Rail supplier news from American Railcar, Brookville, Vossloh, Wi-Tronix, Nomad Digital, The Andersons, Cambridge Systematics and NRC (Sept. 26)

American Railcar Industries Inc.'s (ARI) board has appointed Jeffrey Hollister president and chief executive officer. He has been serving as ARI's president and interim CEO since Oct. 9, 2013. Dale Davies, ARI's senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, has retired. Succeeding Davies will be Umesh Choksi, who has served American Railcar Leasing L.L.C. and ACF Industries L.L.C. in various capacities since 1977.

Brookville Equipment Corp. obtained a $34.5 million contract from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to rebuild 16 historic Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars, adding a minimum 20 years of service life to the vehicles. The cars include 13 single-end PCC streetcars originally manufactured in 1947 and initially restored in 1993 after SFMTA purchased the cars from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The order also includes rebuilds for three SFMTA original double-ender streetcars manufactured in 1948 and restored in 1995.

At InnoTrans in Berlin yesterday, Vossloh AG reported on the status of its restructuring and realignment of the Vossloh Group. In the United States, Vossloh is beginning to produce fastening systems at its new manufacturing facility in Waco, Texas, which means the company now will meet requirements of the federal Buy America Act in order to be eligible for public contracts.

Wi-Tronix and InStep Software have entered into a new partnership that will allow Wi-Tronix to use InStep's PRiSM predictive asset analytics software in a new locomotive monitoring service, which will be called Wi-Nostix. The new system is designed to help detect faulty injectors, bad power assemblies, cooling system failures, fuel system problems and other issues in locomotives, according to a Wi-Tronix press release.

The Nomad Digital and EMEF joint venture Nomad Tech has completed the first phase of a remote condition-based monitoring (CBM) solution for NSB Norway trains. Nomad Tech was chosen by NSB Norway in December 2013 to deploy a remote CBM solution designed to enable the operator to efficiently monitor the condition of its entire fleet as well as reduce maintenance costs and increase fleet availability. The Nomad Tech solution is now used on 70 FLIRT trains, with the deployment scheduled to increase to another 60 NSB trains of variable types by the end of 2014, according to a company press release.

Randy Thomure has joined The Andersons Inc.'s Rail Group as vice president of repair operations. He has 40 years of experience in the rail industry, starting with the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Thomure also led various positions at Itel Rail, US Leasing, Thrall Car and TrinityRail. At The Andersons, he will oversee operations of the group's mobile rail-car repair units; 20 rail-car repair facilities that include flagship locations in Maumee, Ohio, and Kansas City, Mo.; and a steel fabrication facility in Maumee that produces custom parts and rail components.

Karen Kiselewski has joined Cambridge Systematics as senior associate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She has more than 13 years of experience in multimodal transportation planning, integrated transportation and land use, performance measurement, and policy analysis. Kiselewski previously was a project manager at Renaissance Planning Group, and served as a planner at Jacobs Engineering and the city of Lauderhill, Florida.

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) joined representatives from Atlantic Track and the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) for a tour of Atlantic Track's manufacturing facility in Richmond, Ill. The NRC organized the event. Hultgren was briefed on the company's history, current operations, and its recent growth and expansion in Richmond and Chicago Heights, Ill.