The paper presents a new design of the gondola car hatch cover to increase the carrying capacity. The results of calculations the CAD model of the gondola car hatch cover showed that the maximum equivalent stresses do not exceed 216.4 MPa, the maximum equivalent displacements are 3.323 mm, and the maximum equivalent strains are 6.834×10 -4 . A new design of the gondola car hatch cover helps reduce the tare weight of 1.2%, i.e. increase the load capacity of the gondola car of 0.9 tons. The proposed design of the gondola hatch cover allows one to reduce the amount of rolling stock in the train by one unit while maintaining the total mass of the train.

For the first time, a theoretical dependence was obtained to determine the filler concentration of the composite tape. On the basis of this dependence, a composite tape with variable mechanical and tribological properties can be obtained. It is proposed that the composite tape is welded onto the cylindrical surface of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster. The bench tests made it possible to determine the degree of wear of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster by means of a welded composite tape. The wear value of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster with welded-on composite tapes is 0.15–0.18 mm per 10,000 km of a freight car’s mileage. The predicted service life of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster with a welded-on composite tape is 320-420 thousand km.