Railroad safety company doubles its Loveland footprint

LOVELAND — An international company with roots in Loveland has expanded into a new facility twice its previous size.

The company, Voestalpine Signaling USA LLC, designs, manufactures and services railroad safety equipment capable of preventing railroad accidents like the one Feb. 23, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio.

Voestalpine hosted an open house last week at its new 15,000-square-foot facility in Building D of The Forge Campus, which is the former Hewlett-Packard facility in Loveland.

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Voestalpine, with operations in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands in addition to Loveland, produces rail monitoring equipment including acoustic, heat-sensing and laser-focused equipment. Loveland’s operation specializes in acoustic products that detect variations in the sound of rail equipment as it passes by sensors. The 23-member staff also installs and services the heat-sensing and laser-focused equipment that are manufactured elsewhere.

Jim Bilodeau, chief technology officer for the company, said the Loveland operation installs six projects a month and has agreements with five of the six Class I railroads in the country. All six were on hand this past week to learn about new technologies available. Some of the equipment can be installed directly by the railroads.

Bilodeau said the company is coming off its best year ever; its fiscal year began April 1.

Voestalpine staff members on hand during the open house described their work, including the installations and monitoring. While the company provides its railroad customers with the equipment to monitor their own tracks and rolling stock, engineers also monitor the data and sometimes are able to detect anomalies before the railroad might notice. 

The Ohio derailment that released toxic gas causing the evacuation of half of the town’s population, resulted from an overheated wheel bearing — a condition detectable by Voestalpine’s acoustic or heat-sensing equipment. The Norfolk Southern Railroad was not using the Voestalpine equipment.