A look at South Africa’s 4km long train which has 375 wagons
State-owned rail company Transnet has launched a production train with the most wagons in the world.
The train – spanning four kilometres – has 375 wagons and will run over a distance of around 860 km between Anglo American’s Sishen mine, in the Northern Cape, and Saldanha Bay.
The company said that the train will break Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR’s) previous record of 342-wagons.
Running such a train means that rolling stock, as well as some infrastructure, needed to be upgraded to 30 tons per axle on the section between Hotazel and Sishen.
The wagons were increased from 312 to 375, increasing manganese volume from 19,656 tons to 23,625 tons per train.
“This is in line with TFR’s business objective of applying the heavy haul operating, maintenance, design, construction and best practice principles on general freight operations, and the Transnet strategy of migrating traffic from road to rail,” said TFR’s acting chief executive Lloyd Tobias.
Transnet has since operationalised the 4-kilometre train, which is meant to meet the needs of manganese customers within the Hotazel area, and that of emerging miners, he said.
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