Kazakhstan: The news was reported to ROLLINGSTOCK by Boris Ziganshin, General Director for the TexolTrans company belonging to the TEXOL Group.
In May, the flatcar was certified for serial production in Russia for five years. The first prototype vehicles have been produced by Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant (part of the United Wagon Company, UWC).
The rights for the flatcar belong to the TEXOL Group, and now the company’s main priority is to develop production of these vehicles at the Atyrau Wagon Factory in Kazakhstan, as pointed by Boris Ziganshin. The container flatcars are still planned to be equipped with Wabtec’s SAC-1 articulated coupling system, which, by TEXOL’s order, the vehicle was designed to adjust with. “All the relevant patents for this flatcar’s technological solutions belong to the TEXOL Group”, emphasised Boris Ziganshin.
The six-axle 13-6741 flatcar was presented by UWC in 2023. The vehicle with a payload of 122 t is the only flatcar on the market able to transport four 20-foot containers with a maximum weight of 30.5 t each, or two 40-foot containers, and a combination of these. ROLLINGSTOCK has sent a request to know about UWC’s developing its own articulated connector.
As pointed by Boris Ziganshin, there are enough articulated coupling systems and other components in reserve to produce the 13-6741 flatcars at the Atyrau facilities. Meanwhile the first stage of launching the production in Atyrau includes mastering the manufacturing of four-axle gondola cars and flatcars with an axle load of 23.5 tf. “We are following the schedule. The assembly of first prototypes is almost completed. Tests, certification, and signing the first contracts are coming soon”, TexolTrans’s General Director noted.
