Atchison Wins GM Locomotive Casting Contract.

Atchison Casting Corp., Atchison, Kansas, has announced that its St. Joe and London Precision Machine units have been awarded initial contracts by General Motors' Electro-Motive Div. for the supply of cast steel locomotive parts. The castings are to be used on GM's SD-70 series locomotives recently ordered by Union Pacific Railroad. The value of the casting and machining order is expected to reach $69 million over the life of the project. Delivery is scheduled to begin in the second half of fiscal 2000 and continue through mid-fiscal 2002.

"The Atchison/St. Joe foundry has been a supplier/partner to GM for over 75 years with a superior quality, delivery and service record," said Atchison CEO Hugh Aiken. "The same can be said of our London Precision Machine subsidiary since the initiation of its relationship with GM years ago. This order provides substantial business to Atchison Casting units during the next 3 years."

"The SD-70 series locomotive truck frame was jointly developed by GM engineering and Atchison as a one-piece casting in the early 1990s," said Atchison Group Vice President John Kujawa. "Only components that have demonstrated high reliability over time were considered for this contract."

Atchison Casting supplies a range of highly engineered iron, steel and nonferrous castings to the mining, construction, steel, rail, oil and gas, military, agriculture, automotive, power generation and process industries. With 20 locations in the U.S., Canada and Europe, Atchison applies foundry technology to the manufacture and machining of complex products used in such demanding applications as locomotive and mass transit undercarriages, tractor crawlers, mining trucks, excavators, pumps, valves, steam and water turbines, and military tanks and ships.