Can A Road Going Vehicle Run On Rails? Yes! Says Mercedes-Benz Unimog

The Mercedes-Benz Unimog is a multi-purpose vehicle designed to perform all kinds of jobs, which is used all over the globe Now, Mercedes-Benz reveals the new version of Unimog which can be driven on rails, at the InnoTrans rail transport exhibition in Germany.

Mercedes has already produced railroad driven Unimogs before. But this new model, U 423 revealed in Germany comes with new updates. The new Unimog can now be shipped to China and Russia. It has got the most important safety feature, a fire detection and extinguisher system. Hence it can be safely used in rail tunnels.

The Unimog gets retractable hydraulic bogies, which is used to guide bogies on rail tracks. According to Mercedes, the Unimog operator has to just drive into a railway crossing and can drop down the gear and can start driving on the rail tracks, if needed. The purpose of this design is to use this vehicle in different fields, such as, maintaining and inspecting and to even haul rail vehicles.

The Unimog runs on 5.1 liter, 4 cylinder, turbodiesel which gives an output of 231bhp and 664 pound-feet torque. It can reach a top speed of 50km/h. Mercedes claim the Unimog can pull or push a massive 1000 tons of rail vehicles, because of its rubber tyres, which provide extra grip compared to the metal wheels.

Unimog is an perfect offering from Mercedes-Benz for a wide variety of application around the world.