Flat car
Flat wagons are freight wagons that have one (two for car transport) mostly continuous, flat floor and no or at most low superstructures that are open at the top. In contrast, open freight wagons have high side walls and covered freight wagons have a fixed roof. Flat wagons are intended for the transport of goods that are not sensitive to the weather. Some flat wagons can be completely covered by tarpaulins or hoods and are therefore also suitable for transporting goods that are sensitive to the weather. In contrast to the cars with an opening roof , the loading area is freely accessible after opening the top .
Flat wagons form a large group of rail freight wagons and made up over 40% of all freight wagons at DB in 1998, with the majority being flat wagons with bogies .
Typical goods to be transported are: vehicles, containers , machines , large pipes , profiles, wire rolls , steel mats , semi-finished steel products ( slabs , coils , pipes , bars , plates), rails , sleepers and complete track sections . Gravel , sand and other bulk goods are also loaded onto flat wagons with side walls .
International classification
Flat wagons are divided by the International Union of Railways (UIC) into:
- Standard design freight wagons, marked with the generic letters "K", "O" and "R"
- Freight wagons of the special design, marked with the generic letters "L" and "S"
The standard designs differ from the special designs above all in that they always have a level, drivable car floor; This does not have to be the case with special designs. Within the standard and special designs, a distinction is made between wagons with single wheel sets and those with bogies .
There are also a large number of other terms that classify flat wagons according to their intended use, but do not allow a sufficiently sharp delimitation.
Standard freight wagons of the International Union of Railways (UIC)
The efforts of the International Union of Railways to standardize flat cars go back to the 1950s. After defining the characteristics and properties of flat wagons, these efforts led to standard freight wagons . Standardized flat wagons can be found in the UIC leaflets:
- UIC 571-1 - Standard freight wagons - freight wagons of the standard design with two axles,
- UIC 571-2 - Standard freight wagons - Standard design bogie freight wagons,
- UIC 571-3 - standard goods wagons - goods wagons of the special design, as well as
- UIC 571-4 - Standard freight wagons - freight wagons for combined transport
The implementation of these guidelines is partly binding and partly voluntary for the members of the UIC. Since the end of 1977 flat wagons that partially comply with these guidelines have been marked with the address “UIC”. Flat wagons that fully comply with the leaflets, therefore UIC standard wagons, are given the address "UIS St".
K: Flat wagon of standard design with two wheelsets
The type K freight wagons originally formed one of the largest group of DB freight wagons, due to the large number of stake wagons of the older design . Most of their areas of application were later taken over by flat wagons of the special types. In 1998 the DB only had around 10,000 copies.
Most of the two-axle flat wagons of the standard design built since the 1950s are based on the UIC standard wagons of type 1, which are equipped with folding shelves and short swivel stanchions , but at least in Germany with an axle base of only 8 m.
| UIC 571-1: Freight wagon with two wheelsets | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| design type | Type 1 | Type 2 | Type 3A | Type 3B |
| genus | Ks | Kns / Kjns | Kins / Kijns | Kilns / Kijlns |
| Wheelbase | 9.0 m | 10.0 m | 10.0 m | 10.0 m |
| Length over buffers | 13.86 m | 16.55 m | 16.55 m | 16.55 m |
| Loading length, min. | 12.5 m | 14.5 / 15.1 m | 14.5 / 15.1 m | 14.5 / 15.1 m |
| Loading area, for example | 35 m² | 41.3 / 43.0 m² | 41.3 / 43.0 m² | 41.3 / 43.0 m² |
| Net weight, max. | 13.5 t | 16.0 t | 17.5 t | 17.5 t |
In recent years new K-cars have been developed again. These have fixed end walls and a tarpaulin cover and are therefore also suitable for goods that are sensitive to moisture. Their designation Kils implies the letters below .
In addition to the common length and weight letters (k, kk, n, m and mm), the type K has the following designations:
- b - with long (side) stanchions (usually designed as plug-in stanchions )
- i - with fixed end walls and movable covers (tarpaulin wagons) and
- l - without stanchions.
- p - without side rims (not applicable to i)
L: Flat car in a special design with individual wheel sets
Here you can find today
- three- and four-axle car transporters (see below) with one or two loading levels as well
- two-axle container wagons
Only of historical significance, however, are container-carrying wagons ( see below ) and Drehschemelwagen ( see below ). As a rule, L-wagons have no stanchions.
The most important code letters for the basic differentiation of the current types are:
- a - Articulated wagon with 3 sets of wheels
- aa - double wagon with 4 sets of wheels
- d - for motor vehicles in one loading level
- e - for vehicles in two loading levels ( double-decker cars )
- g - set up for the transport of containers ( container wagons )
The UIC has standardized a total of three L-wagon types, whereby the Lgss-wagon is based closely on the Ks-wagon (see above):
| UIC 571-3: Special design freight wagons |
UIC 571-4: freight wagons for combined transport |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wagon type | Double-decker cars for vehicle transport | Container wagons | |
| design type | Type 1 - double car | Type 2 - articulated trolley | Type 5 |
| genus | Laaes | Laes | Lgss |
| Wheelbase | 2 × 9.0 m | 2 × 10.4 m | 9.0 m |
| Length over buffers | 27.0 m | 13.86 m | |
| Loading length, min. | 26.5 m + 26.1 m | 12.52 m | |
| Net weight, max. | 30.0 t | 27.0 t | 12.0 t |
O: Mixed open flat cars
The group of mixed open flat wagons in a standard design has folding walls, stakes and two or three wheel sets.
The most important code letters are:
- a - with 3 sets of wheels
- k - load limit less than 20 t
- kk - load limit 20 to 25 t
- l - without stanchions
- m - usable length 9 to 12 m
- mm - usable length less than 9 m
- n - with 2 wheelsets: load limit more than 30 t, with 3 wheelsets: load limit more than 40 t
The dimensions of the UIC standard wagon largely correspond to the much more common Ks wagons ( see above ):
| UIC 571-1: Freight wagon with two wheelsets | |
|---|---|
| Wagon type | Open / flat multi-purpose trolley |
| genus | Os |
| Wheelbase | 8.0 m |
| Length over buffers | 13.86 m |
| Loading length, min. | 12.61 m |
| Loading area, for example | 36 m² |
| Hold, for example | 29 m³ |
| Net weight, max. | 14.0 t |
R: Flat wagons of standard design with bogies
The four-axle type R bogie wagons have a solid, level floor, mostly made of wood, and, unless otherwise indicated by code letters, with stanchions and end caps. Most types have short, removable swivel stanchions. They are particularly suitable for transporting long steel elements , building materials , machines and large motor vehicles . In the 1990s, DB bought R wagons with long, resilient light metal stanchions and high end walls especially for the increasing volume of timber transport . In 1998, the DB had around 17,000 R-cars in use.
The most important code letters for the basic differentiation of the types are:
- e - with foldable side panels
- g - set up for the transport of containers ( container wagons )
- h - with skids for transportation lying verladener Metal coils ( coils) provided
- i - with fixed end walls and movable covers (tarpaulin wagon)
- l - without stanchions
- mm - very short loading length (less than 15 m)
- oo - with fixed end walls of 2 m height and without cover (trolley for timber transport)
The UIC has standardized two R-cars, both of which are very numerous in Germany. Around the mid-1970s, people started to equip newly built wagons with folding side panels.
| UIC 571-2: four-axle bogie freight wagons | ||
|---|---|---|
| design type | Type 1 | Type 2 |
| genus | R (e) s | R (e) mms |
| Pivot spacing | 14.86 m | 9.0 m |
| Length over buffers | 19.9 m | 14.04 m |
| Loading length, min. | 18.5 m | 12.64 |
| Loading area, for example | 51 m² | 35 m² |
| Net weight, max. | 24.0 t | 22.5 t |
S: flat car in special design with bogies
This is the largest group of flat wagons in terms of both number and variety of types. The classification as a special design occurs either because of the lack of drivable wagon floor or because of the number of axles. In contrast to the standard design wagons, these are predominantly vehicles that have been optimized for a specific purpose. In 1998 the DB had around 22,000 S-wagons in stock.
The great variety of types can also be read from the number of code letters , of which only the most important ones are given here, which are necessary to fundamentally differentiate the types:
- a - with 6 sets of wheels
- aa - with 8 or more wheelsets
- d - set up for the transport of road vehicles
- g - set up for the transport of containers ( container wagons )
- gg for the transport of containers with a total length of about 60 '- [feet] established
- h for transportation lying verladener - coils set
- i - with fixed end walls and movable covers
- l - without stanchions (the letter of this code letter is optional in certain combinations)
- mm - very short loading length (four-axle less than 15 m, otherwise less than 18 m)
- p - without shelves (the letter of this code letter is optional in certain combinations)
- r - articulated trolley
S wagons for heavy loads
These wagons are designed in such a way that the possible payload is limited by the route class , but not by the wagon itself. In order to keep the deflection as low as possible, they are relatively short and therefore predominantly provided with the code letters mm .
The six-axle wagons with a drivable wagon floor of the Samm… wagon type are similar to the four-axle Rmm wagons, but are assigned to the special design due to the number of axles. At Deutsche Bahn , the "RRym wagons" with a load weight of 90 t are mainly used here.
A much larger number of four- and six-axle wagons with loading troughs of the wagon type S… hmm… are available for the transport of horizontally loaded coils . Some of them have fixed end walls and movable covers in the form of tarpaulins or telescopic hoods. The DB Shimmns 708 , which is the most common German S-car, can transport coils with a total weight of around 67 t with a dead weight of around 23 t for route class D4.
A four-axle and a six-axle telescopic hood wagon have been standardized by the UIC for coil transport, which have been found in Germany since the 1970s and 1980s, but are now mostly equipped with (lighter) tarpaulins instead of hoods:
| UIC 571-3: Special design freight wagons | ||
|---|---|---|
| design type | Type 1 - four-axis | Type 2 - six-axis |
| genus | Shimms to 1979: Shis |
Sahimms until 1979: Sahis |
| Pivot spacing | 7.0 m | 8.0 m |
| Length over buffers | 12.04 m | 15.0 m |
| Loading length, min. | 10.8 m | 13.76 |
| Net weight, max. | 22.0 t | 34.0 t |
S wagons for combined transport
The cars for combined transport have specific designs and devices for accommodating the various transport units. The UIC has standardized several cars, the most important dimensions of which are given in the following table.
| UIC 571-4: freight wagons for combined transport |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wagon type | Container wagons | Carrying vehicles for piggyback transport | ||||||
| design type | Type 1 four-axis, short |
Type 2 four-axis, long |
Type 4 six-axis |
Type 1 pocket wagon |
Type 2 kangaroo carriage |
Type 3 seesaw car |
||
| genus | Sg [kk] mmss | Sgjkkmmss | Sgss | Sgjss | Saggrss | Skss since 1980: Sdkms |
Skss | Saass |
| Pivot spacing | 10.75 m | 11.30 m | 14.60 m | 15.80 m | 10.70 m | 11.20 m | 11.00 m | 11.60 m |
| Length over buffers | 15.79 m | 16.94 m | 19.64 m | 21.00 m | 27.10 m | 16.44 m | 16.24 m | 31.87 m |
| Loading length, min. | 14.5 m | 14.6 m | 18.4 m | 2 × 12.27 m | - | - | - | |
Sgjkkmms
Saggrss
six-axle articulated trolley
Four-axle flat wagon for ISO containers (Sgns 481 of the DB)
Carrying trolleys for ISO containers and swap bodies
These wagons with the generic symbol Sg… are the most common in combined transport. They can be used to accommodate various transport systems thanks to the hinged support pins. Some of the vehicles are equipped with long-stroke shock absorbers ( code letter j ) as a special load protection device.
- Wagons with a loading length of at least 18.4 m (type 2 according to UIC standard 571-4) take ISO containers with a total length of 60 feet, most of them can optionally also be used to transport swap bodies . The Deutsche Bundesbahn expanded its wagon stock from 2007 by 615 wagons of the wagon type Sgns (delivery by March 2009) with the option of 600 additional wagons (delivery by 2010).
- On flat wagons with a loading length of at least 14.5 m (type 1 according to UIC standard 571-4) there is space for one A swap body, up to two C swap bodies or an ISO container with a corresponding total length.
- Since the 1990s, wagons with a particularly low loading area and a loading length of 15.89 m have also been available for transporting high-cube swap bodies and ISO containers with an interior height of 3 m.
- Two-part articulated flat wagons with 2 × 16.1 m loading length can be loaded with swap bodies or ISO containers with a total length of 80 feet (code letters gg and r ).
The use of the kangaroo and rocker trolleys was limited to single applications in the 1960s to 1980s , although they enabled horizontal handling without crane systems , since at that time the systems for swap bodies were already available nationwide in Western Europe.
The CargoSprinter , designed as a freight railcar for the transport of ISO containers, did not get beyond a test run.
ACTS flat car
As part of the roll-off container transport system (ACTS), these trolleys are especially suitable for the transport of roll-off containers. The flat wagons standardized by the UIC are equipped with three rotating frames for the horizontal handling of the roll-off containers standardized in accordance with UIC Leaflet 591. These can be unscrewed on both sides so that the containers can be turned between flat wagons and trucks. The rotating frames are locked in the middle position for travel. The most important dimensions of such a standardized wagon are shown in the following table.
| UIC 571-4: freight wagons for combined transport |
|
|---|---|
| Wagon type | Carrying trolley for transport containers for horizontal handling |
| design type | Type 1
four-axis |
| genus | Slps, Slps-x |
| Pivot spacing | 14.86 m |
| Length over buffers, max. | 19.99 m |
| Length of the base | 18.66 m |
| Number of rotating frames | 3 |
| Net weight, max. | 27.0 t |
ACTS flat wagons are particularly common in Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Austrian and Swiss cars have the national code letter x .
Carriages for road vehicles
Flat wagons for road vehicles (type S… d… ) are less common, as this type of combined transport is only efficient on certain routes .
- CargoBeamer : This newly developed wagon type (TSI conformity since 8/2010) is used to transport semi-trailers, which are automatically pulled onto the railway wagons using a trough (called a wagon attachment).
- Low-floor wagons for the rolling road (type Saad ... ) are suitable for loading with entire articulated lorries, including tractor units . The deep loading level required for this is achieved through particularly small wheel diameters in the four-axle bogies . This makes the car relatively expensive to build and maintain.
- Pocket wagons (type Sd [g]… ) are used especially for the transport of semi-trailers . However, they can usually also be loaded with ISO containers or swap bodies, which means that empty trips can be avoided.
S-wagons for special purposes
For the transport of round timber , four-axle wagons without a vehicle floor and with fixed, high stanchions are available ( type Snps ).
Gleisjoch transport wagons with a level wagon floor, some of which have special equipment for use in track construction trains, are mostly used as service wagons.
Under certain circumstances, Kübelwagen are not classified as open freight wagons , but are assigned to wagon type S.
Spreizhaubenwagen (Sins, Sfins) are provided with sliding wall wagon used and how those provided for weather-sensitive goods load, but have no fixed roof. The sliding walls are curved inwards in the upper part and connected with a joint, so the walls can be spread open (hence the name) and moved, so that one half of the car is completely exposed and can be loaded from the side with a forklift and from above with a crane - and be discharged.
Cross-generic designations of flat wagons according to their intended use
Container wagons
Container carriers are flat wagons specially equipped with fastening devices for the transport of containers . They are depending on the design to the genera L , R or S . Type K wagons were rarely used, as an 8-foot (2.591 m) high ISO container already towers over the European vehicle gauge. The presence of the container pin is always indicated by the code letter g . Only wagons that are only additionally set up for container transport and have a drivable wagon floor are classified as standard designs. Wagons that are used exclusively for container transport are among the special types. In these, the profiles of the trolley frame are exposed and the container rests only on the beams and the mounting pins.
Most container wagons are designed for the standardized 20 and 40 foot containers. Two-axle wagons of this type can carry two 20-foot or one 40-foot containers; four-axle wagons can accommodate a maximum of two 40-foot containers.
In the USA and Canada , due to the large American clearance profile and the high permissible axle loads, double-deck container wagons can be found on which, depending on the length, two 40 to 53-foot containers, but also in combination with up to four 20-foot containers, one above the other Find space (so-called double-stack cars ). These are mostly multi-part units with Jakobs bogies .
Car transporter
Car transporters are mainly used to deliver brand-new cars and vans to customers.
Since cars are relatively light goods to be transported, European car transporters have two loading levels and, despite their great length, usually only need three axles. The middle axle rests on a turntable and the carriages have a joint in the middle. The cars can be loaded standing over the joint. These wagons are usually open and are therefore class L flat wagons ( see above ).
Before their development, two-axle open standard freight wagons were provided with a second loading level, the end walls were removed and two wagons were firmly coupled and used as car transporters. In the 1950s, their capacity in the Federal Republic was no longer sufficient to transport the VW Beetle . That is why Volkswagen engineers worked with the German Federal Railroad to develop an extra-long car for transporting the brand-new vehicles. The result was a car that could hold ten cars and from 1958 transported them from the factories to the export ports.
In North America, on the other hand, four-axle, closed and not permanently connected wagons are predominantly used for motor vehicle transport.
The motorail coaches used in motorail trains , despite their similar design, do not count as freight wagons , but rather as luggage and thus passenger wagons. In addition to the running gear design and braking equipment for higher speeds, they also differ from freight wagons in that they are equipped with through lines for the train busbar , UIC line and ep line . The difference can be seen in the design and arrangement of the lettering. In the past, identical cars were classified differently.
Historical German division
Turntable wagon
- Generic symbol: H
- Generic district : Regensburg
- UIC generic symbol: Lc ...
Turntable wagons had a platform ( stool ) that could be rotated over a two-axle chassis and were mostly used in pairs to transport long timber or long rails. When used in pairs, the wagons could be coupled either “short” or “long” using special coupling rods, depending on the length of the load. In addition, many wagons had tines on the stools, which meant that no coupling was required when transporting long timber. Many types were also equipped with several side stanchions , which meant that they were also used as single wagons.
The last standard-gauge turntable wagons were manufactured in the German Empire at the end of the 1920s. In later years the reversible stool was often removed and the wagons used as work wagons . This is how the first car transport vehicles (car pendulum) were created at the DR . The DB parked the last turntable wagons in 1974. On some narrow-gauge railways, and especially forest railways , you can still find turntable wagons in use today.
Stake car
- Generic symbol from 1914: R
- Generic district: Stuttgart and Ulm
- UIC generic symbols: Kb ... (with stanchions), Kl ... (without stanchions)
Stake wagons are flat wagons with long wooden, later steel stanchions , which are inserted around the sides of the wagon pointing upwards to secure the load against sliding down. If necessary, tarpaulins or ropes can be attached to the stanchions or the wagon frame to further secure the load. Since the stanchions are inserted, they are called plug-in stanchions.
The term was coined stake cars in Germany since 1911, when all cars of classes S , Sml , oil and Oml "with at least 10 meters long and tall wooden stakes" the additional sub-class characters Ru received. From 1914, the new main class R was introduced for these two-axle wagons “with a loading area of at least 9.9 m in length with or without side walls and with long wooden stanchions” . Stake cars with this loading length were built until shortly after the Second World War. In the 1950s, the DB still procured stake wagons with stanchions in UIC dimensions.
Rail car
- Generic symbols: S and SS
- Generic districts: Augsburg (two-axis), Cologne (four-axis)
- UIC generic symbols: K (two-axis), R (four-axis)
The rail cars represent the original form of the flat car; they often already existed when the railway was being built. The loading lengths were originally based on the length of a railroad track , hence the name. As a rule, they had short iron stanchions and liftable end walls up to 40 cm high. Usually, several transverse loading sleepers are firmly attached to the wooden floor, which means that the wagons are largely unsuitable for transporting vehicles.
Several other types of wagons were derived from them. In terms of numbers, the stake wagons were the most important, the constant improvement of which finally made the construction of two-axle rail cars superfluous from 1940 . Flat-bed wagons, heavy-duty trucks and container wagons are also variants of the rail wagons. Over the decades, the ordinary rail wagons have been replaced by the other, more specialized flat wagons.
Flatbed wagons
- Generic symbols from 1924: St and SSt
- Generic district: Cologne
- UIC generic symbol: U ... i ...
The low-loader wagons have belonged to the special wagons (type U freight wagons) since the UIC classification was introduced . They have been designed for the oversized and heavy transport of goods that would not comply with the loading gauge on normal freight wagons .
Heavy truck
- Generic symbol : SSy
- Generic district: Cologne
- UIC generic designation: R ... (four-axis), S ... (six-axis)
The term heavy goods vehicle is only used colloquially today, as it no longer has an equivalent in the international classification of goods wagons according to UIC. It is commonly understood to mean a relatively short flat bogie wagon with a level wagon floor for the transport of heavy loads such as machines , tanks or slabs .
Until the UIC marking was introduced in 1968, the German heavy-duty trucks built from 1942 onwards were classified according to the additional generic symbols y and ym according to their load weight, load length and other facilities. Essentially, these were the four-axle wagons of the SSy Cologne wagon type (50 t loading weight, loading length 8800/9500 mm, with retractable platform railing) developed for tank transport and the six-axle wagons of the SSyms Cologne wagon type (80 t loading weight, 1120/1190 mm Loading length) as well as their successor types.
Container wagons
- Group symbol from 1949: BT
- Generic district: Offenbach (until 1951)
- UIC generic symbol: Lb ...
In unaccompanied intermodal traffic , also known as container traffic , only containers without motor vehicles are loaded. This “door-to-door” transport by rail and road with large containers was already started by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the 1930s. At that time still with converted freight wagon underframes of various types. In the "door-to-door" traffic of the DR, various standardized small and large containers were already in use, in which liquid or solid goods could be transported. Probably the first container wagon in Germany was the "tank wagon with removable kettles" for the Bolle dairy in Berlin, presented at the railway technology exhibition in Seddin in 1924 . This flat car, built by Friedrich Krupp AG , had four rollable boilers.
After the Second World War, both German railway administrations, the DB and the DR , expanded this combined transport . For this purpose, freight wagons were converted with devices to accommodate standardized containers or new ones were constructed later. These new wagons were the "large container carrying wagons", also known as container carrying wagons (BT wagons).
The first large container wagons were the "BT 10" built in 1949 from two-axle boxcars and the "BT 30" made from open freight wagons. These cars were designed for three large containers. The first newly built container wagon of the DB was the "BTs 50" (Lbs 578) for three large containers, followed by the "BTmms 51" (Laabs 588) for six containers. However, the “BTmms 51” consists of two connected BTs 50. The “BTms 55” (Lbs 584), built from 1955, was the first car for four large containers and also the most built with around 2,438 units. The first car for five large containers was the newly developed "BTmms 58" (Lbs 589) from 1959. 2100 of these were built by 1966. The last development of the DB was the Lbgjs 598 , which was built between 1966 and 1971. These wagons were also set up for the transport of containers, after the expansion of the facilities for the transport of large containers from 1983 they became pure container wagons.
The large containers used were called “pa containers” ( French: pa = porteur aménager) according to international agreements and had their own generic symbols. Example: pa containers with a capacity of 3 to 6 cubic meters, generic symbol "Ddihkr".
From 1964, the Behältertragwagen the UIC marking and therefore the received generic letter L . For example, a “BT 10” became a “Lb 576” and the pa container became a medium container. At the DB, the pa containers were removed from special semi-trailers from the Ackermann company or the “v. Lienen ”as well as with trailers of the“ AG-Weser ”. With the increase in the number of ISO containers from 1966, the pa container traffic declined.
Bibliography and sources
- H. Behrends: Freight Car Archive Volume 1 . Transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1989.
- H. Behrends: Freight Car Archive Volume 2 . Transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1989.
- Deutsche Bundesbahn: freight wagons, large containers, road scooters . Advertising and information office for passenger and goods traffic, Frankfurt (Main) 1960.
- Gerd Wolff: The car transporter . Güterwagen-Lexikon DB, EK-Verlag Freiburg 1991 and 2005, ISBN 3-88255-654-4
- Stefan Carstens: The freight wagons of DB AG - numbers, facts, developments . MIBA-Verlag Nürnberg 1998
- Stefan Carstens: Freight wagons Volume 5, stake, rail and flat wagons . MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg 2008
- Wolfgang Diener: Painting and designation of freight cars . Publishing house Dr. Bernhard Abend, Stuttgart 1992
