History
Successor of the Wagon works in Burgas today “Transwagon” AD has proven itself as the major manufacturer of railway freight wagons in Bulgaria. The beginning was more than one hundred years ago in 1890 when a workshop was established for the repair of locomotives and wagons along the newly opened then railway linking South of Bulgaria and the port of Burgas. As a step forward was the making of the first new freight wagon in 1951 which in essence was the start of the Bulgarian wagon building industry. Dynamic development followed.
In the 50s and 60s were developed the constructions for the open and covered wagons for transportation of different goods, in the 70s – for flat wagons and in the 80s the accent was on the manufacturing of specialized wagons to allow machine loading and unloading and if needed protection of the goods transported against the environmental influence. The production lines of the Wagon works in Burgas consecutively manufactured a wagon for the transportation of grain cargo and chemical fertilizers, a “Dumpcar” type wagon, a wagon for the transportation of coal with saddle bottom, a wagon for the transportation of phosphates and timber particles, a wagon for the transportation and throwing aside of ballast and sand, a flat wagon with cover, a wagon for the transportation of iron ore, built to meet the requirements of AAR and many others. Some of the latest products are the wagons of a 22,5 axle load designed and exhibited at the international transport shows in Munich in 2001 and in Berlin in 2002 namely wagon with a saddle bottom of Falns type and wagon with opening roof of Tamns type.
In the 90s and to date the company has been also specializing in the performing of overhaul, reconstruction and modernization of the freight wagons due to the necessity of maintaining and renovating the large wagon park for the scope of Bulgaria as well as in relation to the export of second hand wagons.
Some of the major customers with orders of this kind have been the Bulgarian National Railway Infrastructure company “BDZ”, the “Kremikovtzi” company, “Lukoil Neftochim” Burgas, Solvay-Sodi JSC – Devnia, Umicore – Pirdop and others. Just as well as companies from Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. The privatization carried out in 1999, introduced the “Transwagon” joined-stock company into the 21st century as 100 % privately-owned joined-stock company with the majority of the stocks held by its managerial team.
Following several major enlargements and reconstruction projects, the company now has an impressive area of 200 000 square meters and is suitably linked with railway and road infrastructures of the city and the country.
“Transwagon” AD aims to be close to its customers and to satisfy their specific needs and requirements while designing and manufacturing various types of freight wagons for normal gauge of 1435 mm and for narrow gauge of 760 mm.
“Transwagon” AD has qualified design engineers, who develop new and improve the existing design of freight wagons. They use the latest technical achievements, meet the current international regulations, standards and requirements: UIC, ERRI, EN and etc. For carrying out necessary measurements for strength, for braking system and for preparing of drawing and specifications are applied contemporary computer programmes like AutoCAD and INVERTOR.