Railroad equipment supplier Greenbrier Cos Inc posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, helped by higher railcar deliveries, and expects to break even in the second quarter.

Greenbrier, which builds and maintains railroad freight cars, said it continues to benefit from improvement in rail traffic and demand for railcars.

The company, which competes with American Railcar and FreightCar America , expects to break even in the second quarter and be profitable in the second half.

It expects higher revenue and EBITDA in 2011.

For September-November, the company reported net loss of $2.3 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $3.2 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago.

Quarterly sales rose 17 percent to $201.4 million.

Analysts on average were expecting the company to post a loss of 15 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $195.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

New railcar deliveries in the quarter tripled to 1,050 units. (Reuters)