Supply Side: FreightCar America, Rail Vision
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Pictured: FreightCar America’s Castaños, Mexico, manufacturing plant, which just rolled out the company’s 10,000th railcar. (FreightCar America Photograph)
FreightCar America marks a milestone with the 10,000th railcar produced at its Mexico plant. Also, Rail Vision Ltd. receives a follow-on order from a U.S.-based rail and leasing services company.
FreightCar America
FreightCar America has rolled out the 10,000th railcar manufactured at its Castaños, Mexico, facility. The facility—built between 2020 and 2022, with the fourth production line completed in 2023—spans nearly 700,000 square feet and employs approximately 2,000 workers. It has a capacity to build more than 5,000 units per year; four production lines are in use and a fifth is available to boost volume by approximately 20%.
Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., FreightCar American is a designer, producer and supplier of freight cars, railcar parts and components; it also specializes in railcar repairs, complete railcar rebody services, and railcar conversions that repurpose idled rail assets back into revenue service.
“I am extremely proud of our accomplishments as we reached the 10,000th railcar milestone at our plant in Mexico,” FreightCar America CEO Nicholas Randall said June 25. “This is a testament to our team’s hard work and dedication. Manufacturing highly engineered railcars is a complex process that requires meticulous coordination of supply chain management, sourcing premium materials, precise engineering, and lean manufacturing operations. Our Castaños facility supports efficient operations and flexible manufacturing, which we have tried and tested in its early years to prove our strategic vision. Achieving this milestone underscores our team’s exceptional capabilities and commitment to delivering high-quality railcars.”
“Looking to the future, FreightCar America’s strategic decision to shift manufacturing to Mexico has set us apart and positioned us for sustainable and profitable growth,” continued Randall, who took over company leadership earlier this year. “By consolidating our operations and leveraging our proven capabilities, we are able to flex our production volumes to satisfy market demand and offer a wider variety of railcars to meet our customers’ needs.”
In other news, FreightCar America recently reported its first-quarter 2024 results and is delivering 600 new 1,150-cubic-foot iron ore hopper cars, colloquially called “jennies,” to CN.
Rail Vision
Ra’anana, Israel-based Rail Vision on June 25 reported being awarded a follow-on order from a U.S.-based rail and leasing services company, which earlier this year signed a contract valued at up to $5 million for Shunting Yard systems to improve yard safety and efficiency. The customer was not named.
In April 2024, Rail Vision received an initial purchase order amounting to approximately $1 million as part of the contract, with the additional $4 million of follow-on orders subject to customer approval. The current follow-on order, in the amount of approximately $200,000, is in addition to the existing contract, and refers to additional services requested by the customer, Rail Vision said.
Rail Vision’s Shunting Yard system “enables railway operators to streamline and enhance the safety of their switching operations,” according to the supplier. “Combining advanced vision sensors with artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies, the system automatically detects and classifies objects within a range of up to 200 meters [656 feet] in harsh weather and low light conditions.” The system is said to detect the rail switch state to prevent switch breaches and derailments, and to provide a view of “operational dead zones” to facilitate secure railcar coupling. Additionally, it sends real-time visual and acoustic alerts to remote operators and drivers.
