AISI | Railcar

### Railcar

AISI created its Railcar Market Program in 1991 to develop a strategy for recapturing the unit train coal gondola market by replacing aluminum with high-strength low alloy (HSLA) steels.

Steel is reliable, easy to fabricate and repair, and relatively inexpensive. High-strength steels provide an opportunity for weight reduction.

The program was successful in establishing design concepts for advancing steel railcar construction with HSLA. It identified and developed a number of cost-effective design concepts to advance overall steel railcar technology now being adopted by railcar builders. Welding studies demonstrated that by using certain welding enhancements, the fatigue life of high-strength steels could be improved.

The Railcar Market Program was concluded in 2004.

Publications

Report on the Use of High-Strength Steel in Freight Cars
The report provides a brief historical background on the use of High Strength-Low Alloy Steels in the construction of railway freight cars. It includes a description of in-service performance of 70 ksi steels in freight cars.

A Guide to the Use of High-Strength Steel in Freight Cars
High-strength steels offers tremendous opportunities to railcar designers to reduce tare weight and increase the capacity of freight cars. The guide discusses an approach to fatigue design, the means to increasing fatigue life, and the effect of these steels on fabrication methods.

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