Rail supplier news from Septentrio, ARS, Hitachi, RailComm, ATT and voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak (Sept. 18)

Septentrio is providing global navigation satellite system receivers to Wabtec Corp. for its GoLINC™ mobile data center platform operating onboard freight locomotives. The receivers are designed to provide precise positioning information and will be installed on locomotives and on position reference modules along 30,000 miles of track, Septentrio officials said in a press release. 

Appalachian Railcar Services LLC (ARS) has appointed Michael Obertop chief commercial officer to lead sales and business development. Obertop has over 13 years of experience in the rail-car industry, ARS officials said in a press release. Previously, he was vice president of sales and business development for Cad Railway Industries and senior VP of sales and marketing for GBW Railcar Services LLC. He also served for nine years in various roles at American Railcar Industries.

Hitachi Rail STS USA donated its MicroLok® Wayside Control System to the rail transportation engineering program at Penn State Altoona. The MicroLok® signaling system will be used in upper level courses on railroad communications and signals to demonstrate how interlocks are controlled, Hitachi officials said in a press release. Hitachi representatives on Sept. 13 met with students and faculty to discuss the signaling system and the need for trained rail-industry workers. 

RailComm LLC announced that its DOC Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) system is now available through Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure. The DOC CAD system supports a variety of functionality for both centralized traffic control and track warrant control, as well as positive train control interoperability. The system was previously offered through a hosted software as a service solution in a managed data center. RailComm customers using that solution are being migrated to Azure, company officials said in a press release. 

American Turbocharger Technologies LLC (ATT) has expanded its locomotive turbocharger remanufacturing operations in Newport News, Virginia, with the construction of a 7,500-square-foot building. The additional building, next to three other buildings on the grounds, will enable ATT to support an “upswing in business” and add machining capabilities, ATT officials said in a press release.

voestalpine Nortrak announced it has changed its name to voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak. The new name more accurately reflects the firm’s membership in voestalpine’s global railway systems group and reinforces its integrated product and service offerings, company officials said in a press release.