GE's Latham locomotive turbocharger plant closing

Quote from article and a link below.

"COLONIE — As it moves production to India to be closer to a client, General Electric Co. is closing down a locomotive turbocharger plant near Albany International Airport that employs 48 people."

http://www.timesunion.com/business/arti ... 336186.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additional article from Albany Business Review:

Albany Business Review wrote:General Electric confirmed Thursday that it will close its locomotive turbocharger manufacturing plant in Latham, New York within the next year.

GE Transportation Engine Systems employs 48 people at the suburban Albany plant. Declining demand for remanufactured turbochargers for Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. locomotives led to the decision to shut down the factory near Albany International Airport."We needed to cease domestic production on the power assemblies because maintaining and operating a plant the size of Latham for so little work and few employees is not realistic," said GE Transportation spokeswoman Mailee Garcia.

An Engine Systems employee, who asked not to be identified, said the plant at one time produced as many as 50 turbochargers a week. Currently, the factory is producing closer to five turbochargers a week.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/ ... india.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


It sounds like they don't actually produce FDL, GEVO, or PowerHaul turbos at this particular plant — is that correct?

It certainly sounds that way. The GETS web sight has, for several years, touted "EMD" engine parts, with a footnote to the effect that GE has no connection to EMD and certainly doesn't claim any right to the "EMD" trademark, but maintains that their products in this area are equivalent to the original equipment manufacturer's.

The article above also mentions that this is a former Wabtec plant that GE purchased several years ago.

Is it safe, therefore, to assume that GE's own turbos are built (or remanufactured) at Grove City?

I wouldn't count on it! GE is a big company, and I wouldn't be surprised if the turbos were made at some other plant and trucked to Grove City. (Note wording. "I wouldn't be surprised" doesn't mean I think this is probable, just that it is not VERY improbable. I would also not be surprised to learn that turbochargers are made in part of the Grove City site. I hope someone who knows will post the unsurprising, but still interesting, answer.)

Look at the history. GE got into turbochargers for diesel locomotive engines in the mid-1940s by looking for a new application for the technology they had developed for turbocharging aircraft engines: something that would have involved a very different part of GE from the locomotive building arm. (I've always assumed, but as usual would love it if someone who knows would post details, that GE's jet engine business grew out of its turbocharger business. Late in WW II, the U.S. government tried to find U.S. sources of jet engines: initially copies of British designs. I think GE was chosen in large part because they were already experiences in related gas-turbine technology.)