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The latest developments from rail industry suppliers and service providers have a heavy engineering slant:

• Infrastructure, transportation and environmental engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald has acquired Railroad Technology Inc., which provides consulting services to North American railroad and transit industry clients on planning, engineering, design, inspection, project management, operations analysis, risk analysis, and rail contract administration and negotiation. The acquisition will enable Hatch Mott MacDonald to develop relationships with new transit-rail clients, the firm said.

• Engineering and environmental consulting firm Skelly and Loy named James France chief financial officer. He has 30 years' experience in finance and accounting management, and previously founded and operated his own financial services company serving small professional design firms.

• Civil, trackwork and structural engineering firm J.L. Patterson & Associates Inc. (JLP) won a three-year contract from the Southern California Regional Rail Authority to provide on-call professional engineering design services for Metrolink. JLP has provided design and construction management services to the authority since the launch of the Metrolink commuter-rail system in 1992.

• Bombardier Transportation obtained a $107 million contract from the United Kingdom's New Southern Railway for 11 ELECTROSTAR electric multiple units. The four-car dual-voltage Class 377 trains will be produced at Bombardier's Derby plant in the U.K. and delivered in first-quarter 2009.

• FreightCar America Inc. announced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit stayed a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court in an ongoing lawsuit concerning the rail-car builder's pension obligations at its Johnstown, Pa., plant. The preliminary injunction directs the company to reinstate certain laid-off employees for pension purposes and take no further action - such as closing the plant - pending further lawsuit proceedings.

•  RailComm Inc. has delivered and installed a solar-powered wireless remote-control derail system for Alcoa's Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil factory in Louisville, Ky.  The system features blue strobe lights to indicate derail status, provides over-the-derail protection circuitry and can be remotely controlled from a push-button control panel.