Departmental vehicles, also called departmental wagons or engineering vehicles, are special
railway vehicles used to support the engineering functions of the
railway.
[Ellis, Iain (2006). ''Ellis' British Railway Engineering Encyclopaedia''. Lulu, p. 93. .] Thus they serve the internal purposes of the railway company and are not used for general passenger or goods traffic. They are typically used to maintain railway facilities, not least the
overhead catenary.
Typical departmental vehicles include:
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Drum carrier
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over ...
s
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Engineering vehicles
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Hopper wagons
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Mess coach
The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the ...
es
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Opens
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Side rail loader
Side or Sides may refer to:
Geometry
* Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape)
* Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape)
Places
* Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, Greece
* Side (Caria), a town of ...
s
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Tool van
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
s
Railway vehicles
Railway departmental vehicles are hauled by
departmental locomotives
''Departmental'' is a 1980 Australian TV movie based on a play by Mervyn Rutherford. It was part of the ABC's Australian Theatre Festival.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p43 Reviews were poo ...
and are usually
railway wagon
A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
s used for the transport of works material for the maintenance of railway facilities or wagons used for other internal purposes that have been converted or specially built. They usually travel in special
work trains, frequently at low speeds. Only by exception, and under special measures, do they form part of standard
goods trains.
Commonly used as departmental vehicles are those wagons or coaches that, on account of their age and design, are no longer suited to or permitted to be used in normal service. Sometimes they are converted for specific roles. Certain departmental vehicles are built for a specific purpose e.g. the transport of
ballast or as construction machines.
In the UK, many departmental vehicles used by
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
(and later
Network Rail) were named after
aquatic creatures (such as Shark, Seacow or Mermaid). These names started life as Telegraphic codes.
Weißeritztal railway
The Weißeritz Valley Railway (german: Weißeritztalbahn) is a steam operated narrow gauge railway in Saxony, Germany. The line connects Freital, near Dresden, with the spa of Kipsdorf in the Ore Mountains, and follows the valley of the Red We ...
Railcars that have been taken out of regular service are often assigned as railway inspection vehicles, used to inspect trackage or transport construction workers. The
Hamburg Port Railway has a museum version of such a vehicle.
Trams and trolleybuses
Tramway systems also have departmental vehicles, however they sometimes operate under different rules. For example, in Germany, whilst they are considered secondary vehicles by the railways, they are considered regular vehicles by the tramways and trolleybuses and have to be operated under the normal regulations that govern the construction and operation of tramways.
File:Arbeitswagen CVAG.jpg, Departmental tramway vehicle with the Chemnitz Transport Company
File:Schienenschleifzug 2003 Zentralwerkstatt 07061997.JPG, Railgrinder on the Frankfurt am Main Tramway
File:Ab trolleybus 01.jpg, An Obus departmental vehicle of Type KTG-1 in Ukrainian Donetsk
See also
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Work train
References
Further reading
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Maintenance of way equipment
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