The «Type R» body launched onto the market last year that had been extended with ExTe, the European market leader for transport locks in timber transport, has proven itself in practical use, especially in the timber industry. The 20‘ swap body can be removed, exchanged, transported laden or unladen and can also be used for transportation by truck.
The WASCOSA flex freight system® permits flexible adjustments to short term changes in the goods to be transported by separating the car body from the bogie with the chassis and brake. The biggest share of costs for a freight car is taken up by the chassis, brake and undercarriage. The body only accounts for a small share of the costs. This means that if the demand drops, the removable bodies can be put to one side, which would be much too expensive for a complete car, and the undercarriage used with a different body. However, unlike a container, the body can only be separated from the car when empty, with the exception of the flatcar module. When laden the interaction of the body and undercarriage is a prerequisite to keep the empty weight of the car low. But since the carrier car is a container car it can also be used for transports without a body too, for example.
In order to do full justice to the environmental advantage the conspicuously orange-coloured WASCOSA container car only comes with plastic block brakes, in other words compliant with TSI-Noise, and not with grey cast iron block brakes, which would lead to a 10 dB higher rolling noise on account of the roughening of the wheels' running tread. New investigations have shown that this type of freight traffic is therefore 11 dB quieter than traffic with conventional grey cast iron brakes.
Another advantage of the WASCOSA flex freight system® is that it can be better adapted to the structure gauge available. A normal Isocontainer makes poor use of the railway structure gauge in Europe. But normal freight cars built for the G1 structure gauge also give away a number of possibilities since not only is the G2 structure gauge widespread in Europe, more and more routes are being approved for the GC gauge on account of double-deck passenger cars. This is much more important today than in former times because the specific weight of numerous transports is becoming smaller and smaller, e.g. consumer goods, but their transport volume is increasing. A study on the future, for example, predicts that the share of light freight such as semi-finished and finished goods in tm of the total freight structure will only rise from 35% in 2009 to between 46 and 53% by 2025 depending on the scenario.
The WASCOSA flex freight system® with the R body opens up new logistical possibilities for loading not just in pieces but now also in complete packages. This saves both time and money at the terminal and simultaneously reduces the probability of any damage to the load and equipment. Unlike similar systems, the R body can be loaded and apart from European rail transport can also be used with no problems in road transport.
The WASCOSA flex freight system® can be used for various types of freight. © WASCOSA AG
The WASCOSA flex freight system® – a container car with different bodies – here with the new R body. © WASCOSA AG