Sustainability Efforts Include Two New Switchers It’s widely known that railroads are an
repairs. With a grant from the Texas Emissions
environmentally friendly form of freight
Reductions Plan program, Watco is building the
transportation, producing less than 2% of
switchers in partnership with Medha, a designer
transportation-related emissions, according
and manufacturer of locomotive control systems
to the Environmental Protection Agency. Watco
and other rail-related electronics.
is taking sustainability a step further with two new zero-emissions switching locomotives.
“Medha is providing key components of the power and controls systems, and Watco personnel
“Think of it as a Tesla, but a locomotive,” says
will reassemble the locomotives,” says Keith
Aaron Jensen, senior vice president of materials
Testerman, vice president and chief mechanical
services. “They are fully battery-operated —
officer. He says the locomotives “are completely
placed on a charger. They don’t directly use
disassembled now, and we’re performing some
any fossil fuels.”
sheet metal repairs. We meet weekly with Medha on
Watco is in the process of converting a pair of switching locomotives: an SW1200 built in the
the design review and come to an agreement on how to put them back together.”
1950s, and an SW1500 from the 1960s. Both are
Watco’s Brandon Jenson, director of locomotive
Texas-based machines that had been out for
support systems; Tex Inman, director of locomotive
8 The Dispatch | January 2022
