(The following story by Peter Panepento appeared on the Erie News website on December 18.)
ERIE, Pa. — When a team of GE Transportation Systems Inc. engineers and locomotive builders traveled to Chu, Kazakhstan, this fall, their most important tool wasn’t a laptop computer or even a welding torch.
It was a piece of chalk.
The 12-member team from Erie made the 34-day trip to teach workers in the central Asian nation how to install GE-produced upgrade kits in the country’s aging locomotive fleet.
Because of language differences and the complexity of the task, GE workers often resorted to drawing chalk diagrams on the sides of locomotives to explain how the new technology works.
What the two groups lacked in common language, they made up for in common goals, said John Riberio, a GE Transportation Systems welder.
“The people kind of changed us and we changed them,” Riberio said Wednesday, as GE Transportation Systems celebrated the shipment of the 54th and final locomotive upgrade kit to Kazakhstan. “They take so much pride in everything they do.”
Union locomotive makers such as Riberio joined white-collar professionals such as mechanical engineer Joe McQuiston in wearing traditional Kazakh garb Wednesday to mark the last shipment.
The outfits — each handmade and unique — were presented to the workers as a gift.
GE, however, hopes the trip yields more than fond memories and souvenirs. They expect it to help forge a new line of business in a once-closed market.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, is attempting to emerge from years of economic struggle. Its turning to its railroad system as a key part of future growth.
Although the country already heavily relies on rail to transport its goods, its locomotive fleet is old and inefficient. The fleet, which dates to the early 1980s, uses engines modeled on those once used in German U-boats.
“They leaked more oil than they had in them,” Riberio said.
To upgrade that fleet, Kazakhstan’s railroad company ? Kazakhstan Temir Zholy ? contracted with GE Transportation Systems to build locomotive modernization kits. The kits essentially put new engines and cutting-edge technology in the shells of the country’s locomotives.
GE Transportation Systems produced 54 kits this year ? the last of which shipped to Kazakhstan on Wednesday. The company is now looking to land an order to build about 200 more during the next three years, said Dave Tucker, vice president of sales.
Chief Executive Charlene Begley said the recent Kazakhstan order might also help open doors into other new markets such as Russia and China.
Like Kazakhstan, those countries have emerging economies and a heavy reliance on rail, an aging infrastructure and a need to upgrade fleets.