Stadler Rail Facility and Rail Expansion

Stadler’s Salt Lake City campus manufactures passenger rail vehicles for transit agencies across North America. Stacy Witbeck built a test track to commission rail cards, expanded the rail yard to support growing production, and installed a third rail. 

Need 

Stadler's manufacturing plant needed on-site infrastructure to match its growing production, requiring a dedicated test track, additional yard capacity, and a third rail system engineered to strict clearance and loading standards. 

Work 

• Constructed embedded track, direct fixation track, and pedestal track  
• Installed an overhead contact system to power both AC and DC vehicle types 
• Relocated a wheel truing machine  
• Installed ballasted yard track and turnouts  
• Built embedded track and pit track to grow manufacturing and maintenance capacity 
• Constructed roughly 2,525 track feet of ballasted third rail system with test track end ramps 
• Removed existing track on the east side of the assembly hall and replacement of existing yard track at 5 separate locations 
• Installed contact rail, protective coverboard, and insulator and splice bar assemblies 
• Extended the third rail cantilever bracket seven inches to clear AAR freight clearances

Impact  

As the only manufacturing plant in the U.S., the facility's test track, expanded yard, and third rail system allow passenger rail vehicles to be tested and commissioned on-site before they are shipped to transit agencies across North America. 

Innovations   

Fitting a third rail system into an active freight corridor meant solving a clearance conflict that standard designs couldn't handle. Stacy Witbeck engineered a seven-inch extension to the third rail cantilever bracket, clearing AAR Plate H and Plate F freight requirements while keeping the coverboard fully protected. The team partnered with L.B. Foster to stress-test the modified design, confirming the extended bracket carried its load safely before a single piece went into the ground.