Supplier Spotlight

GE Equipment Services, Rail Services, reached an agreement to purchase the assets of Allrail Services, which maintains rail cars. Terms weren’t disclosed.

C&S News

• Union Switch & Signal Inc. obtained a contract from Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway to replace relay-based interlockings with MicroLok^® II-based systems with MicroTrax track circuits, and provide an enhanced remote monitoring package; and deployed next-generation dispatching software for CSX Transportation and the Alaska Railroad Corp.
• RailComm Inc. has installed a remote-control derail system at CSX Transportation’s Stanley Yard near Toledo, Ohio. The company established a point-to-multipoint wireless data communications network using its RADiANT^™ Data Radio technology to link the power derail system to a PC-based controller in the yard’s tower.
• Edwards and Kelcey obtained a contract from the Chicago Transit Authority to oversee the installation of a new signaling system on the Blue and Loop Elevated lines, and the replacement of traction power cabling in the Blue and Red subway lines.

Product Addition

Portec Rail Products Inc. has become an authorized distributor of Highland Tank & Manufacturing Co.’s oil/water separator product line. Portec Rail added the line to its Enviro-FORCE^™ family of environmental products for railroads.

Car order

FreightCar America Inc. will supply up to 7,650 aluminum AutoFlood III^™ coal cars for TXU Generation Development Co.

Back in Business

A little more than a year after Hurricane Rita heavily damaged The Rescar Cos.’ Orange, Texas, rail-car repair, maintenance and cleaning facilities, the company opened a rebuilt facility in mid-October. Redesigned to improve repair cycle times, the plant will serve as a model for modernizing Rescar’s other U.S. car repair shops, the company said.

International Contracts

• Bombardier Transportation obtained a $1.7 billion contract to supply 172 Ile-de-France commuter trains for French railway Sociéte Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais (SNCF). The order could total 372 trains valued at $3.4 billion if all options are exercised.
• Bombardier also received a $537 million contract from the Spanish National Railways (Renfe) to supply 100 TRAXX F140 DC freight locomotives and maintain them for 14 years.

Security

Smiths Detection and RedXDefense L.L.C. signed an agreement to jointly develop an advanced explosives screening system that can “meet the high throughput demands of subway stations,” according to a prepared statement.