Heavy-lift Specialist Carries 50-Ton Units Across Mexico Using Faymonville Platforms
By Simon West
Tradelossa has been charged with transporting up to 40 fully assembled train carriages weighing 50 tons a piece for the 1,554-kilometer Maya Train (El Tren Maya) railroad project in southern Mexico.
The Mexico-based heavy-lift specialist began delivering the carriages last November from Ciudad Sahagun in central Hidalgo state to Train Maya’s operational base in Cancún, southern Quintana Roo state. To date, the company has transported 32 carriages and expects to deliver an additional eight units by the end of May.
Prior to delivery, Tradelossa had orchestrated the shipment of the carriages from China to the Port of Manzanillo in western Colima state. The company had then hauled the units to Ciudad Sahagun where they have undergone a period of remodeling ahead of deployment.
The 994-mile route from Ciudad Sahagun to Cancún has taken seven days to complete, passing through the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatan. Four Faymonville platforms and trucks with six axle and seven axle configurations have been deployed for the project, with Tradelossa’s engineers modifying the platforms by installing four short rail structures to facilitate loading and unloading.
Government authorities, local police and the Mexican National Guard have been on hand to ensure the cargo’s safe passage. Upon arrival in Cancún, each carriage has been unloaded directly onto the railway tracks ready to begin operations.
“Covering such a distance on this route in a record time of seven days wasn’t an easy task nor an ordinary operation in the slightest,” Carlos Carcámo, asset-based sales director at Tradelossa, told Breakbulk. “Each train carriage weighed 50 tons and measured 26.3 meters in length, 3.13 meters in width and 4.48 meters in height. Once loaded onto our platforms the configuration surpassed the five-meter mark in height, which limited the areas where the convoy would be able to transit.
“Due to the tight schedule for each delivery, there wasn’t enough of a time frame to perform civil works to let the cargo cross. Our team took this into consideration during the planning phase of the project and mapped out specific points within the route that would allow our convoys to cross safely.”
Tradelossa’s involvement in the project began in January 2023 after it secured a contract to move 62,000 tons of steel rails across multiple locations in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo. In just under a year, the company had transported 44,568 rails, equivalent to 665 miles of track.
In a subsequent move, Tradelossa was assigned to deliver eight wagon shells from the Port of Manzanillo to Ciudad Sahagun. The units were transported in a single trip in a convoy of eight trucks and loaded platforms.
Construction of the multi-billion-dollar Maya Train project began in mid-2020. The Campeche-Cancún section of the network began running in late-2023 with additional sections slated for start-up this year.
Tradelossa and Faymonville will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2024 on 21-23 May at Rotterdam Ahoy.
PHOTO CREDIT: Tradelossa
