Ermewa Safety ++ LPG Wagon

In December 2020, first of the Ermewa Safety ++ wagons left the Chemet factory. As described in the interview to Mr. Cyrille Guyon, Regional General Manager Eastern Europe of Ermewa SA, the latter has been working in recent years to develop a new LPG wagon with an optimised design, which has been motivated by increased safety requirements.

Not only does it meet the latest provisions of European legislation (according to the technical pillar of the 4th railway package) and the RID regulations in the 2019 edition, but it also exceeds the requirements of these standards.

The result of two years of development is a Class Zags tank wagon with 18,100 mm length over buffers and 117 m³ tank. It is fitted with typical crash buffers designed to absorb energy up to 400 kJ supplied by EST Eisenbahn-Systemtechnik, but instead of the anti-climbing devices, Ermewa opted for shields, as these are more effective in case of accidents.

Tank shell's bottom is reinforced, to increase safety in case when a wagon tips on its side and keeps moving. The 25 t axle-load wheelsets are used, although the wagon is designed for 22.5 t axle-weight. Variety of telematic devices can be installed, depending on customer’s choice. The safety measures resulted in weight increases, which had to be compensated elsewhere, hence the brake is of Knorr-Bremse's CFCB type and wagon has no middle beam. The wagon has 33 t tare, and thus the highest payload of up to 57 t.