Rail supplier news from Duos Technologies, Siemens, RailComm, FreightCar America and WSP (Dec. 3)

Duos Technologies Group Inc. has obtained a new contract from a major railroad operator for a complete train imaging system. The system's design is based on the company's proprietary Railcar Inspection Portal (rip™) technology, which combines several intelligent technologies and subsystems. A major objective of the new technology is to reduce terminal dwell time of rolling stock. The railroad operator, whose name Duos Technologies did not disclose, expects to improve the efficiency of preventive maintenance strategies and significantly reduce network costs associated with current inspection practices.

Siemens is supplying eight Vectron DC-type locomotives for operation in Italy. The DB Schenker Rail freight operator has a leasing contract for the locomotives with Unicredit Leasing GmbH. The vehicles are to be put into service from late 2016 onwards. With a maximum power of 5,200 KW, the locomotives can reach a top speed of about 100 mph.

RailComm has completed the installation of both a yard solution for the automation of 32 switches and a computer-aided dispatch system at U.S. Sugar in Clewiston, Fla. The largest sugar cane producer in the country, U.S. Sugar also owns and operates the largest private agricultural railroad in the country that runs 24 hours a day for just-in-time processing. Its 120 miles of mainline connect with South Central Florida Express, which connects with Florida East Coast Railway and CSX Transportation. RailComm's yard control system provides entrance/exit routing and remote control of powered switch machines for the Clewiston yard, while the mainline dispatch system uses a DTC block dispatching operation.

FreightCar America Inc. appointed Georgia Vlamis vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Based at the company's headquarters in Chicago, Vlamis will be responsible for legal affairs. She joins FreightCar America from Motorola Solutions, where she served as VP and head of litigation, antitrust, regulatory and product safety. Earlier in her Motorola tenure, she served as VP and lead counsel for the company's government and enterprise business sector and as senior counsel and director for two other business units.

Henry Rosen was named principal consultant in the transit and rail technical excellence center of WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff. In his new position, Rosen will advise the transportation clients on transit revenue systems, drawing on his expertise in fare collection design and implementation. He comes to the company after a 30-year career with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he most recently served as the manager of system technology and fare collection division for the PATH passenger-rail system.