Siemans Facility Tour - May 25, 2011
Under Development
PSRHS members enjoyed an exclusive plant tour of the Siemens Industry, Inc - Mobility Division Headquarters facility. Located in South Sacramento they are tasked with manufacturing lightrail cars and locomotives.
Siemens has recently been awarded a contract from AMTRAK to build 70 all electric Locomotives for service on the Northeastern Corridor. Pictured here is a rendering of their concept ideas. These locomotives are to be built in Sacramento. First deliveries are estimated for December of 2012
Kevin McGrew, Director, Supplier Quality Management, leads the tour here outside the main assembly building.
Interesting side notes to the manufacturing is that the wheel sets, called bogies, are fabricated of steel not cast of iron as heavy weight rail cars. This produces a lighter component equating to greater efficiency and lower operating costs. The bogies are welded using hundreds of pieces of steel and to very strict tolerances.
Our members are viewing a massive car hauler, seen in the background, which moves the railcars between different buildings during the manufacturing process.
Here inside the assembly building cars are completed in eight weeks by a team of twelve technicians. Siemens currently ships about 10 light rail vehicles a month. Many are placed on custom flat cars and can be seen on Union Pacific's Roseville Sub. Current customers receiving cars are the cities of Edmonton Alberta, Salt Lake City, Denver, and San Diego.
This is a San Diego bound car on the Siemens test track. Siemans currently has about 800 employees. They are planning to almost double their work force to meet the demands of additional contracts. They are poised to participate in California's High Speed Rail Initiative as well.
The membership would like to extend a special thanks to Kevin McGrew, who conducted the tour, and Keith Turner who worked with Jim Wood to set up the tour. We sincerely appreciate their wonderful hospitality and very insightful tour. We would also like to thank all the employees and management Siemans Industry, Inc. for allowing us to see what will eventually be history, being constructed today.