THIS GIANT electric locomotive will spend its working life hauling coal across the vast open spaces of the Australian outback.

But, before it can even begin to earn its liv-ing, it must first be shipped from the manufac-turing plant of Siemens AG Division Mobility in Munich, Germany, by truck, barge and sea-go-ing vessel to Brisbane, Australia. It’s a task that veteran Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics’ Cargo Superintendent, Boerje Lagerlöf, describes (with some modesty) as “very interesting”.

According to Lagerlöf, the problem is “not really the weight”; after all, he and his team regu-larly handle power generation equipment weigh-ing over 200 tonnes. The challenge was to find a transport solution that was both cost effective and could work within the tight time schedule laid down by WWL customer, Siemens.

You see, this locomotive is not alone. There are around 45 such engines to get to Brisbane over the next two years and they will be shipped two at a time from the WWL facility at Bremerhaven.

Each engine is part of a special order for Queensland Rail and is over 20 metres long. They weigh about 132 tonnes each.

“With the tight schedule and number of locos involved, we had to find a solution taking into account the optimum use of our equip-ment,” explains Lagerlöf.

FOR THE FIRST SHIPmENT, a jack-up trailer was used to stow the locomotives on specially modified Blocks & Beams pallets.

In the future, the locomotives will be rolled on board the vessel in Bremerhaven on the Samson trailer which has been customised to meet WWL’s needs. The construction of this trailer is almost completed and it is now in the test phase. WWL will continue to use the jack-up trailer until the Port of Brisbane formally approves the use of the WWL Samson trailer and the trailer’s test period is completed.

“The Samson heavy-lift trailers will be used to tackle the weight and the mounting bed of the Air-Shuttle trailer (designed for railcars) to cope with the length,” says Lagerlöf. “By combining

the stanchions and pallets of the Air-Shuttle with the Samson trailer we have been able to create a stable, manoeuvrable platform for loading. This is a solution that is unique to the industry.”

“And we will be working with equipment we already know. We must have loaded over 1,000 rail coaches with the Air-Shuttle and we have been using the Samson trailer for more than 15 years,” he adds.

Once on board the vessel the two loco-motives will be securely lashed in place, in accordance with IMO regulations. Despite the size and weight, the lashing points are similar to other High & Heavy cargoes carried by WWL on a regular basis.

Working on the solution were WWL teams in Bremerhaven, the in-house stevedore Atlantik Hafen Betriebe and, of course, at the discharge port in Brisbane. As Lagerlöf says: “If we are putting anything on a ship in Europe, we also have to make sure they can get it off at the other end”.

THE NEW CONTRACT to ship the locomo-tives is an important extension of WWL’s long standing relationship with Siemens, a valued customer. WWL regularly transports hi-tech Siemens equipment, such a railcars and generators, around the globe and is often the carrier of first choice.

Abu Nasser, Manager Sales & Marketing, WWL Europe, says the close working relation-ship with Siemens is built on mutual trust and WWL’s ability to offer solutions to complex shipping tasks.

“We have invested a lot of time, knowledge and equipment into this type of operation, working with the operation teams and the sales office on both sides of the world,” he explains.

“I believe we won this contract because we were able to give them a solution that could handle the task and because they know our capabilities as a global carrier. Working to-gether like this will strengthen our relationship for future projects.”

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siemens chose wwl to come up with a tailor-made and cost-efficient solution to ship 45 such engines from germany to Australia.

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