August 15 - Netherlands headquartered Van der Vlist is regularly contracted to transport tram carriages across Europe and around the world. Recently, it was charged with the transportation of two Budapest trams, which were last used in 1981.
Following their retirement, the two carriages ended up in the West Yorkshire Transport Museum in Bradford, UK. Following a short stay in Frosterly in the North East of England, Mavite, the Hungarian historical railway association, purchased the two carriages with the intention of moving them back to Budapest.
Each train measured 10.14 m long, 2.3 m wide and 3.28 m high and weighed 11.25 tonnes. Mavite approached Van der Vlist to help complete the 2,000 km transportation project.
The modern trams that Van der Vlist is accustomed to moving require long modular trailers with specialist rails for unloading and offloading. The Budapest trams were much shorter than their modern equivalents, but Van der Vlist's specialist equipment was more than capable of handling the older units.
The trams were loaded in Frosterly using Van der Vlist's tram rails onto flat trailers with tram tracks built in. The two carriages were taken to Hull port where they were shipped to Rotterdam, the Netherlands for on forwarding to Budapest.
The project was a complete success and Mavite now plans to restore the two tram carriages to their original condition.
