ABSTRACT
Unpowered rail vehicles are generally referred to as ‘cars’ in the United States and as ‘wagons’ in the remainder of the world. In this chapter, all unpowered rail vehicles will be referred to as wagons. Wagons are used to transport various types of cargo and the design varies depending on the type of the cargo, the train consist and rail route. These various design differences will be presented in the following subsections. A wagon consists of a number of components which, depending on the design, can include:
• Body; • Wagon frame (underframe); • Bogies; • Wheelsets; • Suspension components; • Couplings; • Draft gear; • Brakes.
