Schalke
The ultimate specialists and uniquely developed to suit exacting customer requirements, these special purpose locomotives offer a high power density under extreme conditions and can be custom-built for demanding traction tasks in industry or ports. Here too, the Modu-Trac design concept featuring exchangeable traction modules plays a key role.
Schalke Locomotives for Special Purposes
Efficient logistical processes and the smooth distribution of goods in industry, freight depots and ports as well as compliance with the latest environmental standards are fundamental requirements for today’s rolling stock fleet operators. Robust, reliable locomotives are called for, capable of continuous operation on a wide range of assignments. At the same time they need to be flexible and designed to meet the needs of the future, which means firstly being able to comply with increasingly restrictive requirements and secondly being equipped to handle new technological developments.
Schalke developed the four-axle GMF 4/4 287 diesel-electric locomotive especially for the needs of the “Infrastructure” department of Switzerland’s Rhaetian Railway. Its design fulfils a broad range of basic requirements for special circumstances, as the railway has a narrow loading gauge (tunnel gauge) and a low axle load of 16 tonnes. The narrow, metre-gauge track gauge includes small curve radii as tight as 40 metres. The locomotive is particularly suitable for high-altitude areas with steep slopes of 70‰ as an adhesion railway. Moreover, it is reliable under extreme climatic conditions: its application range stretches from temperatures of -35 °C to +40 °C and it even runs on fine, crystalline snow.
