MosRegionTrans ordered 400 UWC grain hopper cars 400 which will be also used for milling products from 2023.
The delivery of the 19-9549 freight cars will be done in stages under a tripartite agreement between the UWC Group, State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK) and railway operator MosRegionTrans.
The hopper car is designed to transport a wide range of grain cargoes. The freight car is mounted on bogies with an axle load of 25 tonnes and has an increased body capacity of 120 m3 enabling its full payload of 76 t to be utilised. Compared to common-type rolling stock, the additional loading volume is up to 6 tonnes per freight car, which saves up to 7% on transport charges per tonne of freight.
The longer maintenance intervals of the Tikhvin grain hopper cars ensure a reduction in maintenance costs over its life cycle. This rail freight car undergoes its first and subsequent depot maintenance at 1 million km or after eight years of operation, while railcars equipped with common-type bogies need this service as early as at 210 and 110 thousand km, respectively, or after three years of operation.
The car body is treated with a special two-component coating to protect the load from environmental exposures. The locking devices used in the hatch locking mechanism prevent unauthorised access to the cargo.
In addition, the original locking devices have fewer seals than their counterparts, which significantly increases the speed of handling operations and reduces the cost of sealing devices. The hopper car has five loading hatches and six unloading hatches, which ensure that the load is evenly distributed in the body and can be unloaded quickly.
About 300 cars manufactured by the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant, part of the UWC Group, are currently operated by MosRegionTrans across Russia and the CIS.
“We have been in the market for 10 years now and have been systematically transforming our fleet into a fleet of new generation freight cars. Today, all innovative grain hopper cars in our fleet were made by UWC and have a capacity of 76 tonnes,” Ilya Zhelnov, Chief Executive Officer at MosRegionTrans, said.
As estimated by the UWC Group, at 1 January 2023, the number of grain hopper cars on the Russian rail network amounted to 55,000 with an average age of 9.1 years. 20,800 hopper cars representing 37.8% of the total grain car fleet were equipped with 25-tonne bogies, with 87.5% of these being UWC grain hopper cars. The UWC Group’s overall share of grain cars in the Russian market between January 2016 and December 2022, was 45.3%.
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