By using this site, you agree with our cookies usage in accordance with our cookies policy. You can always disable cookies in your browser settings.

6+

6+

RM Rail started assembling a new model of aluminum hopper car

17 January 2022
Reading time ~ 5 min
19-1299 hopper car project from RM Rail
19-1299 hopper car project from RM Rail. Source: rmrail.ru
Belov Sergey, Editor-in-Chief, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Reading time ~ 5 min
Litvintsova Olga, Editor of International Projects, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency

Russia: The manufacturer plans to certify and put in operation a new hopper car of a 19-1299 model this year. It is announced about improved technical characteristics compared to the previous generation of 19-1244 hopper car.

The railcar will be designed for various cargo transportation, including mineral fertilizers, however, RM Rail notes the possibility of execution for grain and other bulk cargo. The design includes the use of 25 t axle-load bogies, and the main advantages are provided by the use of aluminum-magnesium-scandium alloy grade 1581 in the hopper body, which was brought to the market by Rusal last year.

In November, developers from the Institute of Light Materials and Technologies of Rusal noted that alloy 1581 belongs to thermally non-hardened aluminum alloys and is characterized by an increased level of strength while maintaining ductility and corrosion resistance at the level of AMg5 and 5083 alloy types, welded by all types of welding. At the same time, as Maritime News of Russia reported, in comparison with the traditionally used alloy 5083, the new material has an increased yield strength and fatigue life and is only 10% more expensive.

It should be noted that Russian Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandart) has recently approved a state standard that establishes requirements for the design, manufacture, repair and quality control of welded joints made of aluminum alloys, which are used in freight cars and multiple unit rolling stock.

According to RM Rail, the light weight of the 19-1299 model is reduced by 0.5 t compared to the previous generation (for 19-1244 it was 22 t), and the load capacity is provided at the level of 79 t (for 19-1244 – 78 t). The body volume of the new hopper should be 111 cu m (at 19-1244 it was equal to 109 cu m).

19-1244 mineral fertilizer hopper car with an aluminum alloy body at EXPO 1520 in 2015. Source: scaletrainsclub.com

The previous generation of aluminum-bodied hopper, model 19-1244, was introduced by RM Rail in 2015 and passed certification in 2017. In November 2020, in an interview with the Railway Equipment Journal, CEO of RM Rail Vitaly Starikov said that the demand for such a hopper at that time was several hundred units per year, but attributed this to the fact that the Russian market was not yet accustomed to such rolling stock. “For example, in the US, out of a 2 mln railcar fleet, 20-30% are aluminum. I hope that demand will increase and be measured not in hundreds, but in thousands of units”, he noted.

If we compare 19-1299 with hoppers for mineral fertilizers of another Russian manufacturer – United Wagon Company (UWC), the new railcar by RM Rail has 2.3 and 3 t more carrying capacity than UWC wagons of models 19-9835-01 and 19-9549-03, respectively, however, is 9 cu m inferior to the second in terms of body volume. In June last year, UWC entered into a number of agreements on these models – on the supply of 2,000 mineral hoppers 19-9835-01 for EuroChem and 100 wagons of the same type for Uralkali, as well as on the supply of 500 mineral hoppers 19-9549-03 for the Akron Group. In addition, the UWC portfolio includes an articulated model of a mineral car 19-6978-01 with a load capacity of 113.5 t and a body volume of 160 cu m.

In July 2021, it also became known that Altaivagon had entered into the Russian hopper railcar market: a request for testing the hopper model 19-12165 was published from the Kemerovo region (Kemerovokhimmash, a branch production site of Altayvagon, is situated in this region) on the Register of Certification on the Federal Railway Transport (RS FZhT) website. However, this railcar is primarily positioned for the grain and other bulk food cargo transportation.