Rail supplier news from Wabtec, BBM Railway, Trinity, SightLogix, Alstom and Shimmick (Feb. 22)

Wabtec Corp. will replace Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in the S&P 500 and Goodyear will replace Wabtec in the S&P MidCap 400 prior to the open of stock trading on Feb. 27. General Electric Co. is spinning off its Transportation Systems Holdings Inc. to shareholders, then the holdings will be acquired by Wabtec in a transaction expected to be completed Feb. 26, pending final conditions. After the transaction, Wabtec will be more representative of the large-cap market and Goodyear, more representative of the mid-cap market, according to a press release. GE will remain in the S&P 500 and 100.

BBM Railway Equipment LLC has purchased Macton Corp.'s assets via a secured party auction. The purchase includes all intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks, as well as machinery, inventory and raw stock.

Trinity Industries Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations per common diluted share of 19 cents compared with $3.37 in fourth-quarter 2017. The earnings included a one-time non-cash charge of $12.6 million associated with the write-off of assets held under capital leases in the Railcar Leasing and Management Services Group while Q4 2017 earnings included a one-time $3.03 per share benefit related to the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. The Rail Products Group reported Q4 rail-car orders and deliveries of 8,045 and 5,285, respectively, compared with 3,180 and 6,150 in the same 2017 period. The total car backlog was worth $3.6 billion on Dec. 31, 2018, versus $2.2 billion on Dec. 31, 2017.

Smart thermal camera system technology provider SightLogix has named Charlie Platipodis vice president of sales and marketing. He has more than 30 years of executive sales leadership experience. Platipodis most recently served as VP of sales and VP of national accounts for SecurityLink. He previously was VP of sales and marketing for GDI, a provider of end-to-end outdoor perimeter systems, and held various executive leadership positions with Xerox Learning Systems and Learning International.

Alstom won an $80 million contract from Bangalore Metro Rail Corp. Ltd. (BMRCL) to provide power supply and traction electrification equipment for Bangalore Metro's 20.5-mile extension under phase two. The pact is Alstom's largest third-rail electrification contract in India. Alstom will engineer, supply, install, test and commission DC third-rail traction electrification equipment, construct auxiliary substations and DC traction substations, and provide a cable distribution network along a viaduct. The company also will integrate the infrastructure with the existing system, including the augmentation of a SCADA system. BMRCL is a joint venture between the governments of India and Karnataka.

The California Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Occupational Safety and Health has fined Shimmick Construction Co. Inc. and Con-Quest Contractors Inc. $65,300 for multiple safety violations after a worker was killed in August 2018 while working on a light-rail tunnel project in San Francisco. The companies formed a joint venture to work on the Twin Peaks Tunnel Rehabilitation and Rail Replacement project, which included replacing rails and upgrading signal systems and other parts of a more than 100-year-old tunnel. On Aug. 10, employees were using heavy equipment and tools to work in and around the tunnel when a beam became dislodged from its support brackets and fell about 13 feet on a nearby worker. Division investigators determined the crane operators hadn’t been trained to safely operate the equipment and workers hadn’t been properly trained on safety procedures.