RUSSIA: United Wagon Co’s TikhvinChemMash plant has begun series production of Type 15-6880-01 tank wagons for methanol producer Metafrax. 

This is the second model of UWC tank wagon to use modern design techniques to increase capacity while complying with the GOST Tpr loading gauge, with the capacity of 71·7 tonnes or 94 m3 being 4·5 tonnes or 8·5 m3 more than typical older designs.

Alexey Sokolov, First Deputy CEO for Strategy & Product at UWC, said increasing payloads within the limits imposed by existing rail infrastructure offered a ‘logical and effective’ way to increase rail freight volumes, and Russian Railways had confirmed that the Tpr stock could operate ‘practically without restrictions’.

‘These are wagons of the future, to which there are no counterparts in Russia or in the entire post-Soviet space’, said Igor Chukreev, Head of Metafrax’s transport department. ‘We will be the first company to load, dispatch and evaluate them, and this work is of great interest to us.’

UWC estimates that around 1 400 methanol tank wagons will reach the end of their lives over the next five years, about a third of the national fleet.

• Executive Director Andrey Krivchenkov described how United Wagon Co is developing the next generation of 1520 mm gauge wagons in a feature article in the September 2016 issue of Railway Gazette International, which subscribers can access in the digital archive.