* Second-quarter revenue $423.2 mln vs est $442.9 mln
* Earnings $0.45/share vs est $0.37/share
* Deliveries fall 27 percent
* Shares fall as much as 5 percent
April 4 (Reuters) - Railcar maker Greenbrier Cos Inc , which was riding a surge in demand for oil tank cars until the middle of last year, reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as overall deliveries fell for the third quarter in a row.
Deliveries fell 27 percent to 2,700 in the second quarter ended Feb. 28 from a year earlier, Greenbrier said on Thursday. Deliveries fell 7 percent from the preceding quarter, mainly due to a drop in demand in Europe.
The company, whose shares fell as much as 5 percent in early trading, said its order backlog fell 6 percent to 11,700 from the same period the previous year but it maintained its forecast for 13,000 deliveries in the year ending August.
Greenbrier said last April that deliveries could be lower as it starts to make auto-carrying cars that require more manual work and take longer to produce.
The company, which is selling off non-core operations, said it intends to sell some of its underperforming wheel services, refurbishment and parts business. The sale is expected to free up $100 million by the end of August 2014, the company said.
The business accounted for about 27 percent of Greenbrier's revenue in 2012.
Greenbrier said in February it would sell its reconditioned wheelset roller bearing operations in Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Timken Co.
"Our strategy is to diversify our product offerings, shift production to our lower cost manufacturing footprint in Mexico, and increase throughput in our lease syndication and management services businesses," Chief Executive William Furman said in a statement. He did not provide details.
Greenbrier's net income fell 22 percent to $13.8 million, or 45 cents per share, in the quarter from $17.7 million, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $423.2 million from $458.2 million.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 37 cents per share on revenue of $442.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Greenbrier late last year turned down two offers from activist investor Carl Icahn to merge with rival American Railcar Industries Inc but said in January it remained open to talks.
Icahn had a stake of 3.41 percent in Greenbrier as of Dec. 21, according to regulatory filings.
Greenbrier shares, which have gained 30 percent since Jan. 9 when the company said it would remain open to talks with Icahn, were down 3 percent at $21.13 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.