Railroad Car - Freight Cars

Freight Cars

Freight cars (UK: "wagons" or "trucks") exist in a wide variety of types, adapted to the ideal carriage of a whole host of different things. Originally there were very few types of cars; the boxcar (UK: "van"), a closed box with side doors, was among the first.

• Aircraft Parts Car
• Autorack (also called auto carriers) are specialized multi-level cars designed for transportation of unladen automobiles.
• Boxcar (US), covered wagon (UIC) or van (UIC): box shape with roof and side or end doors.
• CargoSprinter: a self-propelled container flatcar.
• Centerbeam cars
• Coil car: a specialized type of rolling stock designed for the transport of coils of sheet metal, particularly steel. They are considered a subtype of the gondola car, though they bear little resemblance to a typical gondola.
• Conflat (UK): A flat truck for carrying containers.
• Covered wagon (UIC), van (UIC) or boxcar (US): fully enclosed wagon for moisture-susceptible goods.
• Covered hopper: similar to open top hoppers but with a cover for weather and temperature-sensitive loads.
• Double-Stack Car (or well car): specialized cars designed for carrying shipping containers. These have a "well" with a very low bottom floor to allow double stacking.
• Flatcar (or flat): for larger loads that do not load easily into a boxcar. Specialized types such as the depressed-center flatcar (aka "well car") exist for oversize items or the Schnabel car for even larger and heavier loads. With the advent of containerized freight, special types of flatcars were built to carry standard shipping containers and semi-trailers.
• Gondola (US): railroad car with an open top but enclosed sides and ends, for bulk commodities and other goods that might slide off.
• Hicube boxcars
• Hoppers: similar to gondolas but with bottom dump doors for easy unloading of things like coal, ore, grain, cement, ballast and the like. Short hoppers for carrying iron ore are called ore jennys in the US.
• Lorry (US): An open wagon (UIC) or gondola (US) with a tipping trough, often found in mines. See also Tippler.
• Lowmac (UK): A low-floor wagon for carrying machinery.
• Milk car: a tank car for carrying milk.
• Modalohr Road Trailer Carriers.
• Open wagon (UIC): railway wagon with an open top but enclosed sides and ends, for bulk commodities and other goods that might slide off.
• Refrigerator car (or reefer): a refrigerated subtype of boxcar.
• Roll-block: a train designed to carry another railway train.
• Rolling highway: a train designed to carry trucks and/or semi-trailers
• Side Dump Cars: used to transport roadbed materials such as, ballast, riprap, and large stone, and are able to unload anywhere along the track.
• Schnabel car: specialized freight car for heavy or oversized loads.
• Slate wagon: specialized freight cars used to transport slate.
• Spine car, a center sill and side sill only car with lateral arms to support intermodal containers. No deck.
• Stock Car: for the transport of livestock.
• Tank car (US), tank wagon (UIC) (or tanker): for the transportation of liquids or gases.
• Tippler (UK): An open wagon with no doors or roof which are unloaded by being inverted on a Wagon Tippler (UK) or Rotary car dumper (US). They are, used for minerals, such as coal, limestone and iron ore as well as other bulk cargo. See also Lorry.
• Transporter wagon: a wagon designed to carry other railway equipment.
• "Whale Belly" car, a tank car with a "belly".
• CargoBeamer

The vast majority of freight cars fit into the above categories.

• American style Hopper Car.

• Tank Car.

• U.S. type Boxcar.

• Articulated Well Cars with containers

• A Spine car with a 20 ft tanktainer and an open-top 20 ft container with canvas cover