North Americas largest railcar under construction in Pennsylvania
Published: May 25, 2012
NEW CASTLE, Pa. – Kasgro Rail is nearing completion of the largest railroad car ever built in North America. The 36-axle Schnabel car is 231 feet long and 18 feet high. The company had to add 15 employees to build the car.
A Schnabel car is designed to carry heavy and oversized loads in such a way that the load itself makes up part of the car. The load is suspended between the two ends of the cars by lifting arms; the lifting arms are connected to a pivot above an assembly of pivots and frames that carry the weight of the load and the lifting arm.
The new car is 231 feet long and sits 18 feet off the ground, bigger than a similar car built by Germany’s Krupp in 1982. “So we had to replicate all the drawings,” Kasgro President and CEO Joe Crawford told WKBN News. “Redo all the drawings to U.S. standards. We’ve been building this car for a year.”
The word Schnabel comes from the German word Tragschnabelwagen, meaning “carrying-beak-wagon,” because of the usually tapered shape of the lifting arms, which resemble a bird's beak.
The new car is headed to the port of Charleston, S.C., in July to move equipment to expand and build power plants for Westinghouse Nuclear.
