EMD/Progress Rail to Locate in Muncie

[railohio]

Looks like Muncie, Indiana will be the new home of EMD/Progress Rail:

After weeks of rumors about a pending jobs announcement, Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office has said that the governor will be on hand at 11 a.m. Friday at the former ABB plant on Cowan Road to “announce that a manufacturing company will locate a new assembly operation in the 740,000-square-foot building” that was for decades home to a Westinghouse transformer plant.

The Star Press has learned that the announcement is likely to focus on Progress Rail Services, an Alabama-based subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., that provides railroad-affiliated services like locomotive repair and rebuilding.

Hundreds of jobs to be announced in Muncie

[sd70accsxt700]

Cat has said that they are keeping London, ON, as the main plant. They also however was quoted as saying they wanted a second plant, closer to home. They had looked at the old LaGrange plant, but with this announcement looks as if they decided not to. I to believe this also has more also to do with them producing over the road trucks annouced this week, as a joint venture all under the CAT/Progress name.

[MSchwiebert]

The over the road truck thing is a JV with Navistar. The first markets that are going to see those trucks are Brazil & Australia. My understanding is that the trucks will be assembled in those countries for those markets (not sure if they'd be assmbling CKD's or from "scratch" though) When they get to the US market, I'd look for the trucks to be assembled at Navistar's Garland TX plant - although Springfield OH could be an option as (if the UAW ratifies their contract there) Navistar has said they would move the Medium Duty truck product that is run there out (presumably to Escobedo Mexico) and move HD trucks in.
As for Muncie based on the facility it's going to do something rail related. It could be new mfg. to supplement or replace London, but another option could be as a remanufacturing facility. In the last copy of "Diesel Progress" magazine, they had an interview with the CEO of Cat, and he said that one of the things that made EMD attractive to them is the number of existing locomotives/gen sets/prime movers out in the field now that would be in play for service & re-manfacturing. Muncie for example could be used as the facility to do ECO upgrades - and keep the London facility "clear" for new mfg. Or if the passenger thing takes off and there's "buy america" rules applied they could comply by doing those at Muncie.

[sd70accsxt700]

Ok that makes sense, I could not find the truck article again, and rembered wrong.

[railohio]

It's official:

Governor Mitch Daniels joined executives from rail industry supplier, Progress Rail Services, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., today to announce the company's plans to locate a locomotive manufacturing facility in Muncie to serve the diesel-electric locomotive market and position the company to participate in future transit rail projects. Progress Rail, which will operate the facility through a new subsidiary, anticipates this project could create up to 650 new jobs by 2012.

The company plans to invest approximately $50 million to open the first locomotive assembly plant in the United States in many years. Progress Rail will launch assembly and manufacturing in the 740,000 square-foot facility formerly occupied by ABB Power T&D Co., which closed in 1998. In addition, the company plans to build a locomotive test track on the facility's 75-acre campus.

Locomotive Maker to Locate Assembly Operation in Muncie

[sd70accsxt700]

Still have the old home, just adding a place to make more.