TVSZ flat cars for Deutsche Bahn sent for testing

Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant, a member entity of the UWC Group, has sent a batch of Sggrs80 articulated flat cars produced for Deutsche Bahn for testing. The test cars, which are designed to transport heavyweight containers, were produced under a contract for the supply of 160 freight cars made between Research and Production Corporation “United Wagon Company” (MOEX: UWGN), Russia's largest producer of freight cars¹, and Deutsche Bahn (DB), Europe’s largest railway operator and infrastructure owner.

The dispatch of the flat cars was attended by a delegation headed by Deutsche Bahn's Chief Procurement Officer Uwe Günther and Head of Asset Management & Technology at DB Cargo Thomas Jäger, as well as UWC's Chief Executive Officer Timofey Khryapov.

The cars will undergo stationary testing and trial runs over a period of several months, with a particular focus on longitudinal and vertical stress tests on the frame structure, testing for shock absorption both empty and loaded cars, tests on brake system performance, and safety tests for movement along a winding route, among others.

The Sggrs six-axle container cars have a length of 80 feet, a loading capacity of 108 tonnes and the ability to safely transport ISO containers, tank containers and swap bodies with a gross weight of up to 36 tonnes in various size categories. The flat car design is lighter than that of its common counterparts in the European market. The car is equipped with a bogie with an axle load of 22.5 t and is designed for operation on a 1,435-mm gauge track.

Uwe Günther, Chief Procurement Officer at Deutsche Bahn, said, “As we are planning to develop our freight shipment division, we will soon need an additional fleet of freight cars and railway engines. Since German manufacturers cannot fully meet our demand for rolling stock, we seek to collaborate with other companies, including Russia's UWC. When choosing a supplier, we look first and foremost at the quality of the product being offered to us, and whether the car manufacturer meets the requirements of certification bodies and of our customers. I would like to point out that UWC meets all of these requirements. The cars we saw today received high praise from our team and will now be able to undergo a full series of tests at our testing facility. We hope the results will meet our expectations.”

Timofey Khryapov, Chief Executive Officer at United Wagon Company, added, “The UWC Group considers strengthening its positions in foreign markets as a global strategic goals. Collaboration with Deutsche Bahn is an important step towards achieving this objective. We hope that our engineering and production competencies will be highly valued by European consumers.”

The Sggrs articulated flat car is developed by All-Union Research and Development Centre for Transportation Technology (a member of the UWC Group). The cars are manufactured at the Groups's production facility in Tikhvin. The flat cars will be undergoing certification for compliance with the European TSI (Technical Specification for Interoperability) until the end of 2019.

¹As stated by INFOLine-Analytics: https://infoline.spb.ru/news/?news=162724