Portal:Freight cars
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: goods cars or freight cars) are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types are in use to handle different types of goods, but all goods wagons in a regional network typically have standardized couplers and other fittings, such as hoses for air brakes, allowing different wagon types to be assembled into trains. For tracking and identification purposes, goods wagons are generally assigned a unique identifier, typically a UIC wagon number, or in North America, a company reporting mark plus a company specific serial number.
Selected general articles
Cart from 16th century, found in Transylvania
A minecart or mine cart (also known as a mine trolley) is a type of rolling stock found on a mine railway, used for moving ore and materials procured in the process of traditional mining. Minecarts are seldom used in modern operations, having largely been superseded in underground operations (especially coal mines) by more efficient belt conveyor systems that allow machines such as longwall shearers and continuous miners to operate at their full capacity, and above ground by large dumpers. Read more...- A cattle wagon is an everyday expression for a railway wagon designed to carry livestock, and is also called a stock car. Cattle were and are usually transported in covered or open goods wagons.
Covered goods wagon are generally used for the transportation of weather-sensitive loads. Wagons with special bays or stalls were only used for the transport of racing horses whilst small livestock, such as sheep, goats, poultry and rabbits were transported in livestock wagons with slatted sides and/or hutches. Originally high-sided wagons were also used to move cattle as well as horses and pigs. For the transport of military horses in goods wagons, tethering rings were fitted. The transportation of large and small animals required special fittings - air vents, means of tethering, drinking facilities and viewing ports - in order to avoid quantitative and qualitative losses. Even troops were transported in covered goods wagons. Read more...
A Washington Metro railcar, originally built for passenger service, later converted to a clearance car. Note the addition of feelers to the car.
A clearance car is a type of railroad car in maintenance of way service. Its purpose is to check the clearances around the tracks and ensure that trains conforming to the railroad's standard loading gauge or dynamic envelope will not encounter any obstruction. Additionally, by measuring the actual clearances along a route, the railroad can determine whether outsize loads can be accommodated along that route, and the largest size feasible. Read more...
Side view of a Roadrailer's regular truck showing the connection between two trailer bodies. This image shows only one fifth wheel.
In railroad terminology a Roadrailer or RoadRailer is a highway trailer, or semi-trailer, that is specially equipped for use in railroad intermodal service. Read more...
A Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway boxcar on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin
A boxcar is the North American term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large items.
Similar covered freight cars outside North America are covered goods wagons and, depending on the region, are called goods van (UK), louvre van (Australia), covered wagon (UIC and UK) or simply van (UIC and UK). Read more...
Ordinary covered wagon with central side door on the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland
A covered goods wagon or van is a railway goods wagon which is designed for the transportation of moisture-susceptible goods and therefore fully enclosed by sides and a fixed roof. They are often referred to simply as covered wagons, and this is the term used by the International Union of Railways (UIC). Since the introduction of the international classification for goods wagons by the UIC in the 1960s a distinction has been drawn between ordinary and special covered wagons. Other types of wagon, such as refrigerated vans and goods wagons with opening roofs, are closely related to covered wagons from a design point of view. Similar freight cars in North America are called boxcars.
Covered goods wagons for transporting part-load or parcel goods are almost as old as the railway itself. Because part-load goods were the most common freight in the early days of the railway, the covered van was then the most important type of goods wagon and, for example, comprised about 40% of the German railways goods fleet until the 1960s. Since then however the open wagon and flat wagon have become more common. By contrast the covered goods wagon still forms the majority of two-axled wagons in countries like Germany, because the comparatively light freight does not routinely require the use of bogie wagons. Read more...
An autorack, also known as an auto carrier (also car transporter outside the US), is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new vehicles from factories to automotive distributors, and to transport passengers' vehicles in car shuttles and motorail services, such as Amtrak's Auto Train route. Read more...- *German wagon classes: to 1921 Ve…, from 1922 V…
- UIC classification: H…e…
Whilst ordinary open or covered goods wagons were used for the transportation of cattle and other large animals, special livestock wagons were being developed for small livestock as early as the 19th century. Optimal use of the roughly 2 metre high loading volume was made by loading domestic pigs, goats and sheep on two levels. Some wagons could have intermediate floors fitted for transporting poultry. Read more...
A flatcar (US) (also flat car (US) or flat wagon (UIC)) is a piece of railroad (US) or railway (non-US) rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry extra heavy or extra large loads are mounted on a pair (or rarely, more) of bogies under each end. The deck of the car can be wood or steel, and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads. Flatcars designed for carrying machinery have sliding chain assemblies recessed in the deck.
Flatcars are used for loads that are too large or cumbersome to load in enclosed cars such as boxcars. They are also often used to transport intermodal containers (shipping containers) or trailers as part of intermodal freight transport shipping. Read more...
A 40-foot long (12.19 m) shipping container. Each of the eight corners has an essential twistlock fitting for hoisting, stacking, and securing
An intermodal container is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading their cargo. Intermodal containers are primarily used to store and transport materials and products efficiently and securely in the global containerized intermodal freight transport system, but smaller numbers are in regional use as well. These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, container van or (Conex) box, sea can or c can.
Intermodal containers exist in many types and a number of standardized sizes, but ninety percent of the global container fleet are so-called "dry freight" or "general purpose" containers, durable closed steel boxes, mostly of either twenty or forty feet (6.1 or 12.2 m) standard length. The common heights are 8 feet 6 inches (2.6 m) and 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 m) – the latter are known as High Cube or Hi-Cube containers. Read more...
Rollbocks, sometimes called transporter trailers, are pre-coupled narrow gauge transporter trucks or bogies that allow a coupled train of standard gauge wagons to be automatically loaded or rolled onto so that the train can then continue through a change of gauge.
The system uses a narrow gauge rail running in a pit that is built in the middle of a standard gauge track. It allows the Rollbock bogies to go underneath the standard gauge tracks and as the Rollbock train is pulled out of the Rollbock siding each bogie picks up one axle of a standard gauge wagon as it rises out of the Rollbock pit. Thus two Rollböcke are needed for a twin-axle wagon. They were a development of the transporter wagon (Rollwagen) designed to keep costs down by avoiding the need for a complete wagon. Read more...
An open railroad garage car (gondola) with a tipping trough, often found in mines. Known in the UK as a tippler or chaldron wagon and in the US as a mine car. Read more...
British Railways "standard" brake van
Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Australia and India for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the guard. The equivalent North American term is caboose, but a British brake van and a caboose are very different in appearance, because the former usually has only four wheels, while the latter usually has bogies.
Many British freight trains formerly had no continuous brake so the only available brakes were those on the locomotive and the brake van. Because of this shortage of brake power, the speed was restricted to 25 mph (40 km/h). The brake van was marshalled at the rear of the train so both portions of the train could be brought to a stand in the event of a coupling breaking. Read more...
A Schnabel car or Schnabel wagon is a specialized type of railroad freight car. It is designed to carry heavy and oversized loads in such a way that the load makes up part of the car. The load is suspended between the two ends of the cars by lifting arms; the lifting arms are connected to an assembly of span bolsters that distribute the weight of the load and the lifting arm over a large number of wheels.
When a Schnabel car is empty, the two lifting arms are connected and the car can usually operate at normal freight train speeds. Some Schnabel cars include hydraulic equipment that will either lift or horizontally shift the load while in transit (at very low speeds) to clear obstructions along the car's route.
As of 2012, there were 31 Schnabel cars operating in Europe, 30 in North America, 25 in Asia, and one in Australia. Read more...
Preserved Express Dairies three-axle Milk Tank Wagon at the Didcot Railway Centre, based on an SR chassis
Milk tank wagons were a common sight on railways in the United Kingdom from the early 1930s to the late 1960s. Introduced to transport raw milk from remote dairy farms to central creameries, milk trains were the last railway-based system before the mass-introduction of pasteurization and resultant industry use of road transport. Read more...- Milk cars are a specialized type of railroad car intended to transport raw milk from collection points near dairy farms to a processing creamery. Some milk cars were intended for loading with multiple cans of milk, while others were designed with a single tank for bulk loading. Milk cars were often equipped with high-speed passenger trucks, passenger-type buffer plates, and train signal and steam lines seldom found on conventional refrigerator cars. Read more...
A tamping machine or ballast tamper is a machine used to pack (or tamp) the track ballast under railway tracks to make the tracks more durable. Prior to the introduction of mechanical tampers, this task was done by manual labour with the help of beaters. As well as being faster, more accurate, more efficient and less labour-intensive, tamping machines are essential for the use of concrete sleepers since they are too heavy (usually over 250 kg (551 lb)) to be lifted by hand. Whilst also available as a plain tamper with no lifting or lining function this article will focus on the multi function machines.
Early machines only lifted the track and packed the ballast. More modern machines, sometimes known as a tamper-liner or tamping and lining machine, also correct the alignment of the rails to make them parallel and level, in order to achieve a more comfortable ride for passengers and freight and to reduce the mechanical strain applied to the rails by passing trains. This is done by finding places where the sleepers have sunk from the weight of the passing trains or frost action, causing the track to sag. The tamper lifts each sleeper and the rails up, and packs ballast underneath. When the sleeper is laid down again, the sagged rails now sit at the proper level. In cases where frost action has caused adjacent rails to rise higher, ballast tampers can raise rails above their original level to make the line level again. "Lining" rails doesn't involve ballast tamping, it merely ensures the rails are perfectly parallel and straight as possible. Combining tamping and lining into a single machine saves time and money, as only one machine needs to be run over the track to perform both functions. Read more...
A railroad crane (North America: crane car or wrecker; UK: breakdown crane) is a type of crane used on a railroad for one of three primary purposes: freight handling in goods yards, permanent way (PW) maintenance, and accident recovery work. Although the design differs according to the type of work, the basic configuration is similar in all cases: a rotating crane body is mounted on a sturdy chassis fitted with flanged wheels. The body supports the jib (UK; North America: boom) and provides all the lifting and operating mechanisms; on larger cranes, an operator's cabin is usually provided. The chassis is fitted with buffing (UK) and/or coupling gear to allow the crane to be moved by a locomotive, although many are also self-propelled to allow limited movement about a work site.
For cranes with a jib that extends beyond the length of the chassis, an idler car (also known as a 'jib carrier' (UK) or 'boom car' (North America)) is provided to protect the jib and to allow the crane to be coupled within a train. The idler car is usually a long, flat wagon (i.e. a flatcar) that provides a means of securing the jib for transportation; storage areas for special equipment or supplies are usually fitted too. It was not uncommon for the idler car to be built on a withdrawn revenue-earning wagon. Read more...
A mineral wagon or coal truck (British English) is a small open-topped railway goods wagon used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to carry coal, ores and other mine products. Read more...
A track geometry car (also known as a track recording car) is an automated track inspection vehicle on a rail transport system used to test several geometric parameters of the track without obstructing normal railroad operations. Some of the parameters generally measured include position, curvature, alignment of the track, smoothness, and the crosslevel of the two rails. The cars use a variety of sensors, measuring systems, and data management systems to create a profile of the track being inspected. Read more...
An early Pullman Palace Car Company livestock car design from the late 19th century
In railroad terminology, a stock car, cattle car or cattle wagon (British English) is a type of rolling stock used for carrying livestock (not carcasses) to market. A traditional stock car resembles a boxcar with louvered instead of solid car sides (and sometimes ends) for the purpose of providing ventilation; stock cars can be single-level for large animals such as cattle or horses, or they can have two or three levels for smaller animals such as sheep, pigs, and poultry. Specialized types of stock cars have been built to haul live fish and shellfish and circus animals such as camels and elephants. Until the 1880s, when the Mather Stock Car Company and others introduced "more humane" stock cars, death rates could be quite high as the animals were hauled over long distances. Improved technology and faster shipping times have greatly reduced deaths. Read more...
The Lohr Railway System or Modalohr System (French: Système Modalohr) uses special railway wagons of a type known as piggyback wagons, to carry standard road semi-trailers on the European rail network. They are currently used on the AFF route from France to Italy and Luxembourg to the French border with Spain and vice versa. There are plans to expand this service. They have also been approved for the Channel Tunnel.
This articulated railway wagon consists of two low-floor decks, resting on a single Y25 jacobs bogie in the middle and on two Y33 bogies on the extreme ends. Using standard bogies resulted in lower maintenance costs compared with the similar rolling highway concept.
The deck between the bogies (trucks) pivots (swings) 30°, allowing the trailers to be loaded from the sides. The cars are built by Lohr Industrie. Read more...
An articulated double-stack car owned by the TTX Company. The 53 ft (16.15 m) capacity car is a Gunderson Maxi-IV.
A well car, also known as a double-stack car or stack car (also well wagon), is a type of railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal containers (shipping containers) used in intermodal freight transport. The "well" is a depressed section which sits close to the rails between the wheel trucks of the car, allowing a container to be carried lower than on a traditional flatcar. This makes it possible to carry a stack of two containers per unit on railway lines (double-stack rail transport) wherever the loading gauge assures sufficient clearance. The top container is secured to the bottom container either by a bulkhead built into the car (e.g., bottom and top containers are the same dimensions of 40 ft.), or through the use of inter-box connectors (IBC). Four IBCs are needed per wellcar. In the process of an inbound train becoming an outbound train, there are four processes: unlock to unload the top container of inbound train, remove then unload bottom container, insert after loading bottom container of outbound train, lock after top container loaded.
Advantages to using well cars include increased stability due to the lower center of gravity of the load, lower tare weight, and in the case of articulated units, reduced slack action. Read more...
Open wagons form a large group of railway goods wagons designed primarily for the transportation of bulk goods that are not moisture-retentive and can usually be tipped, dumped or shovelled. The International Union of Railways (UIC) distinguishes between ordinary wagons (Class E/UIC-type 5) and special wagons (F/6). Open wagons often form a significant part of a railway company's goods wagon fleet; for example, forming just under 40% of the Deutsche Bahn's total goods wagon stock in Germany. Read more...
A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (commonly used for transporting fruit), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus. Reefers can be ice-cooled, come equipped with any one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems, or utilize carbon dioxide (either as dry ice, or in liquid form) as a cooling agent. Milk cars (and other types of "express" reefers) may or may not include a cooling system, but are equipped with high-speed trucks and other modifications that allow them to travel with passenger trains. Read more...
Flat wagons (sometimes flat beds, flats or rail flats, US: flatcars), as classified by the International Union of Railways (UIC), are railway goods wagons that have a flat, usually full-length, deck (or 2 decks on car transporters) and little or no superstructure. By contrast, open wagons have high side and end walls and covered goods wagons have a fixed roof and sides. Flat wagons are often designed for the transportation of goods that are not weather-sensitive. Some flat wagons are able to be covered completely by tarpaulins or hoods and are therefore suitable for the transport of weather-sensitive goods. Unlike a "goods wagon with opening roof", the loading area of a flat is entirely open and accessible once the cover is removed.
Flats form a large proportion of goods wagons; for example in 1998 they comprised 40% of the total goods fleet owned by the German carrier, DB, the overwhelming majority of which were flat wagons with bogies. Read more...- The International Union of Railways groups all special classes of railway goods wagon (less those in classes F, H, L, S or Z) into Class U in its goods wagon classification system.
These are:- Bulk goods wagons for transporting powders, etc.
- Dual coupling wagons for joining wagons with different coupling systems
- Well wagons including Schnabel wagons
- Self-discharging hoppers with loading hatches
- Trials vehicles for RoadRailer and Kombirail systems for intermodal transport.
A tank car (International Union of Railways (UIC): tank wagon) is a type of railroad car (UIC: railway car) or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities. Read more...
Slate waggons (sometimes spelled wagons) are specialized types of railway waggons designed for the conveyance of slate. The characteristics of this stone led to the development of small open cars that carried the slate in its various forms. These were first developed on the narrow gauge railways serving the slate industry of North Wales in the late 18th century. They were initially used on horse-drawn tramways, but survived with only minor modifications into the days of locomotives and are still to be found in use in the 21st century. Read more...
Ex West Coast Railway carriage BRS221 converted into a crew car for use with Pacific National.
:The term crew car may also refer to a track speeder.
A crew car (also known as a relay van) is a passenger carriage specially fitted out for the use of train drivers. Interior fittings include a sleeping compartment for each crew member, a lounge area, kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. They are usually provided with an onboard generator system and air conditioning. Read more...
A refrigerated van (also called a refrigerated wagon) is a railway goods wagon with cooling equipment. Today they are designated by the International Union of Railways (UIC) as Class I. Read more...- The wagon with opening roof is a type of railway goods wagon that is, nowadays, defined and standardised by the International Union of Railways (UIC) as Class "T". They are a large category of rail vehicle, predominantly used for the transport of hygroscopic bulk commodities such as cement, plaster, lime, potash and grain.
To date, there are four different types of wagon with an opening roof (by way of example, the years refer to when they entered service with the German carrier, DB):- The lidded wagon with several "roof" hatches or lids that can be opened upwards is the oldest type and is rarely seen today. Its disadvantage was that the bars to which the lids were attached meant they could only be opened individually.
- In 1951 the sliding-roof wagon was built, whereby half the loading area could be opened up and loaded from above without obstruction at one time. This was achieved by sliding one half of the two-part roof over the other.
- In 1958 came the swing-roof wagon which enabled the entire loading area to be opened up by swinging the roof out on the longer side of the wagon. Its disadvantage is that, in some variants, the opened roof does not fit within the loading gauge and can thus block a neighbouring track.
- The latest development is the rolling roof wagon that entered service in 1973. Its plastic rolling roof can be completely rolled up at one end enabling the entire wagon to be loaded from above.
- .
Coil cars (also referred to as "steel coil cars" or "coil steel cars") are a specialized type of rolling stock designed for the transport of coils (i.e., rolls) of sheet metal, particularly steel. They are considered a subtype of the gondola car, though they bear little resemblance to a typical gondola. Read more...
Two-bay hopper cars of the Reading Railroad
A hopper car (US) or hopper wagon (UIC) is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. Two main types of hopper car exist: covered hopper cars, which are equipped with a roof, and open hopper cars, which do not have a roof.
This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. The development of the hopper car went along with the development of automated handling of such commodities, with automated loading and unloading facilities. Read more...
A Burlington Northern Railroad extended-vision caboose at the end of a train in 1993
A caboose is a manned North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles.
Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars, they later became purpose-built with projections above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train from shelter. The caboose also served as the conductor's office, and on long routes included accommodation and cooking facilities. Read more...
A railroad gondola seen at Rochelle, Illinois
In US railroad terminology, a gondola is an open-topped rail vehicle used for transporting loose bulk materials. Because of their low side walls gondolas are also suitable for the carriage of such high-density cargos as steel plates or coils, or of bulky items such as prefabricated sections of rail track. Read more...- This covered hopper car originally was built in the 1950s for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. After the 1967 SCL merger, these cars were fitted with rotary couplers and used in Bone Valley phosphate service.
A covered hopper is a railroad freight car designed for carrying dry bulk loads, varying from grain to products such as sand and clay. The cover protects the loads from the weather–dry cement would be very hard to unload if mixed with water in transit, while grain would be likely to rot if exposed to rain. However, they are unsuitable for perishables such as fruit or meat–these are transported in refrigerator cars, where they can be kept at low temperatures, as well. Similar to an open hopper car, covered hoppers tend to contain two to four separated bays. Each of these can be loaded and emptied individually, with access at the top to load the materials and visible chutes at the bottom for unloading.
Covered hoppers in North American service have been built by most of the freight car manufacturers of the 20th century. Originally, boxcars were used for the transport of bulk materials, but these had many disadvantages. Not having been specifically designed for this, it was very hard to use any form of bulk material handling to load or unload them. Also, a large amount of product was liable to be lost, either during loading or unloading, or in transit–since the cars had to be boarded up, rather than using the doors, to enclose the products. Read more...
A rotary snowplow from the Oregon Short Line on display at the Mid Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, WI.
A rotary snowplow is a piece of railroad snow removal equipment with a large circular set of blades on its front end that rotate to cut through the snow on the track ahead of it. The precursor to the rotary snowplow was the wedge snowplow. Read more...
A transporter wagon, in railway terminology, is a wagon (UIC) or railroad car (US) designed to carry other railway equipment. Normally, it is used to transport equipment of a different rail gauge. In most cases, a transporter wagon is a narrower gauge wagon for transporting a wider gauge equipment, allowing freight in a wider gauge wagons to reach destinations on the narrower gauge network without the expense and time of transshipment into a narrower gauge wagons.
This is an attempt to overcome one of the primary problems with differing gauge systems—gauge incompatibility. However, it means that the narrower gauge network must be built to a structure gauge large enough to accommodate the loading gauge of the wider gauge equipment, negating one of the cost advantages of a narrower gauge construction. Additionally, a large wider gauge wagon balanced on a narrower gauge transporter wagon is not very stable, and is generally restricted to low speeds of 15 mph (24.1 km/h) or so. Read more...
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Selected images
Hbillns wagon with sliding sides in ITL’s green livery
The Cavan and Leitrim Railway in Dromod in steam with wagons in 1959.
John Deere Combine harvesters being transported by railway in Tyrone, Pennsylvania.
Commonwealth Oil Corporation goods wagon in Australia
North American container train services often employ the widely used double-stacked container wagons, as here in Rochelle, Illinois.
Small covered van on the RhB in Switzerland
Range of goods wagons at Kornwestheim marshalling yard
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