USA: This month Wabtec completed the 1 000th locomotive it has remanufactured for customers in the Americas under a programme launched in 2015. Norfolk Southern has taken delivery of 500 of the locos, with other customers including Canadian Pacific, BNSF, Union Pacific and Brazilian operator Rumo.
Remanufactured locomotive types include the U and C series, Dash 8, Dash 9, and AC4400, supplied to more than 24 countries. Locomotives for North American customers have been remanufactured at Wabtec’s plants in Fort Worth, Texas and Erie, Pennsylvania, while those for South America were completed at Contagem in Brazil.
Wabtec said locomotive modernisation is a key element of its sustainability efforts, with revitalised locos offering fuel efficiency improvements of up to 25%, reliability increases of more than 40%, up to a 55% increase in haulage capability and reductions in maintenance, repair, and overhaul costs of up to 20%.
‘Our modernisation programme breathes new life and technological advancements into customers’ aging locomotives, while also reducing a railroad’s operating costs and carbon footprint’, said Pascal Schweitzer, President of Wabtec Freight Services.
Depending on customer requirements, rebuilding can include repowering, switching from mechanical to electronic fuel injection, upgrading the control, monitoring and cooling systems, bogie refurbishment, cab modernisation and installation of Wabtec’s GoLINC mobile data, Locotrol distributed power and Trip Optimizer train handling systems.
More than half of a loco’s critical components can be reused, rebuilt, or remanufactured at least three times over their useful life, Wabtec said.
Norfolk Southern is a major customer. ‘As a leading transportation provider, it is our responsibility to reduce our environmental impact’, said Tom Schnautz, the operator’s Vice-President for Advanced Train Control. ‘Our partnership with Wabtec is one way we plan to achieve our target of a 42% reduction in emissions intensity by 2034. Wabtec’s programme is maximising the value of our locomotives, lowering operating costs, and reducing emissions.’
The remanufacturing programme was a good fit for Norfolk Southern’s fleet of 1 200 Dash 9 locos, Schnautz said. ‘As they aged, the natural opportunity arose to extend these assets.’
The NS programme covers a mix of Wabtec rebuilds and kits provided by the manufacturer for assembly at the railway’s workshops at Altoona in Pennsylvania and Roanoke in Virginia. So far 62% of NS’s remanufactured fleet has been completed by Wabtec, and 38% by the Class I.
