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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