Transmash no more in the TMH's structure

On 12 July 2024, Transmashholding (TMH) sold its Transmash works of Engels, which is a manufacturer of wagons and snow removal equipment. As a result of the transaction, Traktornye zavody became the major shareholder of Transmash.

Earlier, in June, Traktornye zavody acquired Bezhitskaya stal, of Bryansk, from TMH. The Transmashholding intends to focus on the development and production of complex railway equipment (locomotives, EMUs, passenger cars, metros etc.), leaving the segment of wagons and castings to a company that specialises in the relevant subject matter.

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On 15 June 2017 Transmashholding subsidiary Transmash, of Engels, announced that it had concluded acceptance testing of its Model 13-6954 platform wagon, which is stated as the first of its kind to be built in Russia for 160 km/h running. Testing was realised by VNIKTI and VNIIZhT specialists. The wagon is 15,270 mm long over couplings and is mounted on Model 18-6960 bogies. These were developed from the type used for RIC carriages, with minor improvements applied, but still using only certified components. 

The wagon’s loading deck has only two pairs of anchoring locations for containers, positioned 40 feet apart, but nevertheless suitable for use with 45-foot containers too. There are also supplementary anchoring devices to prevent containers from falling off the wagon at high speeds. The wagon weighs 24 t tare, and can carry payloads of up to 36 t. The result is that it has a maximum axle-load of only 15 t, which is nevertheless still sufficient given the type of loads found in most containers, which require fast delivery. 

It would enable block trains of these wagons to run to timings, and in paths designed for express passenger services. That would reduce the end-to-end journey times for such block trains by around a half, without the need for further infrastructure upgrade investment. 

Initial plans at that time were for the operation of rakes of 30 such wagons designed by Kompleksnye skorostnye tekhnologii (KST - High Speed Complex Technology). RZD has had on the cards a design for a 160 km/h freight electric locomotive, possible to run block trains of up to 71 of these wagons in length. At InnoTrans 2016 Transmash and KST signed a Letter of Intent for the construction of 2,800 160 km/h platform wagons by the end of 2019. Particular interest in these vehicles was demonstrated by Pochta Rossii, which has ordered 480 wagons for its pilot projects in this field. 

However, apart of the two Model 13-6954 prototypes from 2017, there was no mention of batch production at Transmash, Engels, let alone the aforementioned RZD locomotive. Neverthelss, other manufacturers have emerged who have developed similar platform wagons.