Custom Steel Sections for Railroad Cars and Rail Tracks
Steel accounts for approximately 15% of the mass of a high-speed train and is the dominant structural material in freight wagons. The Montanstahl Group supplies special steel profiles for both rolling stock and rail track applications, covering structural sections for undercarriages, car bodies, doors, and wall systems, as well as special rail profiles and track components for applications where standard hot-rolled rail products cannot meet the geometry or volume requirements. Profiles are produced across all of Montanstahl’s manufacturing technologies: hot extrusion, hot rolling, laser welding, and cold drawing, with section development carried out in close cooperation with train and system manufacturers.
Railroad Cars: Steel for Undercarriages and Car Bodies
Rail transport relies on steel throughout: in the trains themselves, in the rails, and in the surrounding infrastructure. Steel accounts for around 15% of the mass of a high-speed train, while freight and goods wagons are built almost entirely from it. The main structural steel components of a passenger train are the bogies, which carry the wheels, axles, bearings, and motors, and the car body shell. The Montanstahl Group supplies a wide range of special steel profiles used in both freight and passenger cars, covering all technical and structural requirements from undercarriage members to body cladding systems.
Product Range: from Bogey Frames to Door Systems and Cladding
For undercarriages, Montanstahl produces longitudinal beams, floor carriers, perforated rails, bogey frames, roof connectors, corner columns, and cross members. For bodies, doors, and wall systems, the range covers door frames, centre columns, sleeve sections, guide rails, cladding and fitting profiles, and gutters. Very few of these sections exist in a standard catalogue: each is typically custom-designed by the train manufacturer and produced to specific drawings. Hot extrusion has proven particularly well suited to the complex closed and semi-closed geometries common in railroad car bodies, offering high flexibility on profile design without the tooling cost constraints of conventional rolling.
Co-Development with Train Manufacturers Across All Production Technologies
Montanstahl does not only manufacture profiles to drawings: for complex rolling stock applications, the section geometry is developed in direct cooperation with the train or system manufacturer, so that structural requirements, manufacturing constraints, and assembly logistics are all factored in before production begins. Hot extrusion has proven the most flexible production route for complex railroad car section shapes, but laser welding and hot rolling are equally available within the same group, meaning a complete set of sections for a car body or undercarriage can be sourced from a single qualified supplier with consistent quality and documentation.
Rail Tracks: When Standard Rolling Mill Products Are Not Enough
The worldwide demand for steel rails is enormous, and the large majority of standard rail is hot-rolled to established international profiles. However, specific rails and rail track components fall outside what conventional rolling mills can produce, either because the cross-section geometry is too complex or because the required volumes are too small to justify a standard mill campaign. Rails are not simply steel beams: they are precision structural components where head geometry, web dimensions, and foot profile all interact with the track system, the rolling stock, and the local regulatory framework. Country-specific differences in rail head, web, and foot design mean that what is standard in one market may require custom production in another. Montanstahl’s expertise lies in exactly these special applications.
Special Rail Profiles: Joints, Fasteners, Switches, Cranes, and Conductor Rails
Montanstahl produces a wide range of special rail profiles and components for track applications: connection profiles for rail track joints, rail fastening profiles, switch opening profiles, special rails for crane systems, tramways, and miniature tracks, and conductor rails in soft iron for power supply systems. Each of these represents a deviation from the standard hot-rolled rail product, requiring a production route that can handle the specific cross-section geometry and the often limited quantities involved. As with rolling stock, Montanstahl collaborates directly with the customer to deliver not just individual profiles but comprehensive solutions for complete track systems, with all technical requirements integrated into the production process from the start.
Application Context
This product area sits within Montanstahl’s Transportation & Railways segment, where special profiles in carbon and stainless steel are produced for rolling stock manufacturers, rail infrastructure contractors, and system integrators requiring sections outside the standard mill catalogue. The Montanstahl Group’s multi-technology production capability, combining hot extrusion, hot rolling, laser welding, and cold drawing, means that almost any cross-section required by the railway industry can be produced from a single supplier, with section development carried out in direct cooperation with the customer’s engineering team. Profiles are supplied to rail projects worldwide.