SIC 3743 Railroad Equipment
SIC 3743
This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in building and rebuilding locomotives (including frames and parts not elsewhere classified) of any type or gauge; and railroad, street, and rapid transit cars and car equipment for operations on rails for freight and passenger service. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing mining cars are classified in SIC 3532: Mining Machinery and Equipment, Except Oil and Gas Field Machinery and Equipment. Repair shops owned and operated by railroads or local transit companies that repair locomotives or cars for their own use are classified in various transportation industries. Establishments primarily engaged in repairing railroad cars on a contract or fee basis are classified in SIC 4789: Transportation Services, Not Elsewhere Classified; and those repairing locomotive engines on a contract or fee basis are classified in SIC 7699: Repair Shops and Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified.
333911
Pump and Pumping Equipment Manufacturing
336510
Railroad Rolling Stock
In 2003 the railroad equipment industry reported total shipments of approximately $7.51 billion to the nation's rail systems. The industry suffered through a downward turn in the national economy during the early 2000s, which resulted in revenues decreasing by more than 25 percent since 1999, when the industry shipped goods valued at $10.35 billion. In 2003 the industry employed 24,675 persons, down from 35,511 in 1999.
In late 2003 the national economy began to recover, and the railroad equipment industry sparked to life in 2004 as railroads placed new orders to meet rapidly growing transportation demands. Orders for rail cars and locomotives were both up significantly during 2004. This growth cycle continued into 2005, leading to the highest backlog of orders since the late 1990s. Despite the renewal in the industry, the high cost of steel held down profit margins and limited the net incomes of suppliers.
The nation's freight railroads carry more than one-third of all intercity ton-miles of freight. Their rails are used for all commuter rail traffic and for Amtrak's long-distance passenger traffic, except for the Northeast corridor, which Amtrak owns. The railroads rely upon suppliers to provide equipment, supplies, many services, and the research and development required to help them improve productivity.
Railroad equipment manufacturers sell products not only to the railroads, but also to leasing companies, manufacturing concerns, farmers, and other entities that use the rails for the transportation of their commodities.
Unlike flatcars and boxcars, which are purchased or leased by the railroads, rail tank cars are owned primarily by chemical manufacturers and other manufacturers, such as food and fabricated metal products/machinery companies, that use the rails to transport goods on a regular basis. Rail market share has already suffered attrition at the hands of the trucking industry and other transportation sectors. Since 1945, the railroads' share of the freight business by ton-miles has fallen almost in half (to 42 percent by the mid-2000s), whereas the truckers' share has climbed from 5 percent to more than 28 percent. By revenue, the railroads account for 10 percent of total intercity freight, and trucks account for 80 percent.
The rail industry is the transport method of choice for commodities that are not "time-sensitive," such as nonperishable products, and for goods that need to be transported over distances greater than 500 miles. For short-haul food shipments, trucks have captured most of the traffic in the freight market. Intermodal transportation, where manufacturers use the railways to transport their goods for a leg of the journey via trailers and containers and then switch to another form of transport such as trucks or ships, has increased.
Intermodal loading has almost doubled in capacity since 1980, and in 2003 the intermodal sector hit a record high volume of 9.9 million containers employed on U.S. railroads. In 2004 intermodal traffic accounted for approximately 18 percent of Class I railroad revenues. In the first half of the 2000s coal continued to be the single most important commodity within the railroad industry, accounting for 44 percent of tonnage and 21 percent of Class I railroad revenues.
The Railway Progress Institute (RPI), originally founded as the Railway Business Association in 1908, is the international trade association of suppliers to the nation's freight railroads and rail passenger systems. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, it has more than 100 members. The association's objectives are threefold: to support and promote a strong nationwide free enterprise system of railroads for the United States; to support and promote rail rapid transit and light rail systems in major metropolitan areas; and to represent and further RPI members' interests.
In 1992 the Rail Supply and Service Coalition (RSSC) was formed to act as a lobbying group to Washington and state governments. The group consists of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association, the Railway Supply Association, and Railway Systems Suppliers Inc. The coalition actively represents the interests of its member groups to further their bargaining position on federal and state issues affecting the industry.
The railroads were one of the nation's first big businesses. With their intricate network of lines, these companies gave inland points access to navigable waters and joined these waters to the seaboard, linked farms and villages to the growing industrial cities, opened millions of acres of land to cultivation, provided the means to ship raw materials and finished goods quickly and cheaply, and created billions of dollars in capital for reinvestment in the nation's economy.
At the outset of the 1830s the steam locomotive made its arrival. On Christmas Day of 1830, the Best Friend of Charleston, the first locomotive built for sale in the United States, made its maiden run. The nation's rail system grew rapidly during the next several decades. The lines largely served cities along the Atlantic coast. New England and the mid-Atlantic states had more than 50 percent of the total track mileage in the United States. American railroads, however, did not have a uniform track gauge (distance between the rails). This confusion of gauges necessitated expensive and inefficient transshipment of goods where lines of different gauges intersected.
Throughout this time period, the companies constantly improved tracking and rolling equipment. The first railroads were built on tracks of iron straps or bars fastened to wooden rails that were attached to blocks of stone embedded in the earth. The iron straps often broke loose under the weight of the passing trains and damaged the bottom of the cars. In response to this, the iron T-rail was developed and wooden ties replaced the stone underneath the rails. A roadbed surface covered with crushed stone or gravel supported the track. Originally most of the engines were imported from England, but Philadelphia jewelry manufacturer Matthias Baldwin entered the business in...
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