Windhoff Multi Purpose Vehicles

The Multiple-purpose Vehicle or MPV is a purpose-built departmental derivative of a diesel multiple unit. Twenty-five two-car units were ordered by Railtrack to enable it to replace its motley collection of ageing departmental vehicles, many of which were converted from redundant passenger stock.

The vehicles were built in Germany by Windhoff. The design is based on the Windhoff "Cargo Sprinter" units that are operated by Deutsche Bahn (Germany) and CRT Group (Australia). When first built there were problems with the vehicles being 'out of gauge' when running empty.

The concept of the design is that each vehicle has a driving cab and an under floor engine/transmission with Multiple unit (MU) control. The majority of each vehicle is a flat load bed that can carry combinations of 10 ft. and 20 ft. modules that are secured using the locking system for ISO standard containers. Modules can be changed as required to suit current requirements.

The use of standard container mountings quickly led to suggestions that "Freight Multiple Units" could be introduced. In 2005 the MPV units were used for freight trials by coupling standard freight wagons between the pairs of units. Temporary MU control cables run along the wagons to connect the two MPVs which are acting as locomotives working 'Push-Pull' style as they only carry water tanks for ballast and no pay-load.

Freight trials through 2005 were used to transport timber from Aberystwyth and indications are that they were successful enough to lead to dedicated Freight Multiple Units being built.

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