The bogies come from a historic vehicle
mycon supplies, among other things, cleaning systems and for several national and international railway companies in Europe and also in Asia. The main focus here is on the cleaning of air conditioning systems and oil coolers as well as decoating work on surfaces. Kipp Umwelttechnik provides services in these areas.
Now a very special railway came to mycon: The Wuppertal suspension railway.
The suspension railway in regular operation
In 1895, “Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft” founded “Continentale Gesellschaft für elektrische Unternehmungen” for the construction of the suspension railway. The construction of the suspension railway was then started in the summer of 1898. The official opening of the first section of the line took place on 01. March 1901 – an unbelievable achievement considering the construction time of today’s major projects. With a total length of 13.3 km, the Wuppertal suspension railway is unique in the world.
At that time construction of the suspension railway attracted great national and international attention. On 24 October1900, Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Viktoria honoured the Wuppertal suspension railway with their visit and “hovered” a section with the spectacular new traffic technology. The suspension railway has remained impressive to this day for visitors from home and abroad.
The “Kaiserwagen“ (also known as Emperor’s car)
Today, the suspension railway with over 24 million passengers (2017) is also an important means of transport for Wuppertal.
The Wuppertal suspension railway contacted mycon primarily for the supply of machines for the cleaning and paint stripping of bogies as well as for the uncovering of welding seams for safety checks. These tasks are part mycon’s everyday business.
The cleaning and decoating work was initially carried out in the workshops of the Wuppertal suspension railway under the supervision of TÜV Süd by the suspension railway employees. mycon engineer was available for consultation. For the renovation of the “Kaiserwagen” – in this train, Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Viktoria had undertaken their journey with the suspension railway – the bogies with which the train runs on the track also had to be renovated and tested for safety.
These large bogies were transported to Bielefeld by truck. The partial decoating of the bogies was carried out in the blasting hall of Kipp Umwelttechnik. mycon and Kipp Umwelttechnik have already gathered some experience here before. mycon also offers automated cleaning systems for the cleaning and decoating of today’s bogies, which can be installed directly at the customer’s premises.
Transporting a bogie into the blasting hall
Cleaning of a bogie in the blasting hall
The decisive factor for the work was that the surface of the riveted metal parts were not attacked in any way during the decoating of the tough and hard paint layers, especially not the rivet heads. The work was successfully carried out using the gentle PowerMaster process.
Riveted surface after decoating
For mycon and Kipp Umwelttechnik, the work was something very special. In 1900, the train with Emperor Wilhelm II “hang” on these bogies, we had never had so much history before. Kaiserwagen is to be available for celebrations from the middle of 2020. One could hardly wish for a better “celebration atmosphere”.
We wish the Wuppertal suspension railway a good journey at all times!
Images: mycon GmbH
