MaxRack with Hopper cars protect your employees working on rail cars. Hopper car handrails also help maximize fall protection for employees who need to access multiple hatches at one time. Learn more

Unloading and Loading operations involving railroad hopper cars present dangerous conditions for workers. The next time you are at a railroad crossing in your vehicle and a freight train is moving by, look at all the different types of cars. There is not much uniformity. Railroad cars have different heights, different surfaces on the topside, and different purposes. 

The Lack Of RailCar Uniformity Creates Dangerous Uneven Surfaces on The Top Of the Cars.

A hopper car is a type of train car that is used to transport loose bulk commodities like ore, grains, coal, stone, sand, other cargos. A hopper will typically load from the top and unload from the bottom. This type of car is one of the most common railroad cars along with grain hopper cars. Most bulk cargos that start in a hopper railcar end up in the cargo hold of bulk carrier ships that travel all over the world.

Because of the lack of uniformity of the railroad cars, and the inherent dangers of handling bulk loads, Safety measures for workers need to be in place. The most common hazards for workers that need to be acknowledged are

• Slips and Trips


• High Noise levels from moving conveyors.


• Falls

All three of these items are dangerous around bulk loading and unloading operations. A slip or trip on an elevated metal railcar can be a disaster. A fall into a hopper car while loading from the top could be a substantial problem.

MaxRack Elevating Safety Loading Cages give your employees maximum slip, trip and fall protection while they work with any railroad car. The fall protection guardrails lower to the top level of any railroad car, and it offers your workers a safe zone of fall protection.

MaxRack Elevating Safety Loading Cages Give Your Employees Maximum Slip, Trip, and Fall Protection.

MaxRack is an OSHA compliant adjustable safety cage, that is above a railcar. The MaxRack adjustable loader safety cage, brings state of the art, OSHA compliant fall control to your depot. Simply put, MaxRack offers your workforce the best OSHA compliant way to work on top of multi-port railcars.

Increase Productivity and Fall Protection

These adjustable safety cages come in many standard sizes, but custom installations can create the perfect unloading – loading platform above the access ports of any railcar.   

Your workforce can stand tall on solid industrial grade aluminum guardrails that are in place in all directions.

This kind of fall protection adds a sureness to the workers and decreases the amount of time it takes to service a rail container. In summary, if your depot works with rail cars, a MaxRack Installation is the best combination of worker safety and return on investment. Your workers move quicker with newfound confidence enveloped by industrial strength aluminum guardrails.

Safety Peace Of Mind and a Return On your Investment

To sum up, each MaxRack system has…

• Many cage configurations are available to ship immediately. Saferack can make custom MaxRack solutions as well. 


• The counterweight design allows for smaller, less expensive drive components that hold tight.


• Lowering and raising the platform is done with either pneumatic (air pressure) or electric motor drives.


• Sturdy, off the shelf replacement parts, are available to ship immediately to your location.


• Secure, reliable, galvanized steel columns and carriage housings create a stable tower.


• A Patent-pending manual override to raise/ lower the cage in case of power or air pressure loss. Your company will not have downtime.

Installing a MaxRack System gives your workers the best fall protection and ladder work platform for your depot operations. You get a quality product that stands tall among all the competitors. You get peace of mind immediately, as Saferack becomes your safety partner. In conclusion, we stand behind your MaxRack and your company, and we are ready to help you design and install a MaxRack system.