Putting it on the Rails

The HB 1200 S leaves the workshop after 8 months

It was the SCHMIDT Group’s largest project of the year and since Saturday 2nd. December, it is back on the rails: the automotive HB 1200 S railway snow blower. From the end of March until shortly before delivery, employees from SCHMIDT and BEILHACK (which has been part of the SCHMIDT Group since July 2005) have been working hard to complete this order, which was to bring an over thirty-year-old Norwegian railway snow blower belonging to the Norwegian State Railway up to date technically.

In doing so, the overhaul of the locomotive more or less amounted to building a new one, as many of the parts after 30 years’ service in extreme weather conditions had to be replaced. In addition, the impressive blower unit had to be renewed completely. Thomas Berger, the production manager, made a logical comparison: “If you update a 30-year-old car, there will be a lot of technology in the finished article which didn’t even exist at that time.”  Three engines – two for the twin blowers, one for the traction drive – provide a total of 1,284 kW. That enables the HB 1200 S, which the SCHMIDT employees among themselves have renamed as “speedy Anderl”, to clear up to 22,000 tons of snow per hour from the tracks at a clearing speed of 60 k/h.  more...