A Tenino railway equipment company with ties to Tacoma is changing its name and rolling out a new product line. Sygnet Rail Technologies, formerly known as Global Locomotive LLC, says it is introducing a new power module to equip aging locomotives with updated engines, generators and controls that cut fuel use and maintenance costs and meet new emissions standards.
Global was formed two years ago by executives from the former Coast Engine and Equipment Co. in Tacoma. CEECO ceased operations after the recession cut demand for rebuilt locomotives and rail cars.
Global leased a former overhaul facility from Tacoma Rail near Tenino to carry out contracts to refurbish narrow-gauge locomotives for the White Pass & Yukon Railway in Skagway, Alaska. The company is still completing that contract. Now the company is broadening its product line with power modules designed to meet what Sygnet Rail Technologies Chief Operating Officer Brian Bertlin says is a worldwide demand for updated power for locomotives.
The modules contain a new diesel engine, a generator, radiators, computerized controls and equipment for remotely monitoring the health of the locomotive.
The modules, built in the Tenino facility, are designed to fit inside a standard 40-foot shipping container for easy delivery to railroads and railroad maintenance shops worldwide.
The modules allow local shops to update aging equipment without shipping their locomotives to a distant facility, said Bertlin.
The local maintenance shops remove the existing car body of the locomotive along with the engine and generator. The pre-engineered Sygnet module then connects easily to the locomotive controls and to the electric motors that power the locomotive.
Using the module to update a locomotive can give a railroad a virtually new machine for about $1 million less than a new locomotive, Bertlin said.
The company says it already has secured four orders from Brazil.
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