Western Railroad Discussion > Portland's Final Rail Car

On May 18, 2023 Greenbrier Gunderson in Portland, Oregon commemorated their building of their LAST rail car in Portland.   Truly the passing of a 60+ year era.   This plant has been sold and will now turn to building other items.   My visit felt a bit like a funeral.............Arlen

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Very sad to see more quality US production shut down. Great for the Mexican Greenbrier plant though! Ugh...

The story I heard or read was they wanted to concentrate on building barges and similar marine projects. Perhaps wanting to move to a more regional based market rather than competing nationally or internationally as mentioned. It could be they see a change in the freight car market, all the changes in trade agreements and natural resource traffic ( ie: hydro-carbons ) could be trickking down from above.

It will also be interesting if they lose any spurs or switches to the plant, or portions of the plant for that matter. Barges and ships would be going out another door, but loosing rail access may be difficult to get back if there are future market changes,

 

Greenbrier sold the barge business to a new company which said they would keep the work force and continue barge building.

Posted from Android

1019X Wrote:
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> Greenbrier sold the barge business to a new
> company which said they would keep the work force
> and continue barge building.

https://pressroom.gbrx.com/2023-05-16-Greenbrier-Announces-Sale-of-Gunderson-Marine-to-Oregon-Green-Manufacturing

TCnR Wrote:
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>
> It will also be interesting if they lose any spurs
> or switches to the plant, or portions of the plant
> for that matter. Barges and ships would be going
> out another door, but loosing rail access may be
> difficult to get back if there are future market
> changes,

That will probably not be a problem: no main track switches. It's all on the switching lead.


TAW

Oh boy. Those jobs will be hard to replace.  Thanks for posting this, Arlen.  Funeral indeed.

isambard Wrote:
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> Oh boy. Those jobs will be hard to replace. 
> Thanks for posting this, Arlen.  Funeral indeed.

??????

Maybe someone did not bother reading?

Jobs will be preserved.

Sad news. It is happening everywhere: the factories moving to "better" places (for the ownners.).

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

probably the barge jobs will be saved but not the railcar jobs

End of an era in Portland.  I toured the plant when it was Gunderson in the late 60s, with an group of NMRA members

I've seen the closing of Gunderson's Portland plant as inevitable for quite some time now. There are so many factors working against it's continuation. A lot of it has to do with the city of Portland, but not all of it. The company has struggled to find the needed workers who are skilled in welding and metal working for a couple decades at least. The high cost of living, crime and violence has been driving skill tradesmen away from the city for over a decade now. When gang violence first became an issue in the late 1980's, the drive by shootings lead the news each night. It's gotten so bad with rampant shootings each day, that those reports no longer make the news.
The downtown area has been encroaching on the industrial Guilds Lake area at a steady place, converting the heavy and light industries into townhouses and shops that cater to a decidedly non-industrial crowd. The city definitely has it's eyes on all that waterfront property. I doubt the barge business will stay there for long.
But the bread and butter of the plant, 53' and 40' articulated well cars is also seeing a sharp decline in demand. So much so that I'm surprised they were still producing them. Demand used to be such that even in slow times the plant cranked out well cars knowing full well that TTX would get around to purchasing them in a year or so. That steady demand for more well cars has suddenly tanked for a few different reasons. China has severe production issues, partly related to the ongoing threat of Covid there since the lockdowns prevented the population immunity that has taken hold in other parts of the world. There has been a sharp drop in buying here in the US leading to glut of inventory and canceling of production orders. Importers now are favoring east coast ports with shorter rail hauls over the west coast ports and their long rail hauls. The railroads have also made their intermodal networks more efficient by closing low volume lanes and terminals and the consolidation of terminals that have reduced the demand for equipment. There are now miles of well cars in storage awaiting for a rise in demand that may or may not come. So producing new cars at this point in time is a little absurd.
Historically the plant produced centerbeam lumber flatcars, boxcars, woodchip cars, autoracks and flatcars of various types. Production of those railcar types had shifted to other plants or builders already. This will close out the history on major railcar builders in the PNW that includes, Pacific Car & Foundry (PC&F) and FMC.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/23 07:33 by funnelfan.

really well written and informative retrospective Ted!

A well-written post. Much of the content reflects material I've included in the last year and this year in lectures I've given in Europe in the US. An insightful post that offers multiple perspectives and thanks for the clarity.

Great report and comments.
I was invited to join an ASME tour last year and they were finishing up some large insulated box cars and had some well cars started.