The first Christ train wash systems 

for Go-Ahead in Germany

Recently the first Christ train wash system was put into operation for Go-Ahead Germany.

Go-Ahead Verkehrsgesellschaft Deutschland GmbH is a railway undertaking belonging to the Go-Ahead Group with headquarters in Berlin and was founded in January 2014. 
The trains are maintained in a new depot at Essingen train station (near Aalen, Germany). 

Go-Ahead Baden-Württemberg has been operating rail transport on parts of the Stuttgart network since June 2019. This is the first time the trains are running on German rails. 
The parent group, Go-Ahead plc. in the UK, is responsible for and operates 5,500 train connections on over 2,200 kilometres of rail network and transports 30 per cent of UK rail passengers.

Christ train wash system in tandem design

After finishing a 120 m long wash hall, the installation of the new train wash system for the maintenance base of Go-Ahead at the Essingen site began. For fast cleaning of the trains, which can be up to 110 m long, a wash system in tandem design was used, where 2 wash portals simultaneously clean the train. The wash time of the purely fully automatic system is just under half an hour for a 110 m long train.
Each portal consists of two pairs of lateral brushes and a split OPTI 3D brush, which is generally used for difficult contours in the front and rear areas in order to achieve an optimum wash result. The trains themselves do not run in self-traction but are pushed or pulled through by a two-way shunting device. In addition, there is a biological water preparation unit and user-friendliness through intuitive operation elements.

Thank you to Go-Ahead for an excellent partnership and we look forward to working on many more interesting projects together.

Mirco Völkl
Sales manager for commercial vehicle wash systems & special wash units