Unimog

Road-rail applications
off the road neatly, the asphalt was previously
broken up and the shoulder was a serious
danger to passing vehicles.
In addition to carrying the complete combination of
equipment, the Unimog U 500 propels the truck with
its tipping semi-trailer
Achim Rosinsky is one of those young and
flexible businessmen who manage the use of
their vehicles from their “mobile office” – in
his case, an off-roader – and travel to every
construction site to discuss questions and
problems with their customers on the spot.
He owns 27 commercial vehicles, from narrow-track
implement carriers to heavy goods
trucks, including a semi-trailer tractor with a
low-bed trailer for a maximum load of 62
tonnes. He reserves special affection, however,
for his various Unimogs, consisting of a
U 1700 L, a U 406, a U 140 and a U 90 in
addition to the U 500 mentioned above. They
are used for winter service, sweeping, work
with a grader blade installed between the
axles, construction-site services and general
transport tasks. This customer’s close relationship
with his machinery is also due to
Unimog general agent Meineke’s excellent
customer support: Christian Rabe will
provide assistance anywhere and attend
promptly to any inquiry concerning the
Unimog and its diverse applications. ■
Moved as if by magic
A road-rail Unimog is used for shunting in the port of Stralsund
Anew kind of vehicle has now put in an
appearance at the port of Stralsund. In
the past, former Reichsbahn locomotives
used to sound their horns, but since mid-
2003, a road-rail Unimog has been used at
the transhipment port operated by the Stralsunder
Hafen- und Lagerhausgesellschaft
(SHL). The Unimog for combined road and
rail use is the economical solution for the
implementation of an international business
agreement. A five-year contract between
SHL and a Norway-based company for the
import of 100,000 tonnes of limestone per
year via this port came into effect at the
beginning of 2003.
Various building materials including gypsum
plaster board are produced in Drammen,
on the Oslo fjord. The two 5,000-ton
Norwegian bulk carriers “Marble Bay” and
“Marble Sea” take turns to perform the
weekly run to the North. Their destination is
Jänschwalde power station in the State of
Brandenburg. Once the gypsum has been
discharged, the train is loaded again. Dieter
Böse is delighted with this successful deal:
“There are no empty movements – the transport
cycle is complete.” Every working day, a
1,800-ton train with 30 freight cars rolls into
the harbour. A locomotive would normally be
needed to shunt these, but since the big
diesel locomotives turned out to be too
expensive and too clumsy, SHL looked for an
alternative and found it at Schoknecht in
Demmin, the Unimog general agent for Western
Pomerania. The Unimog, with rail guidance
by Unimog System Partner Zwiehoff,
can be driven on the road with its rubber
tyres as well as on its steel rail wheels, and
proved to be the ideal solution. It was tested
for eight weeks at the dockside and gave
such good results that SHL’s CEO Wolfgang
Ostenberg decided to purchase it.
Since then, many car drivers have been
surprised to see this brand-new cross
between a road vehicle and a locomotive suddenly
appear in front of them on the transverse
canal bridge, pulling a freight train.
Its power output of 130 kW (177 hp) is fully
adequate for the purpose. There is no driver
anywhere in sight; instead, one of SHL’s
eight shunting controllers trained by the
Deutschen Bahn AG wears a remote control
around his neck to move the 1,800-ton train
and to control the separate air pressure system
for opening and closing the freight car
bodies at the touch of a button.
According to Dieter Böse, the 200,000 Euro
investment has definitely paid off, with
prospects of a ten-year contract with this
Norwegian client.
■
Top left: Shunting a 1,800-ton train; the historic
“Alte Lotsenwache” (the former pilots’ building) can
be seen in the background
Top right: The SHL’s Unimog is remote-controlled
Bottom: Mercedes-Benz encounter on transverse canal
bridge in the port of Stralsund
Unimog 2|2003 13