SCT Europe Barber Railway Freight Bogies

SCT Europe supplies UIC and AAR-type bogies for worldwide railway freight wagon applications. Our range of products includes the Barber Ride range of European bogies up to 25.4t axle load, and AAR Barber three-piece bogies and heavy-haul bogies up to 35.7t axle load. Complete bogies are delivered directly to the customer.

Easy Ride bogies

The Barber Easy Ride 25.4t (BER25.4) is a UK-approved 2.0m
wheelbase axle load bogie designed for 101.6t GLW coal, aggregate and steel wagons. BER25.4
was designed to be a safe, reliable and low-maintenance suspension system.

The Barber Easy Ride 22.5t (BER22.5) is a UIC track-friendly
bogie for axle loads of 90t GLW UK wagons, or 90t/100t GLW wagons in the rest of Europe.

BER25.4 and BER22.5 have both been designed to comply as constituent parts under the TSI regulations’ technical specifications for interoperability relating to the rolling stock – freight wagons subsystem.

Low Ride bogies

The Barber Low Ride 15.5 (BLR15.5) bogie has a wheel diameter of 630mm, and a 746mm wagon platform height. It is designed for 62t GLW UK intermodal freight wagons. The Barber Low Ride 14.25 (BLR14.25) bogie has a wheel diameter of 577mm, a 720mm wagon platform height and is ideal for 57t GLW UK intermodal freight wagons.

The Barber Low Ride is designed for intermodal wagons operating in restricted loading gauge environments such as the United Kingdom. A bogie wheel diameter of 577mm or 630mm allows high cube boxes to be transported beneath overhead electrified lines, bridges and tunnels.

Benefits of Barber Ride railway freight bogies

Barber Ride bogies are equipped with either lever-push brakes or bogie-mounted integrated-push brakes.

Low-life cycle cost features of Barber Ride bogies include:

• High-strength cast steel frame – extended fatigue life
• Only two welded joints, each 785mm long
• Passive wheelset steering up to plus or minus 8mm
• Friction damping components designed for one million miles of service
• Robust design imparts high resistance to damage / frame distortion in the event of derailment
• Composite brake blocks
• Friction device to hold brake block in optimum position to avoid tapered blocks
• Swivel bearings top and bottom on the brake levers allow the brake beam to move laterally to ensure the brake block is always located in optimum position
• Zero longitudinal displacement side bearers
• Axle box-link bar for easy removal of wheelsets

All frame surfaces of the Barber Ride bogies are accessible for painting / corrosion protection and all frame attachments are welded to machined preparations.

The dimensions effecting suspension performance are machined to close tolerances and the lower centre pivot is cast integral with the bolster, so no distortion occurs due to welding. The wheelset interlock device provides access to bearings at all times.

Vampire dynamic model

Subsequent to extensive testing of BER25.4, which included UIC
518 assessment, a Vampire dynamic model was produced by Manchester Metropolitan University. The model is now fully validated for UK freight acceptance and has been accepted by the UK Rail Safety and Standards Board to approve the ride performance of new wagons equipped with BER25.4.

Barber three-piece bogies

The world fleet of Barber three-piece bogies is estimated to be over 3 million. In North America over one million wagons are equipped with Barber bogies.

Outside North America, Barber bogies are used in a variety of applications on rail gauges between 1.0m and 1.6m in Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Guinea, Kenya, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, India and China.

Barber AAR-type three-piece bogies

The S-2-E bogie, with an axle load of up to 32.5t, is a stabilised, variable-damped bogie for high-speed, heavy axle-load environments. The advantage of the S-2-E is its higher warp-resistance and optimised damping. Equipped with split wedges and shear pads, the S-2-E offers exceptional ride performance

The Barber S-2-HD, with an axle load of up to 35.7t, has been the heavy-haul bogie of preference since the early 1980s. The bogie has been continually improved and several variations are now available. This bogie is ideally suited to accept the Barber frame brace, which significantly improves the warp stiffness of the bogie.