Optimization of the Technical Parameters of Universal Freight Wagons

The present study is devoted to the selection of a new criterion for the optimization of the specific volume/area of universal freight wagons. The currently used criterion—minimum of reduced costs—is practically not applied and the costs for different railway administrations and regions differ significantly. This leads to insufficient use of the effective volume/area of the wagon and to insufficient profitability when carrying out transport work. An analysis of the technical parameters of freight wagons was made, based on which the new criterion—loading tare coefficient—was proposed, depending only on the type of cargo and the wagon parameters. In the analysis, the classical methods for determining the technical parameters were used and an original method for finding the minimum of the new criterion was proposed. These methods were applied to optimize the parameters of a real wagon and the results show that it is expedient to reduce the volume of the wagon. With the optimized wagon, the same transport work can be carried out, as the number of trains for its execution is reduced. The conducted studies can be used by the designers of new freight wagons and by the companies—both the carriers or lessors of wagons.