Galison Manufacturing has reached a significant milestone with the shipment of its 200th South African-manufactured railway wagon for Lobito Atlantic Railway, which departed the company’s Welkom facility in mid-January 2026.
The milestone forms part of a major order announced by Galison in April 2024 for the manufacture and delivery of 275 wagons over a 30-month period, together with a substantial quantity of operational spares. At the time, Galison Group CEO Andrew Thorburn stated that the contract had been secured following rigorous international competition, with the company required to meet strict pricing and technical specifications.
“We are immensely proud of this project and more so because the first wagons dispatched have already been in operation for a year and a half already. Transporting sulphur to the DRC, returning with copper, supporting cross-border mining logistics through rail-based freight operations, daily,” notes Thorburn.
The container wagons are manufactured at Galison’s state-of-the-art Welkom factory using the latest CNC drilling, profiling and pressing equipment, with welding carried out using robotic welding cells. Each wagon is constructed from high-strength steel and designed to achieve a tare weight of 13.5 tonnes, maximising payload capacity.
Galison has specialised in this category of wagon construction for more than a decade. The designs, which are widely used in Europe, have been adapted into several container and hopper wagon variants that have been successfully deployed in the African market.
The Angolan order represents one of the most significant contracts in Galison’s history and reflects local manufacturing capability in supplying freight railway rolling stock to African railway operators.
“This is particularly relevant, not just for operators in Africa looking to move more, but specifically in South Africa as the private sector in respect of the new Train Operating Companies (TOCs) will also require wagons for which we have the capacity and most importantly the capability to manufacture locally,” says Thorburn.
This is also relevant as mining houses look to add capacity to the network in order to streamline their logistics in getting to market.
Galison-manufactured wagons are currently in service across several SADC member states, including South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Railways Africa team previously visited the Welkom facility and documented the wagon manufacturing process.
