Concarril

Constructora Nacional de Carros de Ferrocarril SA, known as Concarril, or less commonly as CNCF,^[4] was a government-owned major rail vehicle manufacturer located in Ciudad Sahagún, Mexico,^[5] from the 1950s through 1991. It manufactured a wide variety of passenger and freight cars, as well as locomotives. Formed in 1952^[1] (some sources say 1954),^[3][6][7] it was owned by the Mexican government. After accumulating too much debt, it ceased operating in December 1991 and was sold to Bombardier, Inc. in April 1992 for around U.S.$68 million.^[3][8] At that time, it was the largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in Mexico.^[3] Production resumed at the Ciudad Sahagún facilities after Bombardier took over.

A Concarril-built light rail car on the Guadalajara light rail system in 1990

The Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM, or NdeM), the country's government-owned railroad company until the 1990s, purchased large numbers of railroad cars from Concarril, including a variety of freight and passenger cars. The latter included sleeping cars in addition to conventional coaches. Dining cars were not one of its regular products; it built its first such car in 1989, for FNM.^[9] The company also built locomotives for FNM and other railroads, and undertook rebuilding (or refurbishment) work on older locomotives and coaches.

Passenger railway cars built by Concarril for urban rail transit use included subway/metro cars for the Mexico City Metro and light rail vehicles (LRVs) for the Guadalajara light rail system, the Monterrey Metro and the Xochimilco Light Rail line of Mexico City's STE.^[5][10] The company made both steel-wheeled and rubber-tired subway cars for Mexico City.^[6][7] It also supplied subway cars to the Santiago Metro, in Chile;^[5] those were part of an effort by the Mexican government in 1990 to boost exports of manufactured goods, which also encompassed a planned sale of 200 Concarril-built freight cars to Venezuela.^[11]

Rubber-tired Mexico City subway train of type NM-73, built by Concarril

Successors

In spring 1992, the company was acquired from the Mexican government by Bombardier Inc., of Canada,^[3][7] becoming part of Bombardier Transportation, as a subsidiary named Bombardier-Concarril SA. Production resumed later the same year. For some types of vehicles, Bombardier initially maintained use of the same designs as had been used by Concarril, such as for light rail cars for the Monterrey Metro, where a batch of 23 built in 1990 by Concarril and a batch of 25 built in 1992–93 by Bombardier were described by one writer as being "almost identical".^[10]

In 1998, the Greenbrier Companies, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, entered into a joint venture with Bombardier to manufacture freight railroad cars at the Ciudad Sahagún plant.^[6] The partnership was named Greenbrier-Concarril LLC, and Greenbrier subsidiary Gunderson Inc. managed the U.S. company's involvement, as Gunderson-Concarril SA de CV. Production included boxcars, flatcars and gondola cars.^[12] In December 2004, Greenbrier purchased Bombardier's 50-percent interest and became sole owner of Greenbrier-Concarril LLC and Gunderson-Concarril SA, manufacturing freight cars only.^[13] Bombardier retained ownership of the factory facilities and leased them to Greenbrier/Gunderson.^[14] Production of passenger railroad equipment continued to be undertaken by Bombardier (as subsidiary Bombardier-Concarril), using another part of the former-Concarril factory in Ciudad Sahagún.^[14]

Bombardier has also used the Concarril facility in Sahagún to build Flexity Outlook bodyshells for the Toronto streetcar system, before shipping them to its facility Thunder Bay, Ontario for final assembly.

See also

• MASA – Mexican government-owned bus manufacturer that was similarly privatized in the 1990s

References

External links

• Media related to Concarril at Wikimedia Commons