EAEU: The technical specifications for the general-purpose 12-9954 gondola cars from Mogilev Carriage Works (MVZ), Belarus, have been recommended for approval by the expert group for the Wagon Sector Commission of the CIS Council for Rail Transport.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the vehicle is approved for operation on all the railways that allow for running of freight cars with an axle load of 25 tf. As Yevgeny Semenov, CEO for the Union of Car Builders, explained to ROLLINGSTOCK, “the freight car can operate freely and be considered for the purchase by Russian rail operators provided that it has been granted the TR EAEU certificate of conformity, and no restrictions have been imposed by the Commission”.
Meanwhile, the new gondola car with a service life of 32 years will be operated under control. The TR EAEU 001/2011 certificate for five years (till 2029) was received in early September. The pilot batch will be 1,000 vehicles. No other technical information is available, as the 12-9954 gondola car is not yet included into the catalogue of freight cars and into MVZ’s product portfolio on the official website. In 2023, the Belarusian manufacturer signed a ten-year license contract with United Wagon Company (UWC) for the production of freight cars with the 18-9855 bogies featuring an axle load of 25 tf. It is exactly UWC that is currently the market leader for the manufacturing of 25 tf gondola cars across the countries that use 1,520 mm gauge tracks.
The expert group’s minutes of the meeting contains favourable decisions in terms of a number of other new freight cars. Thus, it is recommended to approve the technical specifications for UWC’s gondola cars of Series 12-6744 (with unloading hatches) and of Series 12-6745 (with a solid bottom), RM Rail’s 16-1247 refrigerator freight cars and 15-1257-01 tank cars for liquid pitch transportation, Altaivagon’s 19-2170 hopper wagons for transporting mineral fertilizers, and NovoTechRail’s 15-6758 LPG tank cars.
