KKE 901 train wash
Train Wash Systems, Built Station by Station
The KKE 901 is a drive-through train washing plant. The train runs through a line of wash stations at about 3 km/h and leaves washed and rinsed — and dried, if the line has blowers. Each station is its own unit, so the line is built for your trains, your track and your overhead line, and a single station can be added to a train wash you already run.
The stations
The Stations a KKE 901 Line Is Built From
Each wash station has its own pump and valve in the pump room, and the whole line runs from one control system. You choose the stations your trains need; the wash sets their order along the track.
Pre-Wetting Station
Water over the whole train first, so grit is lifted before a brush touches the body.
Detergent Station
Lays detergent on from its own dosing pump. We leave a reaction gap after it, so the chemistry works before the brushes start.
Detergent Station With Brushes
Detergent and two vertical brushes in one station: heavy-duty train brushes that retract pneumatically, switched by sensor posts that see the train.
Brush Station
Two vertical side brushes. Where there is no overhead line, a third brush cleans the roof, counterbalanced and retracting.
Eaves Brushes
A counterbalanced, retracting pair that fits to a brush station and cleans the curve where the side meets the roof.
High-Pressure Station
Oscillating stainless-steel nozzles at 40 bar from six high-pressure pumps, or a 15 bar medium-pressure station for lighter soil.
Rinse Station
Clean water at 2 bar carries the soil and the detergent off. In a recycling line, this is the station that uses fresh water.
Front Cleaning Trolley
A trolley on rails with two brushes cleans the cab end while the train stands at a marked stop. One trolley, in the middle of the line, cleans both ends.
Drying Station
Eight 7.5 hp blowers, 60 hp in all, take the water off at the exit.
LED Signals
READY, STOP and GO lights tell the driver when to enter, when to hold and when to move on.
Control System
A PLC panel with switchgear, an operator panel and an emergency stop. The remote-monitoring version adds a touch-screen HMI on your network.
One pass
What Happens as a Train Runs Through
Sensor posts along the line see the train reach each station, start it, and stop it once the train has passed. A full line runs:
Enter on READY
The driver brings the train in at dead-slow speed, about 3 km/h, on the LED signal.
Wet, Then Detergent
Pre-wetting, then detergent, then a stretch of track with nothing on it while the chemistry works.
Brushes and High Pressure
Side, roof and eaves brushes scrub; the high-pressure station reaches what a brush does not.
Rinse and Dry
A clean-water rinse, then the blowers, if the line has them.
Cab Ends, If Specified
With a front cleaning trolley, the train holds on STOP for each cab end and moves on at GO.
Arch or columns
The Overhead Line Decides the Build
Every station comes in two forms. With top support it is an arch across the track. Without, it stands as columns on both sides and nothing crosses the track — the only way to build under an overhead contact line.
Columns rule out the roof brush, and the blowers then work from the sides. On a track with no overhead power, an arch carries the roof brush and blows down onto the roof as well.
Direction
One Direction or Both
A depot where trains always come in at the same end needs every station once. Where they arrive from either end, we double only what has to face the train:
- At each end: a detergent station, a detergent station with brushes, a rinse station and the LED signals.
- Once, in the middle: the brush, eaves and high-pressure stations, which work in either direction.
- On the way out: the detergent stations at the exit end stay off, with their brushes retracted.
- The front cleaning trolley sits in the centre. The train stops before it for one cab end and after it for the other, whichever way it came in.
Sizing
What Sizes a Train Wash Line
We ask for these before we draw a line, because they decide its length and its stations more than the size of the fleet does.
The Train
Its length and profile, what is on the roof, whether units run coupled cab to cab, and how much of each cab end you need cleaned.
Speed and Contact Time
Detergent needs time on the body before the brushes reach it. Thirty seconds at 3 km/h is 25 m of track between the detergent station and the first brushes.
Rinse Water Against Speed
A rinse is sized on the area it must cover each minute, not on a standard pump: the faster the train and the taller its sides, the more water the rinse needs.
The Track
The whole train has to pass the last station, so the track must run on for at least a train's length beyond the line. A through track makes that easy; a dead end often does not.
Water In and Out
How much fresh water the site has, and where used water may go, decide the recycling plant.
For a train wash you already run
One Station, Added to Another Maker's Line
Each KKE 901 station can be supplied stand-alone, with its own pump, valves, starters and controls. It runs on a single 24 V DC signal from the control system of the plant you already have: your plant says when, and the station does the rest.
- Replace a worn arch on a line from another maker.
- Add what the line lacks — a high-pressure station, a second rinse, eaves brushes.
- Keep your control system: the station needs one 24 V DC output, nothing more.
Water
Water Recycling, Designed Into the Line
A train wash uses a great deal of water, and in some markets recycling is the condition for washing at all: since 2018, Israel's Environment Ministry has allowed railcar washing only in a machine that recycles its water. We design KKE 901 lines around reusing 80% of the wash water, with fresh water kept for the final rinse. The water recycling system is built from our own treatment stages:
- Oil sludge separator — oil and settled grit out first.
- Multimedia filter — the suspended solids that settling leaves behind.
- Activated carbon filter — detergent and odour.
- Resin softener — where the supply is hard.
FAQ
Train Wash Questions We Get
What is a train wash system?
A line of wash stations that a train drives through at dead-slow speed, coming out washed and rinsed, and dried if the line has blowers. The KKE 901 builds that line from separate stations, so the number and the type of stations are chosen for your trains rather than taken as a fixed machine.
Which trains can it wash?
Metro and suburban trains, light rail vehicles and trams, locomotives and passenger coaches. The stations are set to your train's profile, length and roof. Washing buses and trucks instead? Our drive-through truck wash systems build the same way, arch by arch.
How fast does a train go through the wash?
About 3 km/h. How long a pass takes then depends on the length of the line and the length of the train; a front cleaning trolley adds a stop at each cab end.
Can a train be washed under a live overhead line?
Yes. Under an overhead contact line every station is built as columns on both sides, so nothing crosses the track. There is no roof brush, and the blowers work from the sides.
Does it clean the front and rear of the train?
With a front cleaning trolley, yes. The train stops at a marked position, a trolley on rails brings two brushes across the cab end, and the LED signals tell the driver when to move on. One trolley in the middle of the line cleans both ends.
Can you add a station to a train wash from another maker?
Yes. A KKE 901 station can be supplied stand-alone, with its own pump, valves, starters and controls, and run from a single 24 V DC signal out of your existing control system — to replace a worn arch or to add one.
How much of the water is recycled?
We design the line around reusing 80% of the wash water, with fresh water used only for the final rinse. What a given site reaches depends on its soil, its water and the stations chosen, so we work it out for the depot rather than promise a figure.
What does the site need to provide?
The track, a pump room and a control room, power, water and drainage. On our standard scope, the piping and cabling between the control room, the pump room and the foot of each station are by the site.
Tell us about the depot
Send Us Your Train and Your Track
The train's length and profile, how many you wash a night, whether the track is under an overhead line, and how much track you have for the wash. We will come back with the line that fits and what the site needs.