Comprehensive timber logistics
SETG investing in wood-chip boxes. There would appear to be plenty of innovation left in SETG, which recently commissioned the first of a total of 180 brand-new stake wagons called ‘Sflexwood’ (see page 22 of ITJ 1-4 / 2023). Christoph Böhm, the project manager of the rail logistics company from Salzburg (Austria), provided some details of new services for customers in the woodworking industry.
Shortly after SETG put the first of the 180 brand-new ‘Sflexwood’ stake wagons into operation, the rail logistics company from Salzburg (Austria) is again making people sit up and take notice with a new investment offensive. SETG now offers its customers from the woodworking industry traction and wagons, and innovative wood-chip boxes and handling technology.
One block train replaces 80 trucks
Each box offers clients a volume of 43 m³. An 80 ft wagon can accommodate four of the 20 ft boxes. Typical train lengths consist of 20 wagons, for example, so more than approximately 3,400 m³ of wood can be loaded per train.
In addition, the SETG can also provide the corresponding four-axle 80 ft wagons, which are conspicuous by their very low noise levels. The trains are pulled through Central and Eastern Europe by SETG’s well-known green locomotives – without having to change them at borders, for example between Germany and Czechia, or Romania and Austria. A SETG wood-chip blocktrain replaces no less than 80 full and empty truck runs.
Wood-chip transports are carried out over short as well as over longer distances, that is to say over approximately 100 to 800 km. The SETG has various types of locomotives available for these requirements, including mainline diesel locomotives, high-performance electric engines as well as special dual-power units with electric as well as diesel drives.
SETG achieves the vertical integration of wood-chip transports by providing unloaders such as forklifts with rotary equipment. Another service that the railway enterprise Salzburger Eisenbahn Transportlogistik (SETG) provides enables users to clean their loading equipment. Its ‘S-Clean’ has a special suction unit and thus cleans loading ramps of wood residues and other materials.
Investment, development, construction
SETG authorised signatory and project manager Christoph Böhm pointed out that “last year we took up our customers’ request to offer boxes and unloading technology in addition to traction and wagons, and made this short-term investment decision. Thanks to a short development and construction period the first set (80 boxes and 20 wagons) was delivered at the beginning of February and is already in regular use today.”