A new BAM gondola car was successfully tested in Primorye. It was unloaded at the Sukhodol port using a car dumper. The car’s load capacity is 151 tons, and its body volume is 166 m³. According to the Federal Freight Company, the BAM meets safety requirements and has already completed trips in various regions. The successful unloading is another step toward increasing the carrying capacity of the Eastern Polygon, according to the press service of JSC Uralvagonzavod.
A key feature of the unloading is that the BAM’s dimensions differ significantly from standard gondola cars and the eight-axle gondola car model 12-5991 Ural. This required additional testing of its compatibility with the port infrastructure. Everything went smoothly. comments.
According to Andrey Abakumov, Deputy General Director of the UVZ Concern for Civil Products, the BAM is not just another modernization, but a systemic solution for heavy-haul transportation: “The engineering basis of the model is the original design of the coupling device, which allows for the formation of heavy-haul trains while maintaining maintainability on the existing network without modifying the track infrastructure. We intend to expand the range of such products, focusing on market demand for cost-effective and technologically advanced rolling stock. The results of freight transportation tests confirm the intended technical and operational characteristics.”
The BAM gondola car was created by engineers from the Ural Carriage Design Bureau at the request of Federal Freight Company. The prototype was manufactured at Uralvagonzavod facilities. The model was designed for use on heavy-haul trains weighing up to 9,000 tons and is adapted to the existing infrastructure without rebuilding it.
Federal Freight Company General Director Dmitry Murev emphasized: “The BAM gondola car has already made several trips on The BAM, operating in the Middle Urals and the Far East, Udmurtia, Kuzbass, and Perm Krai, has proven the versatility of its technical and operational characteristics and compliance with traffic safety requirements. The BAM was designed and developed within the framework of the Russian Railways holding company’s Scientific and Technological Development Strategy, with the potential to form heavy-haul trains weighing 9,000 tons. The successful unloading of the BAM using a tandem car dumper is another step toward achieving the state objective of increasing the carrying capacity of the railway infrastructure, including the Eastern Polygon, which is currently in high demand.
Mark Zolochevsky, Deputy Technical Director of the Sukhodol Seaport, said: «The Sukhodol Seaport is interested in implementing the state objective of increasing the carrying capacity of the railway infrastructure, as this will allow the port to increase production indicators and cargo handling volumes. The use of gondola cars with improved technical characteristics makes it possible to transport greater volumes of cargo without increasing the actual length of the rolling stock. The technical capabilities of the seaport’s equipment allow for the implementation of Unloading of various types of gondola cars. To ensure the unloading of a full train of eight-axle gondola cars, model 12-5992 «BAM», it is necessary to modify the software to take into account the reduced length of the gondola car bodies.»
The gondola car, model 12-5992 «BAM», has improved technical specifications – a load capacity of 151 tons and a body volume of 166 m³. It has different technical parameters compared to the two innovative gondola cars, in particular, a greater width of 3.34 m (+0.14 m) and a height of 4.1 m (+0.23 m). This gives the car a length of 21.96 m (which is 5.88 m shorter than the length of the two innovative gondola cars) and allows a single train consisting of 45 «BAM» cars to carry up to 6,795 tons of cargo, which is 27.6% more than the innovative gondola cars with improved technical characteristics.