistical demands using the price-competitive Cargosprinter solution. This solution is adaptable to both long distance and regional rail networks thus enabling progress to be sustained in the coming years.
