Windhoff MPV Profile and Models

Windhoff MPV

DR98959 at Kings Norton in October 2014. ©Dan Adkins

The Multiple-purpose Vehicle or MPV is a purpose-built departmental derivative of a diesel multiple unit. These two-car units were ordered by Railtrack to enable it to replace its varied collection of ageing departmental vehicles, many of which were converted from redundant passenger stock. The vehicles were built in Germany by Windhoff. The design is based on the Windhoff "CargoSprinter" units that are operated by Deutsche Bahn (Germany) and CRT Group (Australia). Normally a unit consists of one powered vehicle fitted with twin 265 kW (355 hp) Railpac diesel engines, semi-permanently coupled to an unpowered slave unit without engines. The later orders for the South East of England and for overhead line replacement are instead composed of two powered units, to give better acceleration and top speed. The concept of the design is that each vehicle has a driving cab and an under floor engine/transmission with Multiple unit (MU) control. The majority of each vehicle is a flat load bed that can carry combinations of 10-foot and 20-foot modules. 

(Information provided via Wikipedia)

Type of Vehicle

Multi-Purpose Diesel Rail Vehicle

Builder

Windhoff, Germany

Build Dates

1998 to 2001, 2012

Total Built

32 sets

Formation

1 or 2 cars

Power Output

355hp per engine
(Earlier models have 1, later have 2)

Operated By

Network Rail

Main Duties

Departmental - Maintenance & Testing

In Service Until

Present

Surviving Examples

All in service

 

OO Gauge (1:76 Scale)