The story
The original works were founded in 1895 by the businessman Oscar Freywirth under the name Fēnikss. In 1936, Fenikss was reorganised into Joint Stock Company Vairogs, which later manufactured Ford-Vairogs automobiles under licence. Expropriated by the state following the takeover of Latvia by the Soviet Union and renamed RVR, it became for many years the largest producer of electric and diesel trains in the USSR and also produced tramcars. Its best known products are the ER1, ER2, ER7, ER9 and ER31 electric trains, DR1, DR1A and DR1P diesel trains, many of which are still in service today. Between 1973 and 1988 it built the high-speed ER200 train. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Comecon, the factory ceased operations in 1996 and was declared bankrupt in 1998. Privatized in two parts, one was bought by Severstal, a company controlled by Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov. In 2001 the factory was bought by a holding company and new diesel units were built for Belarusian Railways from 2005 to 2008. Other orders were primarily for the refurbishment of the units it had previously manufactured. After its ownership structure changed several times it entered insolvency in 2017, following a dearth of orders for new vehicles for several years and several failed attempts at partnerships with other rail manufacturers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Rīgas vagonbūves rūpnīca, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4