Railway tracks require continuous maintenance including timber sleeper replacement. For over 100 years, new railway sleepers have been unloaded manually from flat top wagons. The HMA Materials Handling mechanised system not only unloads sleepers from wagons, but reduces manpower requirement and costs, as well as the incidence of accidents and injuries. At the freight yard, sleepers are loaded onto specially-designed container sized magazines, each holding up to 1000 sleepers. The magazines are mounted on standard wagons. The train then travels to the section of track requiring repair and the sleeper unloader is driven from wagon to wagon on the slowly moving train, distributing sleepers as the train travels.

The Sleeper Unloader from HMA Materials Handling has an air-conditioned, ergonomically-designed operator’s cabin. The operator has a good view of all phases of the operation, and is able to distribute sleepers accurately to either side of the track by use of a simple two-way hand controller.