The study of nonlinear oscillations and chaos of a railway freight car is undertaken. The vehicle is considered as a multiple rigid-body system with 9 degrees of freedom. The vehicle forward speed is taken as the control parameter of the system. Hopf bifurcation point, limit cycles, quasiperiodic and chaotic motions of the system are computed by use of numerical methods. The identification of periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic motions of the system is carried out by using the methods of phase plane portrait and Poincare map. Numerical results show that chaotic motion appears via the route of quasiperiodicity when the vehicle runs over a certain speed.