Volvo FMX heavy duty truck transports a train engine [Video]

Driving heavy vehicles is way more harder than driving a normal four wheeler. In trucks or other heavy vehicles, there are many more categories. Depending on the category under which they fall, the items they carry would also differ. There are normal trucks that we usually spot on our roads carrying commodities from one point to the other. Apart from these normal trucks, there are special trucks which are used to transport special equipment. Most of the time, these trucks carry extremely large items which you don’t see on the road regularly. Here we have one such video where a heavy duty truck is seen transporting a railway locomotive by road.

The video has been uploaded by PKS LOCOMOTIVE on their YouTube channel. According to the video, the locomotive seen here in the video belongs to NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation). The locomotive or the railway engine is actually loaded on a trailer and the trailer is being pulled by heavy duty truck from Volvo. The truck seen here is a Volvo FMX series truck and it is built to carry such heavy items. These trucks have been spotted on the road several times with extremely large cargo. Recently we posted an article where a Volvo FMX 520 heavy duty truck was transporting a transformer from Hyderabad to Agra by road.

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Transporting such heavy items like the locomotive requires expertise. Unlike normal trucks and trailers, the driver of the truck cannot driver at high speed as it would damage the cargo or even lose control over the vehicle. The video is recorded from Odisha and the locomotive is being transported to NTPC Darlipali. The locomotive is so long that even the trailer on which it is being transported is not able to accommodate it completely. The trailer on which it is being transported is different from the normal ones. The wheels can be turned left or right using controls to ensure that the turning radius of the trailer and truck decreases. It also helps them to squeeze the trailer into tight spaces without much difficulties.

The Volvo truck can be seen climbing up a slope. The Volvo FMX series trucks are meant to do such activities and the truck does not seem to struggle. If the gradient was too steep, then one more truck would be attached in the front and both them would jointly pull the trailer up. In this case however, assistance from another truck was not required and the truck can be seen delivering the locomotive to the site. Why would NTPC transport a locomotive to their site by road rather than using the rail network.

There are several reasons behind it. The locomotive seen here in the video does not belong to Indian Railways. It is a property of NTPC which they use to transport coal and other items within their site. Transporting a locomotive to their site via railroad is way more expensive as Indian Railways might not allow them to actually use the track. NTPC will have to load the locomotive on a trailer which is owned by Indian Railways and they would deliver it to a nearest station. From there they would have to transport it to their site. The cost involved in this whole process is much more than one can imagine and that is why the locomotive was transported via road even though it takes more time.

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