U.S.-based company steps in.

A Capreol locomotive repair shop plagued by labour disruptions in recent years is back on track under new ownership.

An Illinois-based locomotive refurbishing and supply company has stepped in to re-open the doors of the former CLN Industries Ltd. that were closed after a strike last August resulted in CLN Industries Ltd. ceasing operations and firing 54 unionized employees.

Now operating as NRE-Alco Locomotive of Canada, the equipment repair shop, located 30 kilometres north of downtown Sudbury, is the first Canadian subsidiary of National Railway Equipment Co. of Dixmoor Ill., considered an industry leader in locomotive repair, remanufacturing and component supply.

"Having an entity in Canada enables us to go after Canadian business," says Mel Dinius, the shop's new general manager, who was plucked from a short-lived retirement in Montana after 38 years in the rail refurbishment business with Montana Rail Link and Illinois Central.

The 50,000-square-foot shop had remained idle since parent company CLN Ventures Inc. announced Aug. 30 it was closing after unionized employees walked off the job largely over wage issues. The City of Toronto subsequently cancelled a multi-million-dollar contract it had with CLN to refurbish locomotives from GO Transit. It was the third labour disruption at the company in two years.

Negotiations then began between CLN owner Jay Nusca of Mississauga and NRE with a letter of intent being signed to purchase the facility in October. Labour peace was assured with an eight-year contract with the Brotherhood of Maintenance and Way Employees and operations resumed Nov. 27.

Dinius has high hopes of doubling the current workforce of 33 employees, many of whom are former CN supervisors, technicians and skilled tradesmen, who work one shift Monday to Friday.

"I think there's enough business out there to be had," he says, alluding to potential customers such as Via Rail, Huron Central Railway and the New Brunswick South Railway, as well as the major Class I carriers and industries across Canada.

The suburban Chicago company has a fat client list that includes the Union Pacific Railway, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, CSX and Inland Steel, and some of that business may shift to Sudbury. Dinius says the acquisition of their sixth repair facility should deliver greater efficiencies for the company to pursue larger remanufacturing contracts and reduce locomotive downtime for their clients.

Previously, "if we took on a contract for Union Pacific for 25 locomotives to be remanufactured in six months, we didn't have the facilities to do it all. We now can put five locomotives in each facility and the UP gets their locomotives back in that time period."

The company operates five other repair shops in Illinois, Louisiana and Australia.

In early January Capreol crews were finishing up some work left in limbo since last summer, fixing five GO Transit locomotives that remained in Capreol, plus two more units from Progress Rail, a US leasing company.

Dinius expects good news in the coming weeks with the company in the running for a contract with a privately owned railway that requires at least 60 per cent Canadian content. "That's a very viable contract that we'll probably get, and we'll know about it within the next month. It'll force us to hire additional people and start an afternoon shift."

The new ownership has already invested about $150,000 (US) in much-needed equipment upgrades and shipped in some equipment from other NRE facilities.

Prior to last summer's work stoppage, the Capreol shop had been repairing locomotives, rail cars and track equipment as well as doing some work on the side for the mining industry in their hydraulic and machine shop.