Supplier Spotlight (May 2008)

Acquisition action

• Nordco Inc. acquired Central Products Inc., which manufactures the Shuttlewagon Railcar Mover.
• VAE Nortrak North America Inc. acquired a majority ownership in specialty trackwork manufacturer DAMY Cambios de Vía S.A. de C.V. The company will be renamed Nortrak-DAMY.
• Caterpillar Inc. acquired tunnel boring machine manufacturer Lovat Inc.
• Stella-Jones Inc. completed its acquisition of Burke-Parsons-Bowlby Corp.
• Faiveley Transport and Sagard finalized an agreement to acquire Carbone Lorraine’s sintered brake material business.

MOW

• All Railroad Services Corp. acquired four Kershaw Yard Cleaners 29-3 from Loram Maintenance of Way Inc.

Component contracts

• Wabtec Corp. obtained orders totaling about $100 million to supply components for MTA New York City Transit’s new R-160 cars, which are being built by Alstom Transport and Kawasaki Rail Car Inc.
• Kustom Seating Unlimited Inc. (KSU) obtained a contract from Hyundai Rotem Co. to design and produce seating for 104 cars that Rotem is building for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. In addition, Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. exercised an option with KSU to provide seats for an additional 55 Regional Transportation District of Denver light-rail vehicles.

Partnerships

• Atlantic Track & Turnout Co. and Germany’s Thyssen-Krupp GfT Gleistechnik GmbH created joint venture MRT Track & Service Co. Inc. to serve the U.S. transit industry.
• Bombardier Transportation and AnsaldoBreda signed an agreement to jointly develop, bid and manufacture a new high-speed train capable of traveling at more than 186 mph.

International contracts

• Algeria’s Entreprise du Métro d’Alger awarded a $566 million contract to a consortium comprising Alstom Transport and Spain’s Isolux CORSAN to help build and supply vehicles for an 11.2-mile tramway in Oran; and a $489.5 million contract to a consortium comprising Alstom and Italy’s Pizzarotti to help build and supply vehicles for a five-mile tramway in Constantine.
• Alstom Transport also obtained a $111.6 million contract to supply 30 CORADIA LINT trains to Germany’s Veolia Verkehr.
• Bombardier Transportation won a $47 million contract to develop European Rail Traffic Management System onboard equipment for the Swedish and Norwegian rail administrations.
• MISCOR Group Ltd. subsidiary American Motive Power won a $6 million contract from Australia construction and services firm Laing O’Rourke to remanufacture five freight locomotives, which will operate in Saudi Arabia.
• Swedish rail authority Banverket awarded Pandrol a five-year contract to supply its FASTCLIP system at a rate of between 300,000 and 350,000 units a year.
• Thales won a contract to provide its SelTrac Communications-Based Train Control system for the Shanghai Metro to automate the city’s new Line 7 and the northern extension.

C&S

• The Watco Cos. Inc. is implementing Wi-Tronix L.L.C.’s suite of locomotive remote monitoring solutions for the South Kansas and Oklahoma, and Arkansas Southern railroads.
• Digital Concepts Inc. now offers a “Big Picture” feature as part of its digital traffic-control system that provides automated warnings to alert dispatchers and managers of weather threats, as well as weather radar maps.
• RailComm Inc. obtained a contract to provide a wireless remote-control derail system for the Belt Railway Co. of Chicago’s car shop.
• Global Rail Systems Inc. installed its new Model CWL-7 crossing warning system in Illinois.
• Trainyard Tech L.L.C. obtained a contract to install the CLASSMASTER™ process control system at the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis’ Madison Yard in Venice, Ill.

Facilities

• Hutton Communications Inc. opened a new logistics center in North Brunswick, N.J.
• INTERPIPE is installing new CNC machines at its facility so the plant can manufacture rail wheels.

‘Certified’

• Gannett Fleming has met ISO 9001:2000 quality standards.
• GE - Asset Intelligence recently obtained UL-913 certification from MET Laboratories for its GE VeriWise^® temperature and impact sensors, and a new solar panel configuration.

Logistics

Pacer International Inc. expanded intermodal services between its Pacer Stacktrain unit and BNSF Railway Co., giving Pacer Stacktrain access to the Class I’s entire intermodal network.