UWC wins national prize for rolling stock quality

Research and Production Corporation “United Wagon Company” (“RPC UWC” or the “Company”) (MOEX: UWGN), the market leader in innovative railcar building in the 1520 mm gauge area, has won the 8th annual competition of Russian Railways for best rolling stock.

UWC’s new generation model 12-9853 gondola car with discharge hatches and a bogie with 25 tons axle load has taken first place in the Rolling Stock section of the annual industry competition. An expert commission commended the technical features of the car, reliability of its design, its fault tolerance, ease of servicing and other qualities.

The awards of the Russian Railways competition were handed to the winners as part of the 6th International Fair of Railway Equipment and Technologies EXPO 1520, held at Scherbinka, Moscow. Roman Savushkin, the CEO of UWC, received the rolling-stock prize from Sergey Kobzev, the Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer of Russian Railways.

The universal gondola car was designed at the All-Union Research and Development Centre for Transportation Technology, which is owned by UWC, and has been in serial production since 2013 at the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant (part of UWC). According to the Rolling Stock Design Bureau at Russian Railways, frequency of repairs that require uncoupling per one million km of travel is 5.7 times less for the new UWC gondola comparing to standard gondolas. Increased carrying volume of 92 m³ enables full-load transport of cargoes with widely varying densities. The new gondola carries up to 10% more cargo per journey than a standard model.

Russian Railways holds its annual competition to encourage work that can improve the quality of equipment used on the Russian rail network towards the best modern technical standards, reducing life-cycle costs and improving reliability. The chief assessment criterion used in the competition is the ability of equipment to meet the current and future needs of Russian Railways.