Rail supplier news from Freedom Railcar, Greenbrier, Alstom, Railserve and AREMA (Oct. 8)

Freedom Railcar Solutions LLC has partnered with International Engineering LLC to establish a new, full-service rail-car repair and modification facility in Pueblo, Colo. To be served by Union Pacific Railroad, the anticipated 160,000-square-foot facility will service a mixture of freight cars and tank cars with services including interior cleaning, repair, modification, exterior paint, interior lining and fabrication, officials said in a joint press release. The companies expect to break ground on the new facility by early 2016, with operations slated to begin in January 2017.

The Greenbrier Companies Inc. announced yesterday that it expects to exceed previously provided diluted earnings per share guidance of $5.70 to $5.85 for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31. The higher expectations are driven by increased margins in the company's manufacturing segment, which includes lease syndications and a lower than anticipated tax rate related to the geographic mix of earnings, Greenbrier officials said in a news release. Additionally, the company disclosed that it had received diversified new orders in its fourth quarter for 2,900 rail-car units valued at $470 million. The orders include medium and large cube covered hopper cars, automobile carrying cars, boxcars and tank cars.

Alstom's Coradia Meridian train entered commercial service at the Rome Termini rail station. The train is known as the Leonardo Express and will connect Rome to Fiumicino Airport. The eight trainsets are part of an order placed by Trenitalia in November 2012.

Railserve Inc. has shipped its DUAL LEAF® Gen-Set locomotives to Africa, where they will soon enter freight operations in Gabon. The Societe d'Exploitation du Transgabonais, the country’s state-owned railway, placed an order for six of the 220,000-pound locomotives as part of a long-term modernization of its freight-rail operations. The LEAF locomotives use two Cummins QSX15 genets to minimize fuel usage and reduce emissions while maintaining the performance of a traditional switching locomotives, Railserve officials said in a press release.

During a presentation Wednesday at Railway Interchange 2015 in Minneapolis, Brian Lindamood succeeded Randy Bowman as president of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA). The director of capital projects for Alaska Railroad Corp., Lindamood most recently served AREMA as a senior vice president and and program committee chair. He previously was a vice president at Hanson-Wilson Inc. and associate/assistant VP at TranSystems. An engineer of track and materials for Norfolk Southern Corp., Bowman now becomes AREMA's past president.