Where do railroads go to buy rail cars, boxcars, gons, tank cars, reefers, etc etc, just pick up the phone and order 200 -60’ steel boxcars? who and where are these manufacturers located? Do you look in the yellow pages under " Don’s Boxcars and Storm Door Company" ? ? Are there specific companies that ONLY build railcars? enquiring minds
Major builders include:
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Trinity – multiple locations in U.S.
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Greenbrier – Portland, Oregon, Mexico, Europe
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ARI – Paragould and Marmaduke, Arkansas
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UTLX – tankcars only
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Freightcar America – Danville, Il;, Roanoke, Va.
Some of these companies build other heavy steel and aluminum stuff, e.g., Greenbrier Gunderson builds barges, Trinity builds wind turbine towers, tanks, barges, etc.
These companies are primarily fabricators of the carbody and assemblers of all the components. There is a huge array of companies that make wheels, axles, trucks, bolsters, centerplates, gates, axle bearings, side bearings, draft gear, couplers, doors, load dividers, air brake equipment, paint and coatings, decals, etc., that are incorporated into the cars.
RWM
The railroads won’t have to go looking for a builder - I am sure that sales reps for the various builders are regularly visiting the mechanical and purchasing officers of all railroads that might be considering new freight cars. Both sides are probably also mutually familiar with each other from serving on the same rail car committees
Railwayman has listed quite a few builders, can’t recall if he included National Steel Car in Hamilton Ontario.
Similar to the automobile industry, for any car type there are a host of options to be decided for a given order, ranging from trucks, brakes, door types and sizes, weight and volume capacities and so forth.
With the big volumes and dollars resulting from a typical order, you can bet the railroad doesn’t have to go looking!
John