Aveng Rail has invested in a 20 T Hyundai wheeled excavator from HPE Africa, to be used during construction of approximately 60 km of rail track near the coal-fired Majuba Power Station in Mpumalanga.

The company will lay sleepers using a rubber wheeled excavator. “This is a very exciting development for South Africa’s railways sector,” says Alex Ackron, managing director, HPE Africa.

While a traditional gantry system and manual labour would lift and position approximately 200 rail sleepers per day, the excavator is anticipated to place 1 000 sleepers in an eight-hour shift.

“This methodology enables long welded rail of 240m lengths to be offloaded from a rail train, directly onto the sleepers, advancing laid track at a rapid rate,” explains Ackron.

The new section of rail track forms part of a two-year construction project meant to improve the efficiency of coal transportation to the power plant. The additional railroad will replace current transport of coal by road to the plant and will also serve as an alternate route of the coal export line. Majuba is currently Eskom’s only plant operating a train tippler system.

The excavator has been fitted with a tilt rotor attachment and its modified Octopus grapple enables it to handle 2m wide sleepers. Buckets, grader blades, ploughs, a hydraulic brush box, a vacuum system, forks and a rail clamp, can be attached to the rotator’s excavator. Additional hydraulic valves operated from the driver chair allow the operator to manipulate the hydraulic functions of the attachments as required.