Types of freight cars

Types of freight cars

Freight cars (US), goods wagons (UIC), or trucks (UK) exist in a wide variety of types, adapted to carry of a host of goods. Originally there were very few types of cars; the flat car or wagon, and the boxcar (US/Canada), covered wagon(UIC) or van (UK), were among the first. Freight cars or goods wagons are generally categorized as follows:

• boxcar (US/Canada), covered wagon (UIC) or van (UIC): fully enclosed car with side or end doors.
  • covered wagon (UIC), van (UIC) or boxcar (US/Canada): fully enclosed wagon for moisture-susceptible goods.
  • Hicube boxcars: high capacity high clearance boxcar.
  • Refrigerator car or Reefer (US/Canada): refrigerated boxcar for fruits and vegetables.
• CargoBeamer
• CargoSprinter: self-propelled container flat.
• Coil car: specialized flat or gondola for heavy sheet metal rolls.
• Combine car: combined passenger car and boxcar in one wagon.
• Covered hopper: specialized hopper car with a cover for weather sensitive loads (grain, pellets,...)
• Flatcar (or flat): for larger bulky loads. Specialized flat cars include:
  • Aircraft Parts Car: with fixtures for large aircraft parts.
  • Autorack (also called auto carriers): multi-level flat for automobiles.
  • Centerbeam cars (US): specialized flat for building materials.
  • Conflat (UK): specialized flat for containers.
  • Container flatcar
  • Depressed-center flatcar or Wellcar or Lowmac (UK): for high clearance loads (transformers, boilers,...)
  • Double-Stack Car or Wellcar: for shipping containers with low deck to allow double stacking.
  • Rolling highway: a train designed to carry trucks and/or semi-trailers
  • Semi-trailer flatcar
  • Schnabel car: for unusually large and heavy industrial equipment (transformers, boilers, reactors, distillation columns,...)
• Gondola (US): car with open top, enclosed sides and ends for bulk goods.
  • Open wagon (UIC): railway wagon with an open top but enclosed sides and ends, for bulk commodities and other goods that might slide off.
• 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/Canada): An open wagon (UIC) or gondola (US/Canada) with a tipping trough, often found in mines. See also Tippler.
• Mine car.
• Mine cart.
• Modalohr Road Trailer Carriers.
• Presflo and Prestwin (UK), bulk cement wagons.
• Quarry tub: a type of railway or tramway wagon used in quarries.
• Roll-block: a train designed to carry another railway train.
• Side dump cars: used to transport roadbed materials such as, ballast, riprap, and large stone, and are able to unload anywhere along the track.
• 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: ventilated box car for livestock.
• Tank car (US/Canada), tank wagon (UIC) or Tanker: for liquid or gas.
  • British Railway Milk Tank Wagon
  • Milk car: specialized tank car for milk.
  • Tank cars for bulk loading
  • "Whale Belly" car: high capacity tank car with a "belly".
• 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/Canada). 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.