The range of Trackmobile and Zephir railcar movers took centre stage at the AusRAIL PLUS stand of leading material handler group Adaptalift.
The company was recently appointed as the distributor of the products into the freight segment of the Australian rail market.
And present at the AusRAIL display to discuss the usefulness of the units was David McMonagle, the North American sales manager for Trackmobile.
“We’re the leading manufacturer of bi-modal railcar movers, globally. Our focus is on setting the standard for railcar movement equipment that is efficient, cost-effective, safe, and easy to operate,” he said.
“While highly customisable for unique customer applications, Trackmobiles provide the best value with the lowest operational lifetime cost in the industry.
“Zephir focuses on the electric version of the railcar movers. So those are our two product lines that we offer in Australia, which handle rail car shunting.
“We’ve got customers in various port facilities, any type of rail yard, metros and transits, as well as a large presence in the mining industry.
“With both product lines, they’re going to have their individual use cases for the customers. But most of them are going to find that they’re much safer or easier to use, to move their move their rail car or their wagons around on their sites.”
McMonagle said Adaptalift had been a great asset, supporting the markets in Australia with products, stocking, inventory and making the movers available for customers to see.
He said Trackmobile and Zephir had “been in Australia for many decades”, but had various different distributors.
“We partnered with Adaptalift due to its individual market expertise and proximity to the customers to make sure they have the relationships to support the equipment after it’s sold and can maintain it for a long life,” he said.
McMonagle said the models were being improved all the time.
“The newer versions are going to provide a lot more technology for safety in addition to control over the the actual asset,” he said.
“On the Trackmobile side of things, we’ve got the brand new Atlas model and we’re just about to deliver the first one. It’s bigger than the largest automobile that’s been around for four years now, which was already the biggest by about 30 per cent over the next smaller one.
“We’re also getting ready later this year to introduce a new smaller model that’s more suited to easier for rail shops, especially when you get into moving locomotives to the platforms: it’s more flexible, more nimble but also lower cost for operators.
“And on the Zephyr side, they’ve been doing battery electric since 1991. These are full battery operated, and with the push to go green and decarbonised in Australia, we’re seeing a lot of attention paid to them.
“Zephirs have a lot to offer because they have so much experience and longevity behind them.
“They are based on the electrics … that a lot of other companies are just now learning about and overcoming, which Zephir has long since figured out.
“So they’re very reliable, products are very easy to operate and then very customisable to the individual users’ operation.”
McMonagle said some of the companies using the movers included Rio Tinto, BHP, FMG. Sydney Trains, Alstom, and Martinus.