RR9/200 Rail/Road Spider

Platform Basket has launched a new 9m tracked RR9/200 Rail / Spider MEWP for the railway maintenance sector.

The RR9/200 rail spiderlift MEWP features a sturdy, yet lightweight and compact single short riser. It has a fixed-length boom and a short articulated jib with an end mounted platform. It offers a working height of 9 metres, an outreach of up to 4.7 metres with an up & over height of just over four metres and an unrestricted 200kg platform capacity.

The superstructure also includes automatic levelling allowing it to level up on rail inclines or banked tracks of up to 180mm/eight degrees. It can also be used as a regular self-propelled boom lift, but with a slightly reduced 8.5 metre working height and an outreach of 4.3 metres and can work on side slopes of up to three degrees. With the riser fully elevated the RR9/200 Spider MEWP has zero tail swing so that it can be used alongside a live second track.

The RR9/200 Rail / Spider MEWP can rotate its tracks 90 degrees to allow it to drive up on the rail lines while the superstructure remains in line with the tracks

In order to get onto the rail tracks, the rail spider lift has rubber tracks that rotate 90 degrees. This allows it to drive up on to the rail lines, before lowering its rail wheel undercarriage into place and lifting the crawler tracks free so that they can be rotated back in line. The travel speed on normal ground is only 2kph, but it has a maximum speed of 10kph on its rail wheels.

With an overall weight of just 2,900kg, the RR9/200 Rail / Spider MEWP offers a stowed length of 4.12 metres, a stowed height of 2.3 metres and an overall width of 1.6 metres. Power comes from a Kubota diesel engine, but a lithium-ion battery-powered version is also available.

Other features include radio remote controls, Platform Basket’s telediagnostics and geo-location systems, a smaller one-man basket and non-marking tracks.

The company said: “The aim of this project was to offer an extremely light and compact machine that can be transported on the back of a 3.5 tonne trailer. The RR9/200 Rail / Spider MEWP offers the possibility of having a self-propelled platform for both rail and civil aerial work and offers excellent traction on any ground conditions, together with low ground pressures to allow it to be used on the delicate floors of railway stations.”

The first units are currently undergoing the rail approval process with full production set for September 2022.