To date, there are four different types of wagon with an opening roof (by way of example, the years refer to when they entered service with the German carrier, DB):
The lidded wagon with several "roof" hatches or lids that can be opened upwards is the oldest type and is rarely seen today. Its disadvantage was that the bars to which the lids were attached meant they could only be opened individually.
In 1951 the sliding-roof wagon was built, whereby half the loading area could be opened up and loaded from above without obstruction at one time. This was achieved by sliding one half of the two-part roof over the other.
In 1958 came the swing-roof wagon which enabled the entire loading area to be opened up by swinging the roof out on the longer side of the wagon. Its disadvantage is that, in some variants, the opened roof does not fit within the loading gauge and can thus block a neighbouring track.
The latest development is the rolling roof wagon that entered service in 1973. Its plastic rolling roof can be completely rolled up at one end enabling the entire wagon to be loaded from above.
The overall design and use of these wagons is however governed far more by the configuration of their wagon floors and walls than the methods of loading and unloading. These features, which are also coded by index letters, form the basis of this article's structure.
The classic lidded wagon for the transport of hygroscopic bulk goods was only procured by railway authorities in relatively small batches in comparison with other types of goods wagon. They were used on standard, as well as narrow gauge, railways (e.g. the Saxon narrow gauge railways). Their design was based closely on that of contemporary open wagons.
They were loaded from above and unloaded, like covered wagons, through the side doors. Because unloading involved a lot of manual work, alternatives were already being sought by the 1920s. In the 1950s the self-discharging wagon with roof (see below) completely ousted the lidded wagon from its original field of operations. The last large batch of lidded wagons was procured by the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1958.
Standard gauge, lidded wagons may be viewed at a number of railway museums and, on several Saxon narrow gauge railways, lidded wagons can occasionally still be seen working at special goods train events.
Sliding-roof wagons and sliding-roof/sliding-side wagons
Covered goods wagon with sliding walls and opening roof: Class Tbis
Sliding-roof wagons were developed for the DB in the 1950s. From a design perspective they were initially just a development of the classic lidded wagon. However, they were no longer intended for bulk goods, but for awkward, moisture-sensitive part-load goods. The latter could be loaded and unloaded vertically by crane, the sliding roof enabling half the available length of the wagon floor to be available at one time.
Soon the small side doors were replaced by large, sliding sides (index letteri), in order to enable loading and unloading of palletised goods by forklift trucks. For example, the wagons could be loaded at a port directly from the ship by crane; at their destination they could then be unloaded through the side doors.
In the 1970s it became clear that the movable roof was only rarely used for palettised goods whilst, for larger, awkward loads, swing-roof wagons (see below) were better suited. As a result, the railways went over to a sliding-side wagon with a fixed roof; development of the sliding-side wagon being started in 1977.
Swing-roof and rolling roof wagons with level floors
For transporting heavier, even more awkward and moisture-sensitive goods the DB has, since 1964, four-axled wagons with movable roofs. To begin with these were swing-roofs that were divided in two along their longitudinal axis and folded out to the sides. In order to avoid breaching the loading gauge when the roof was opened, these were abandoned in favour of rolling roofs.
In terms of design, these wagons are closely related to the four-axled standard open wagon. For example, even the major dimensions of the UIC-standardized rolling roof wagon matches its open wagon counterpart, the Class Ea(o)s:
The swing-roof and rolling-roof wagons with level floors feature a high loading limit of at least 50 t and are therefore often used in heavy industry. In addition, they are good for hygroscopic bulk commodities which have to be loaded from above. This type of wagon shares its sphere of operations with flat wagons with tarpaulins or hoods in classes K, R and S.
Goods wagons with opening roof and gravity discharge
In order to rationalize the loading and unloading of bulk goods, the Deutsche Reichsbahn, before the Second World War, had Self-discharging wagons with lids (Selbstentladewagen mit Klappdeckeln) built. They were designed as saddle wagons which enabled rapid gravity discharge.
Since 1958, the Self-discharging wagon with swing-roof has been employed in large numbers in Europe. In the transport of hygroscopic bulk commodities, they have fully replaced both the wagon with opening roof and level floor (see above) as well as the standard covered wagon.
Hopper wagons: Wagons with funnel-shaped floors and controllable gravity unloading (Class T…d…)
Saddle-bottomed wagons: Wagons with saddle-shaped floors and bulk gravity unloading (today, Class T…l…, until 1979 T…d…)
Even the main dimensions of the two UIC standard wagons are identical with those of the open goods wagons (Fcs and Fals):
Tdgs: UIC standard wagon with opening roof and controllable, side, gravity discharge for the transport of foodstuffs (sugar)Tanoos : Wagon with opening roof and apertures above the centre of the track for bulk gravity discharge at the Caminaukaolin factory
The wagons are normally reserved for one type of commodity in order to avoid having to clean them after use, but also because certain goods require the loading space to be lined in order to avoid them sticking to the walls or, with chemicals, to protect the walls from corrosion. Many Td wagons are exclusively used for the transport of foodstuffs and therefore bear the index letter g.
In addition there are special types for specific purposes, for example those with low-level apertures for gravity discharging (Class T…oo…).
The distinction with UIC Class U wagons is fluid. Especially when wagons do not conform to the UIC standard wagon or only have a roof hatch for loading instead of a movable roof, they count as special wagons. Many French grain wagons therefore have a 9 instead of a 0 in their wagon numbers.
A railroad car, railcar, railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck, also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.
A boxcar is the North American (AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side sliding doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large items.
A tank car or tanker is a type of railroad car or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.
A hopper car (NAm) or hopper wagon (UIC) is a type of railroad freight car that has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. They are used to transport loose solid bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. The hopper car was developed in parallel with the development of automated handling of such commodities, including automated loading and unloading facilities.
Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
Rollbocks, sometimes called transporter trailers, are narrow gauge railway trucks or bogies that allow a standard gauge wagon to 'piggyback' on a narrow-gauge line. The Vevey system enables a coupled train of standard gauge wagons to be automatically loaded or rolled onto Rollbocks, so that the train can then continue through a change of gauge.
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door. There will also be a door to move goods to or from road wagons and vans, this sometimes is parallel to the rail track, or sometimes on the side opposite the rail track. Inside the shed will generally be a platform and sometimes a small crane to allow easier loading and unloading of wagons.
The German term Verbandsbauart describes both a type of goods wagon as well as a type of tram.
Goods wagons or freight wagons, also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types are in use to handle different types of goods, but all goods wagons in a regional network typically have standardized couplers and other fittings, such as hoses for air brakes, allowing different wagon types to be assembled into trains. For tracking and identification purposes, goods wagons are generally assigned a unique identifier, typically a UIC wagon number, or in North America, a company reporting mark plus a company specific serial number.
The so-called Austauschbauart wagons were German railway vehicles produced from the late 1920s onwards which had common components built to agreed standards.
In German railway engineering, norms (Normalien) are standards for the design and production of railway vehicles. In the 1880s and 1890s, Prussian norms were developed for the locomotives, tenders and wagons of the Prussian state railways under the direction of the railway director responsible for railway engineering, Moritz Stambke. Later, these were largely adopted by the other state railways (Länderbahnen) in Germany.
Kriegsbauart refers to railway goods wagon classes that were developed during the Second World War for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The start of the war was an arbitrary dividing line for the classification of goods wagons, and did not represent any technological change. In the period shortly before the war, goods wagons were already being designed from a military perspective. This was particularly true for the stake wagons of 1938, which are occasionally referred to as a 'pre-war class' (Vorkriegsbauart) of wagons.
An open wagon forms a large group of railway goods wagons designed primarily for the transportation of bulk goods that are not moisture-retentive and can usually be tipped, dumped or shovelled. The International Union of Railways (UIC) distinguishes between ordinary wagons and special wagons (F/6). Open wagons often form a significant part of a railway company's goods wagon fleet; for example, forming just under 40% of the Deutsche Bahn's total goods wagon stock in Germany.
Flat wagons, as classified by the International Union of Railways (UIC), are railway goods wagons that have a flat, usually full-length, deck and little or no superstructure. By contrast, open wagons have high side and end walls and covered goods wagons have a fixed roof and sides. Flat wagons are often designed for the transportation of goods that are not weather-sensitive. Some flat wagons are able to be covered completely by tarpaulins or hoods and are therefore suitable for the transport of weather-sensitive goods. Unlike a "goods wagon with opening roof", the loading area of a flat is entirely open and accessible once the cover is removed.
A covered goods wagon or covered goods van is a railway goods wagon which is designed for the transportation of moisture-susceptible goods and therefore fully enclosed by sides and a fixed roof. They are often referred to simply as covered wagons, and this is the term used by the International Union of Railways (UIC). Since the introduction of the international classification for goods wagons by the UIC in the 1960s a distinction has been drawn between ordinary and special covered wagons. Other types of wagon, such as refrigerated vans and goods wagons with opening roofs, are closely related to covered wagons from a design point of view. Similar freight cars in North America are called boxcars.
The International Union of Railways groups all special classes of railway goods wagon into Class U in its goods wagon classification system.
The fleet of Great Western Railway wagons was both large and varied as it carried the wide variety of goods traffic on the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom. This was the railway company that operated for the longest period of time in the country and covered a large geographical area that included big cities such as London, industrialised areas including the West Midlands, areas of coal and mineral mining such as South Wales, and Somerset and other important agricultural districts. In 1902 the company owned 59,036 wagons, and by 1926 this had risen to 88,580.
The Victorian Railways in Australia have had a vast range of hopper-type wagons over the last century, for transporting various types of free-flowing dry goods including grains, fuel, and various powders.
Goods wagons of welded construction were developed and built by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany from 1933 to about 1945. With the introduction of welding technology in 1933 almost all wagon components were joined by welding and no longer by rivetting. This enabled goods wagons to be designed, for example, for higher speeds or for higher payloads through the use of different types of steel and other engineering changes, but their further development was so heavily influenced by the exigencies of the Second World War that, as early as 1939, the Deutsche Reichsbahn had to temper the design of goods wagons to the new economic circumstances. Because there were overlaps in the change from the Austauschbauart - goods wagons made with interchangeable components - to the new welded classes, the period of the changeover cannot be exactly defined. Several standard goods wagons and their classes are covered in other articles. Goods wagons built during the Second World War that were purely intended for military transport use, are covered under the article on Kriegsbauart - wartime classes.
Presflo and Prestwin were the designation for two types of goods wagon designed by British Railways in the 1950s for the carriage of powdered goods. The Presflo design was specifically for carriage of powdered cement but wagons to this design were subsequently used to transport other powdered commodities. The later Prestwin wagons were designed to overcome problems encountered with using the Presflo design for certain powdered commodities. Both types of wagon were loaded by gravity but unloaded using compressed air.
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