Railpower Technologies

Railpower Technologies Corp.

Industry	Rail transport
Founded	2001
Headquarters	Brossard, Quebec, Canada
Products	Low emission diesel locomotives, hybrid power plants for cranes and heavy-duty equipment
Number of employees	26
Website	www.railpower.com

Railpower Technologies Corp. is a subsidiary of R.J. Corman Railroad Group that builds environmentally friendly hybrid Green Goat and Genset switching locomotives, founded by Frank Donnelly and Gerard Koldyk. Its locomotives have been purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway, BNSF Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad among others.

The company was founded in 2001 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and incorporated an automotive propulsion system into a new hybrid yard locomotive, dubbed the "Green Goat." The unit was built off the frame of an EMD GP9, and was powered by a 130 hp (97 kW) diesel engine charging a bank of 320 lead-acid batteries, producing 2,000 hp (1,500 kW). This first unit underwent extensive testing and demonstration in both Canada and the United States for a year, in conjunction with a smaller 1,000 hp (750 kW) unit, called the "Green Kid." The demonstrations were a success, and combined with the introduction of government programs providing assistance to railroads introducing low-emissions locomotives, provided impetus for railroads to adopt Railpower's design, particularly in areas such as Texas and California, where such laws were particularly stringent. Initially, Railpower's products were well received, and the company had 175 total orders by late 2005, consisting of both the original hybrid locomotives and newer genset locomotives, which have multiple engines operating in tandem and have the capability to selectively shut down engines to reduce fuel consumption. Despite the company's early success, sales soon dropped off, largely because of reliability issues with the locomotives (one customer, Canadian Pacific, returned its order due to unsatisfactory performance) and a general slowdown in sales of switching locomotives. As a result of the drop-off in sales, Railpower entered bankruptcy in early 2009, and was purchased by the R.J. Corman Railroad Group during the summer of the same year.