SŽ-Vit Quality assistance in rolling stock maintenance

Quality assistance in rolling stock maintenance

After liberalisation of the rail market in Europe, competition has been growing steadily with train operating companies, rolling stock owners and logistics businesses entering the market for rail freight and fleet maintenance services. A number of new rail freight carriers and fleet owners, who rent out rolling stock to transport businesses without a fleet or with limited fleet capacity, have entered the rail market in Slovenia, also.

For cargo to reach its destination on time, every unit making up the train must be in good condition. To keep your stock fit to run, a combination of preventive maintenance, heavy repairs at our works and on-site light repairs is needed. At SŽ – VIT, we recognise the need for technical assistance in freight wagon servicing and locomotive maintenance. Having more than 170 years’ experience with Slovenske železnice's fleet, we offer complete overhaul and heavy repair services which underpin – together with inspections and light repairs – good preventive maintenance.

Our services are supplied from a number of locations on the network, focusing on the busiest sections. Freight wagons are serviced at our works in Koper, Divaca, Zalog, Dobova, Ptuj and Tezno, while the engine shops at Divaca, Maribor and Ljubljana are specialised for the maintenance of diesel and electrical locomotives. Light repairs to restore a wagon’s fitness to run can be done on-site without the need to break up the train, while heavy repairs and overhauls are carried out at our depot in Dobova, and in Ljubljana and Maribor for electrical and diesel locomotives, respectively. We also have a specialist team of technicians for wheelset maintenance, which is delivered at our depot in Ptuj. Our workshops are fully ECM certified, with the Ptuj and Dobova depots also certified to VPI.

Freight wagon maintenance

Services supplied at depots vary by wagon type, service life, designated loads, and type of unloading and shunting. We offer everything from brake system repairs and brake block replacements to repairs of damaged axles and other components such as footsteps, side walls, tank wagon valves and body cracks. Each case is handled individually, with repairs assessed together with the client after inspecting the vehicle. We have experience working with a wide range of different wagon series and types, including tank wagons (except gas cars), and have an in-house accredited inspection body for pressurised equipment, which conducts pressure tests on tank wagons according to RID regulations.

Next to inspections and repairs, rolling stock also requires regular overhauls to stay in running order. Our depot in Dobova specialises in overhauls according to the VPI or other maintenance rules provided by the client. We work for established rolling stock owners and know that trust is vital in our line of business. To demonstrate the quality of our services, our shops hold up-to-date certifications in welding, non-destructive testing, inspections of pressurised equipment and ECM.

On site, we offer inspections of wagons’ technical condition and accessories to check if they are fit to run and able to satisfy the relevant safety and operational requirements. Our maintenance services comprise:

Freight wagon maintenance

Technical wagon inspections at depots,
On-site technical inspections and servicing per request,
Light repairs without breaking up the train,
Light repairs – securing loads without breaking up the train,
On-site repairs to restore fitness to run,
Wagon coupling and uncoupling,
Complete brake test (A) in-house or on-site,
Partial brake tests (B, C, D, BC and BD),
Brake tests using a fixed air compressor,
Inspection and accompanying for exceptional loads,
Consultancy and presence at loading.

Experience

you can rely on

Our depots in Ljubljana, Maribor and Divaca specialise in the maintenance of electrical and diesel locomotives, and our skills continue to improve with each unit serviced. We are always seeking to design custom solutions which best meet our customers’ needs. The experience gained from working with Slovenske železnice's fleet has been invaluable in demonstrating our know-how to potential users of our services. Apart from train operating companies and locomotive owners on Slovenian market, we also serve rail carriers from other rail networks.

Our specialist team of technicians perform maintenance on a range of different locomotives, in particular on Siemens, Alstom, General Motors, Macosa, Ðuro Ðakovic, Vossloh and CZ Loko. New generations of electrical locomotives we handle the most are Siemens Taurus and Vectron, which are typically used in Europe. We offer complete maintenance for Taurus locs, ranging from inspections and repairs to overhauls, while mostly focusing on inspections when it comes to the newest Vectron multisystem electrical locomotives.

After modernising our equipment and gaining enough experience, we were able to add overhauls of ES 64 F4 to our services. In diesel traction, we do inspections of Siemens Hercules (ER20), Vossloh G6 and CZ Loko EffiShunter shunters. Locomotives aside, we also provide checks of cab radios and fire extinguishers and wheelset reprofiling without dismounting.

We continuously build on our existing knowledge and design new solutions to best respond to market demand. Our wheelset maintenance shop at Ptuj does monobloc wheel replacements on powered wheelsets for ES 64 U4, which are inspected to replace any life-expired or damaged components and shrink fit new monobloc wheels. There are also plans to offer this service for other types of electrical locomotives.

Because many locomotive operators prefer to refurbish existing units, we go the extra mile when it comes older rolling stock - especially diesel units - and offer retrofit programmes purposely designed to extend the serviceable life of components. Locomotives can be modernized or completely refurbished and supplied with new technology diesel engines.

Safe wheelsets equal safe vehicles

Internationally we are best known for our wheelset maintenance and production, which is supplied across Europe. Our depot in Ptuj specialises in assembly and off-vehicle reprofiling of wheelsets, be it for freight wagons or the latest series of electrical locomotives. While most wheelsets are machined according to VPI (IL, IS0, IS1, IS2 and IS3), there has been a growing demand to produce new wheelsets in line with TSI (BA 303, 004, 314, ULT23 and ULT25). We also do maintenance on tyred wheelsets.

For more information, visit our website, leave a message or give us a call. We are also looking forward to meet in person at the Transport Logistic show in Munich. You will find us at the stand B6.326.

www.sz-vit.si

sales@sz-vit.si

VIT keeps your vehicles FIT.

Photo by: Miško Kranjec