Birmingham-based Wilmat (www.wilmat-handling.co.uk) has supplied seven bespoke fork-lift trucks to the Alstom Traincare Centre (ATC) in Manchester for use in refurbishing a fleet of 56 tilting Pendolinos that are operated by Virgin Trains on the West Coast Main Line.

One part of Alstom’s refurbishment programme involves replacing the inductor filter mounts on the trains. Marie Lacey, Wilmat’s sales manager, said: “Lifting these inductors from their casings is not straightforward, as working space is limited and conventional fork-lift trucks are unable to access them or provide the reach required. As Wilmat specialises in developing bespoke lifting solutions, we carried out a site survey with a view to developing a solution to the problem.”

Based on the company’s successful ‘Diamond’ design, the resulting trucks have a shortened chassis and long forks so that the inductors can be lifted safely from their mounts. This helps Alstom engineers to meet their target of replacing all the filter inductors on an 11-coach train within a week.