The Unimog U423 for the rails, probably the only cool vehicle from the Mercedes-Benz stable. Unlike its passenger vehicles and SUVs, the Unimog is not designed to impress people. Rather, it is designed to do the job that is promoted for which it is designed . As you can understand from my words, I am not a fan of the G-Wagon anymore and of the rest of the Mercedes-Benz SUV range. However, Mercedes-Benz trucks and heavy duty vehicles are my favourites. They are built to do their job until they are due to come out of service.
Recently, Mercedes-Benz announced a new version of the Unimog designed for the rail network. Usually, Unimogs are used on rail tracks involving a special system. You would probably see them in many places around the Europe. However, those Unimogs were not designed for rail transport, they were adapted to the rails!
This time, Mercedes-Benz has created a Unimog that is capable of towing 1000-tonnes of wagons, powered by a 5.1-lt four-cylinder diesel engine with 900 nm of torque. Probably you will be saying ‘Oh my Range Rover has more power than a Unimog’. However, heavy duty engines are designed to work under heavy workloads and at low RPMs. The amount of torque from this engine at the idle can be more than your peak torque! The top speed of this Unimog on the rails is 50 km/h. It also features a braking system for the wagons.
The traction is applied to the rails by conventional rubber tyres and designed to be used on various rail gauges.
If you are still thinking your SUV is cool, you haven’t seen this vehicle yet!
Photo Credits | Mercedes-Benz