Freight car orders, backlog up sharply
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefThe backlog of new freight railcars on order and undelivered climbed to 19,267 on Oct. 1, vs. 14,930 on July 1; 12,990 on April 1; and 10,442 on Dec. 31, 2009, according to information supplied by the Railway Supply Institute.
In the third quarter, 9,104 new cars were ordered and 3,708 were delivered, compared with 4,986 orders and 2,946 deliveries in the second quarter, and compared with 5,078 orders and 4,125 deliveries in the first quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2009, there were 2,821 orders and 3,467 deliveries.
In all of 2009, 8,336 new cars were ordered and 21,682 were delivered.
In 2008, orders totaled 33,235, and deliveries totaled 59,914.
