Where are the various rail cars made/ manufactured? Boxes, Tank, Flats, Lumber, custom cars (rolled steel), reefers, cube/ deepwells, piggyback/tofcs, hoppers, etc… Do the class one’s still manufacture any to be leased, or do the shippers have them built and keep them on their own property? Any good articles about this industry . Thanks.
A couple I found real quick, there’s Thrall in Georgia, written up in Trains Magazine, August 1995. Then there’s Gunderson, written up in Railroad Model Craftsman February 1995.
In related info, in Model Railroading magazine, March 1990, they did an article on identifying a freight car builder as one in a series called “Basic Freightcarology”
American Railcar Industries Inc
http://www.AmericanRailcar.com/
Colorado Railcar Manufacturing Inc
http://www.ColoradoRailcar.com/
FreightCar America (formerly Johnstown America)
http://www.FreightCarAmerica.com/
The Greenbrier Companies
http://www.GBRX.com/
Thrall is no more.
Trinity Industries, Union Tank Car Company, and National Steel Car Corporation, Ltd., are major carbuilders not previously mentioned here.
Trinty Industries in Oklahoma City made tank cars and for awhile were making refrigerator cars for BNSF. At present I don’t kmow just they are making. Paul
I was in the Freightcar America plant in Johnstown, PA about a month ago and they were cranking out bunches of 5-bay hoppers for UCEX. http://cnw8835.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=329856
On a side note, the basic feeling among the employees, at least the maintenance guys assigned to work with me, is that the plant won’t be open much longer. The reason they gave me was that they are the only unionized shop left in the company.
The Gunderson (Greenbrier) Portland OR plant is union.
Some other minor railcar manufacturers not yet mentioned includes Paccar, which currently is focused on trucks but still reserves the opportunity to manufacture railcars if they desire. They built quite a few of the spine cars a few years back.
There are also a lot of railcar repair entities that are separate from the major railcar manufacturers but do mostly contract work for them. They also have the ability to go independent if they desire.
There was an entire issue of TRAINS devoted to the topic of Freight Car Manufacturing within the past year. The Cover was a photo of BNSF Covered Hoppers built by Trinity Industries in a river canyon. I need to find that issue again.
TRINITY INDUSTRIES absorbed Thrall Car. TRINITY has recently streamlined their freight car offerings so that there are no “custom” designs. Take a look at the Trintity Railcar website sometime. Their website was a big list and photo gallery of freight cars for a few years. Trinity Rail Car is now lean and focused for profits.
Andrew F.
Eric, ACF Industries is now American Railcar Industries. I think the old plants are shut down in favor of a new plant in Arkansas.
Everyone missed TTX - Jacksonville, Mira Loma CA and N. Augusta NC
and Union Tank - various locations - mainly Chicago and Houston.
Greebriar - GBX
Plants in Portland, Trenton NS and Mexico
American Railcar - ARI - Paragould, Ark. Maramaduke Ark.
Freightcar America, Johnstown PA,Danville Il, Roanoke VA,
Trinity - Numerous slocations including Mex.
National Steel Car - Hamilton On
Does TTX actually manufacture any freight cars? Everyone knows they own and lease them, but I know nothing about manufacturing. According to the TTX website, those are maintenance facilities, not manufacturing facilities:
http://www.TTX.com/Overview/overview.asp
There is also no mention of manufacturing on their website that I can find.
I know that they were buying bolsters - always a good sign of car building - but they may be farming all of it out.
NSC does a lot of their work as does Gunderson.
According to Trinity’s web site (http://www.trin.net/), they’re headquartered here in Dallas and have manufacturing sites in the US, Mexico, AND Europe. They’re no more specific than that.
A link from their web site, by the way, has lots of pictures of their products at http://www.trinityrailcar.com/railcars/index.html that might be useful for modelers. If you model modern equipment, their 64’ and 72’ TRINcool refrigerated box cars would be pretty unique looking cars. Pity they’re too modern for 1943 (my era); I have a soft spot for white reefers.
And don’t miss (as I almost did) the little pdf icon labeled “download Profile” on some of the car pages. I clicked on one and got a larger photograph of the car and a drawing that would be enough to scratch or kit-ba***he car. Great stuff!
Chuck
you know if oil prices go thru roof big time the rairoads could easily go bankrupt. especially if the usa continues to outsource
Not sure about car building in my area, but Gunderson has a plant in Springfield, Oregon that rebuilds a heck of a lot of cars and sometimes makes changes in the use of the cars, or who is leasing them! Also its a neat place to see thier little locos working the west end of the plant!!!
…Sure hope FreightCar America can survive…{in Johnstown}, as that work has been done there for years…believe back years ago when the mills were going strong there the car building facilities were simply called “the car shops”…Many thousands of cars have rolled out of the valley of Johnstown. Many on the S&C line {CSX, formely B&O}, up through the valley to Somerset and on to Rockwood, Pa. to gain access to the old B&O main east and west to deliver the new cars. Upwards of 25,000 workers filled those plants in the heyday of the Mills there…{Bethlem Steel, etc…}. In city streetcars were used by workers living in the valley to access their jobs right in the downtown Johnstown area…in from the suburbs…The Mills were in operation right at the edge of the Johnstown business area…What a different era…and sad it {the work}, has fled to foreign competitors
TRAINS April 2005 is the issue to consult if you need more information about the freight car industry.
TRAINS February 2000 has an article about the ACF Center Flow.
Andrew Falconer