Turkish cities have an increasing interest in trams nowadays. Thus, transportation of trams has become an important subject in logistics.

Most of the trams coming from abroad had come by sea, even a few by plane.. All needed to be transported by truck for final delivery.

Despite a few trials, carrying trams by rail is not very popular in Turkey. But it’s possible.. Safer.. Easier.. And depending on the route, most of the time cheaper..

Unlike light rail vehicles used in urban transport (Marmaray, Izban, Airport-Yenikapi), wheel sets of trams have different than the normal rail cars which means they cannot be transported by simply on rail pulled by a loco. But railway still has a couple of solutions for trams:

Laads (TWA 800B)

These wagons are double-unit, 4ax, low floor (800mm) flat wagons generally used for transportation of high vehicles. It has a curved body with higher floor at both end. Trams are generally loaded on to wagons using wooden chocks. Wagon is 27 mt long and has a loading capacity of 47 to. Trams must be loaded by cranes. There is a longer but higher version, Laadkks (TWA850) with a floor height of 850mm and loading length of 29,74m. Click for technical spects of this wagon.

Smrrs 720

These are very special wagons built for trams transports. These are low-floor-wagons with double unit. Each unit has 8ax (so wagon is 16ax). Wagon is equipped with fixed rails, having track width of both 1435mm and 1000mm. Loading can be done through a ramp from the ends. Upto 36mt long trams can be loaded onto this wagon. Smrrs 720 is using special bogie called bogie-type 690 whics is presented by Talbot for RoLa wagons to enable trucks and trailers going directly on the wagon. The height of floor is even lower, 450mm. Click for technical spects of this wagon.

SL

This is a private wagon owned by STSI -subsidary of SNCF Geodis- specially designed for tram transport (see picture above). SL wagons can be grouped with 2 end wagons and intermediate wagons as much as needed. That enables transportation of longer trams. Wagon has a low floor of 890mm which enables transportation of trams with 3450mm height. Wagons are equipped by rail, and can be loaded using a ramp from rail or truck.