Part of Alstom’s refurbishment involves replacement of special filter inductor mounts on the trains, which represents particular challenges for engineers.

Marie Lacey, Wilmat’s sales manager explains: “We carried out a site survey at Alstom with a view to developing a solution that could solve the problem.”

Based on Wilmat’s ‘Diamond’ design, the resulting trucks have a reduced height, shortened chassis and long forks to enable the inductors to be lifted safely from their mounts without fouling the train car. This helps enable Alstom engineers to meet their target of replacing all the filter inductors on the 11 coach trains within a one-week schedule that includes routine service checks as well as the filter refurbishment.

Alstom’s Chris Higgins who worked with Wilmat on the solution, added: “Wilmat came to check out the site and application and were able to provide us with a specifically designed solution.

“We were extremely pleased that Wilmat were flexible enough to produce exactly what we needed.”