Roll-block

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Standard gauge freight cars on rollbock, 750 mm gauge

Verladener Güterwagen

Rollbock track 750mm gauge

Güterwagen beim Aufbocken über der Rollbockgrube

The roll-block system allows a coupled train of standard gauge wagons to be automatically loaded or rolled onto pre-coupled narrow gauge transporter wagons so that the train can then continue through a change of gauge. The roll-block wagons go underneath the standard gauge tracks and as the roll-block train is pulled out of the roll-block siding each transporter picks up a standard gauge wagon as it (the Roll-block ?) rises out of the roll-block pit.

This is still in use at Nordhausen on the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen railway to transport limestone wagons from the narrow gauge to the DB system.

Until the 1990s the roll-block sidings at Wernigerode were used every day to transport goods to and from the various metallurgical factories attached to the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen in the immediate area. Similarly it was used extensively on the Saxon narrow gauge system west of Dresden to transport china clay to Meissen.

However, it means that the narrower gauge network must be built to a loading gauge large enough to accommodate a wider gauge equipment, negating one of the cost advantages of a narrower gauge construction.