{"id":152265,"date":"2024-11-27T10:04:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T00:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/?p=118022"},"modified":"2024-11-27T10:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T00:04:17","slug":"raising-the-nations-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=152265","title":{"rendered":"Raising the nation\u2019s rail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Harrybilt Octopus sleeper layer attachment. Image: Harrybilt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Customer service has remained a top priority for<\/a> Harrybilt over the years, holding long-standing relationships with rail companies like DT Infrastructure<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Renowned for its innovative designs and equipment, family-owned Harrybilt Engineering continues to build on its reputation of providing highly specialised solutions to local and national rail customers, all built in its factory in Ballarat in Victoria.<\/p>\n

For almost 40 years, Harrybilt Engineering has provided customers with innovative designs and equipment needed to perform maintenance across Australia\u2019s rail networks.<\/p>\n

The business has remained on a steady growth journey since its origins, and along for the ride has been customer DT Infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Furness, national plant manager DT Infrastructure (DTI) said DTI\u2019s long-standing relationship with Harrybilt has stood the test of time.<\/p>\n

Furness said the relationship, dating back 30 years, has witnessed the changing and growing industry, to which Harrybilt has adapted and thrived in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe witnessed them during a transition period between owners and shifts in the rail industry\u201d he said. \u201cIn recent years the rail industry has shifted from contracts being mostly government based to most companies now subcontracting. This change came with new demands from contractors needing machinery on shorter\u00a0notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furness said other changes included different certifications and requirements that are now mandatory for the rail industry that did not exist in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more regulated than it used to be, and they adapted well to the current certification processes, registrations, compliances and standards that came into play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 1985, the Harrybilt team has developed significant experience in the rail industry, priding itself on having the ability to design and develop equipment to suit specific customer needs.<\/p>\n

Furness called it an \u201cunderstanding\u201d of each other\u2019s business operations, keeping DTI\u2019s projects on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey adapt and make things happen for us when we need them to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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DT Infrastructure H20 S Series Rail Machine with rail maintenance attachments. Image: Harrybilt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSometimes being a contractor in the industry things need to happen on very short notice, and every time they have been fairly adaptable in making those deadlines and meeting our needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furness said there has never been a request from DTI, to keep operations running smoothy,\u00a0 <\/span>that was unexpected to Harrybilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, sometimes we have one month to get a tender in order once it has been won, and Harrybilt accommodate well, despite being busy and having their own bank of orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a national leading provider of rail infrastructure and maintenance across passenger, freight, mining, and light rail networks, DTI requires machines of varying size and use.<\/p>\n

Currently, DTI has six Harrybilt excavators in its fleet, ranging from the seven and a half tonne up to the 17 tonne Hi Rail machines, with two more on order.<\/p>\n

Furness said DTI uses specific rail Harrybilt attachments including Octopus, Platypus, forks and undercutter attachments, lift and layout sweepers, threaders and tamping heads combined with the Hitachi Harrybilt combination excavators in various sizes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger machines are typically used on larger, heavy haul rail networks where DTI is not restricted by rolling stock outlines and clearances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously we have been restricted with a narrow gauge option when working\u00a0on\u00a0a\u00a0rail\u00a0network with restricted with\u00a0workspace.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that reason, the 14 tonne machines are a good, general all purpose machine for most of our projects, so we predominantly aim to have that 14-tonne machine on hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

National works<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Furness said recent DTI projects have involved upgrade works along varying rail networks around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our 14-tonne machines are located in South Australia and the Northern Territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just finished one project in Port Augusta and another one where we successfully re-sleepered a site in Tenant Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have works out west in the Pilbara and in Perth in Western Australia, and of course down south in Victoria and Tasmania where we are using the seven and a half tonners for re-ballasting tracks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After years of working together on numerous projects, Furness said Harrybilt has continuously proven its reliability and position as a \u201cone stop shop\u201d for DTI\u2019s needs. \u201cThey will also organise all the network registrations\u00a0which are needed for different rail\u00a0networks throughout the country,\u201d said\u00a0Furness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the machines are delivered, they are ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarrybilt is supplying a very good product these days, they\u2019re very innovative, they\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Raising the nation\u2019s rail<\/a> appeared first on Rail Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Harrybilt Octopus sleeper layer attachment. Image: Harrybilt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Customer service has remained a top priority for Harrybilt over the years, holding long-standing relationships with rail companies like DT \u2026 <\/p>\n

The post Raising the nation\u2019s rail<\/a> appeared first on Rail Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,11337,163],"tags":[10376],"class_list":["post-152265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plant-and-equipment","category-plant-machinery-equipment","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-rail-express"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152266,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152265\/revisions\/152266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}