Progress Rail Services Selects Site for State-of-the-Art
Locomotive Facility
– Progress Rail Services announced today the site selection for a state-of-the-art locomotive assembly, paint and test facility to serve the diesel-electric locomotive market and allow the company to better participate in future transit projects. After an exhaustive nationwide search, Progress Rail has identified , as the site for its newest operation.
Progress Rail made the decision to open the facility in
Thanks for that post. Quentin/ modelcar here lives there - he may have some more insights., or even know the location. Maybe he’ll even go to work for them . . . [swg]
The building is a former ABB, nee- Westinghouse plant that built large substation and powerplant transformers. The plant closed in 1998 and has been empty since. The plant is served by NS off the former Nickel Plate New Castle Sub.
Hmm, NS is extending Noell Siding on the South side of Muncie. Coincence, maybe, maybe not.
There has been no chatter on the local trainwatcher’s websites about this. I’ll be heading that way in a few hours, I’ll see if anything turns up. Both EMD’s and Progress websites don’t mention this.
First of all Progress Rail isn’t building anything, just a realestate transaction. Its interesting to me that both Muncie and nearby Anderson are formerly GM towns. In Anderson there was an Anaconda Wire & Cable Plant that besides shipping wire up the street to AC Delco use to make magnet wire in larger sizes and shipped it all the Electro -Motive. Now all they have to do is get orders for new locomotives.
What impact if any will this have on the London, ON plant? After many years of building locomotives in Kingston, Montreal and London, London is Canada’s last remaining locomotive builder…would be a sad day up here if and when that one goes.
Digging further, there was an item in the Muncie Paper yesterday announcing that they will have an announcement tomorrow (Fri).
The ABB/Westinghouse transformer building has 99 foot tall ceilings and already has tracks in the concrete floor.
Yep…Doesn’t surprise me. Something about to happen {even with a railroad tone}, and the headline in the morning paper: Hundreds of jobs to be announced. Would you believe I really didn’t pay any attention to it…and in fact, had to go out in the garage to the “recycle container” to retrieve the paper after I read these posts on here about such a program. I had heard nothing about it until right now…!
First of all: The building {Former ABB Transformer assembly plant}, is a perfect location for such an adventure. A great big and appropriate plant to house such a product…And it’s been on the market for some time looking for some business to fill it. Lots of land around it. A NS siding right into it now. and the dimensions I’d think would be perfect for such a project. Traveling cranes in the 99 ft. high area capable of lifting hundreds of tons, and on and on.
WWW.thestarpress.com is the web site of our Muncie morning paper, and I believe it would have the article in it. Looks like it’s to be announced by Gov. Daniels {today}, so it’s already happened. The plant is on the southwest side of Muncie along Cowan Road.
Company is “Progress Rail Services”, a subsidiary of Caterpiller Inc.
…One more thought: Surely, this rail oriented project, to be announced at 11 this morning, will be on one of the Indianapolis stations at 6 or 11 this evening. The Gov. being present with this anouncement should get it on the newcast.
Don’t have any idea if anyone on here can pick one of those up on Satellite, etc…All major networks avail: ABC…CBS…NBC…FOX, etc…
Link to AP article posted on ABC News site.
Excerpt: “Company executives said the Muncie factory would allow Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services to seek business related to transit rail projects.” (my emphasis).
Abandon the London, ON plant? I don’t think so. Canadian procurements probably require Canadian participation.
I haven’t kept up with the details of the La Grange site - anyone want to speculate as to why it wasn’t selected?
It looks like CAT / Progress Rail had a lot of money burning a hole in their pocket and made these purchases without a lot of thought. There isn’t enough room anymore at the LaGrange site to expand the plant. Most of that excess land after the assembly building was demolished was sold off to -ugh, a trucking firm. Progress Rail has a lot of irons in the fire that they can find a use for their new property and if they have a chance to bid a new design for passenger locos, at least they can be build within the national borders if required. I understand that EMD transferred the all manufacturing of electrical components to the London Plant so they can’t build a 100% USA derived locomotive yet. I would think that engineering has kept up with the constantly changing rules regarding the design of passenger locomotives, at least the engineers read up on it on coffee break but don’t charge any engineering time to it. GE probably has a whole team doing nothing but designing passenger locomotives. Maybe EMD can pass that chore onto Progress Rail. In the meanwhile they can repair and rebuild locomotives and rail cars in their new facility. Its interesting to see that in Indiana that the new Honda plant(rail served) is located about 50 south of Muncie in Greensburg and nearby is the world wide headquarters of Cummins in Columbus. CAT’s large engine manufacturing is in Lafayette. Navistar- international Truck diesel plant is in Indianaoplis as well as Allison/Rolls Royce gas turbine and jet engine plant. I think I see a trend.
GM tore down all the unused buildings and sold off the extra land, there is no longer any room for an assembly building.
It sure would be nice if that trend does include Muncie for such work.
This has been a heavy industry production town for over a hundred years. These past several decades have changed that considerably.
We were almost saturated with automotive parts producing product plants back for years and years. One of the original Borg-Warner inc. plants was here…{for over a hundred years}…I myself was associated with it for almost 37 years.
Unfortunately, that plant finally closed early 2009. At one time over 6,000 were imployed there in it.
The story is similar for other facilities. And even before that, complete automobiles were produced here in Muncie…So, what I’m saying is…There will be plenty of Labor and Engineering talent available in this area. We certainly will appreciate increased employment figures, We certainly have lost plenty in the last several decades.
Another operation getting their facilities ready here now, is Brevini, maker of gearsets for wind powered, power producing units.
Anyone wishing to pull th
For those, who like me, have forgotten, EMD has been, or is in the process of being, sold to Progress Rail (Press Release).
…That certainly gives a good perspective view of the massive size plant, and one can readily see, railroad tracks to it, it certainly does have.
Just east on 23rd st. one can see {not too far east off Cowan Road}, is the Red Dog Saloon where the Indiana Gov. Daniels, and other officials had lunch after announcing this project just south, at the former ABB plant, Friday, 29th. Famous for Tenderloin sandwiches.
So is this just a step towards moving the assembly plants back here into the US?
No. EMD closed the LaGrange assembly plant in favor of the London, Ontario plant because of excess capacity. So without a lot more orders for new locomotives I don’t think EMD will notice what goes on here. Progress Rail probably got a good deal; and using it as a hedge for future business if any. I think the statements about 650 jobs and transit locomotives is just window dressing for the polititians at this point.
Folks:
IIRC some time back ['round about the time the CAT/Progress Rail purchase, and of EMD was announced; there was also an anouncement of the search for a site to facilitate a construction project for an R&D [Engine] Facility for EMD.]
I seem to remember also, that there was a site picked in the central Indiana area for such an Engine R&D operation. . It would certainly be convienient for such a facility to happen to locate in the Central Indiana area, as well as the Facility at Muncie.
Maybe Quentin or another poster can confirm or correct the above information.
Thanks, in advance!
I can’t add any specifics to the above, but some comments in our local paper today included: 50 million dollars to open this facility for locomotive assembly…Existing land with property large enough to build an engine test track for the facility.
Progressive Rail Inc., does other rail work, including building freight cars, and also repairs as well…And a jobs fair would be set up locally soon to secure employees. The word sounds very positive from P R Inc. and local officials on this project.
Oh well, one can only dream. Maybe one day. [*-)]