On 30 axles to the Museum of Technology

Made it! U17 has arrived safely at its destination. However, the submarine, which weighs around 350 tons, has not docked at a quay somewhere on the North Sea or Baltic Sea, nor has it reached its destination in Sinsheim by water - instead, it has completed the final leg of its last journey on a platform trailer with 30 axles, pulled by a MAN TGX 41.680. The destination of this spectacular operation is the Sinsheim Museum of Technology, where the submarine, which was decommissioned by the German Navy in 2010, will soon become a magnet for the public.

More than a year ago, on April 2023, U17 left Kiel. Transported on a load carrier, it went through the Kiel Canal and across the North Sea towards Hoek van Holland. On the Waal and across the Rhine, the pushed convoy traveled from Dordrecht via Nijmegen to Duisburg. After another stop in Cologne, U17 passed through Bonn and Mainz before arriving at the port of Speyer in May 2023. From there, it was transported by road to the Technikmuseum Speyer.

On June 30, the submarine set off again, first by road from the Speyer Museum of Technology to the Rhine. There, U17 was loaded onto a river pontoon to be transported first via the Rhine to Mannheim and then via the Neckar to Haßmersheim until July 9. Then it was back on the road and through northern Baden-Württemberg to its destination in Sinsheim.

Frieder Saam is one of them. He was at the wheel of the MAN TGX 41.680 8x6 and chauffeured U17 towards Sinsheim. “I've been driving heavy goods vehicles for many years,” he says. "And it's still always something special, because no two jobs are the same. It also makes me proud to be able to drive such large transports." The preparations for a heavy transport start long before the freight sets off for the first time: Possible routes are explored, arrangements are made with the authorities and police. Every tour is tailor-made. In the case of the U17 transport, planning began a good five years ago and several people at Kübler were involved - including driver Saam from the very beginning.