Two transportation equipment companies are changing hands. The first transaction involves the holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which says it will acquire transportation equipment-leasing company XTRA Corp. Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha, Neb., will buy XTRA Corp. of Westport, Conn., for about $590 million in cash. It will become part of the holding company controlled by investor Warren Buffett.

XTRA leases truck trailers and cargo containers. It claims to operate 280,000 pieces of transportation equipment throughout the world with an asset value of about $1.5 billion. XTRA conducts its North American equipment-leasing operation through its XTRA Lease and XTRA Intermodal divisions. The company's marine container assets are managed by Textainer Equipment Management Ltd.

As for the second transaction, the conglomerate Trinity Industries Inc. says it has entered into an agreement to merge with Thrall Car Manufacturing Co. Under terms of the deal, Trinity will pay about $165 million in cash in addition to issuing 7.15 million shares of common stock to Thrall's shareholders. Trinity also says it will pay up to $45 million over the next five years.

Based in Chicago, Thrall makes freight railcars and distributes parts for them. Trinity Industries of Dallas is a diversified company that includes a railcar manufacturing operation. Trinity says it plans to combine its railcar manufacturing business with Thrall's.

Trinity says the merger will reduce operating costs through improvements in supply chain performance, the development of dedicated production lines, and more flexible production and delivery options.