Innovative Project of Prototype Railway Wagon and Intermodal Transport System

Abstract A special wagon with a low rotatable loading platform for transportation of truck vehicles by rail was developed in Military University of Technology in the Department of Mechanics and Applied Computer Science in Warsaw. The essence of such reloading is to place the semitrailer on a special rotatable platform with the use of a truck tractor. The structure can be used for transportation of different types of vehicles such as tractors, trucks, trailers, semitrailers and cargo containers. The wagon allows quick and fast loading and unloading without any platform infrastructure or terminals. An intermodal transport system based on an innovative concept of the railway wagon, which will use the national railway infrastructure, was developed. The process of loading and unloading the trailers can be performed considering a whole train or individual wagons from any part of the train (no cranes needed). This type of railway wagon will allow transport companies to save time and money for road transport. The advantages of this construction are reduction of the negative impact on the environment as well as an increase of road safety by reducing the number of vehicles on the roads. As part of the work on the wagon and the intermodal transport system, a strength test of the wagon structure was carried out and the effort of the basic components of a the wagon and a complete structure was estimated. For this purpose, numerical analysis was used.