EKE-Electronics will supply locomotive control equipment for the modernisation of ÖBB locomotive series Rh 1044. At Innotrans 2008 EKE’s Swiss system integrator partner Railtec Systems signed a contract with ÖBB Technical Services for the modernisation of ÖBB’s locomotive series Rh 1044. Under the contract up to 119 locomotives will be refurbished in 2009-2011.

EKE-Electronics’ scope of supply includes a gateway and remote control system, which controls and diagnoses operative data in the locomotive and allows multi-traction over the train bus. The equipment supplied by EKE will consist of a wire train bus module for the train bus communication, a high performance PowerPC-based CPU and a multitude of digital and analogue input and output modules. The system is fully compliant with both the IEC TCN standard and EN50155 standard for railway rolling stock.

Railtec Systems will be responsible for the integration and application development, as well as customer support.

Mr Pekka Kuusela, chief executive officer of EKE-Electronics commented, “We are very happy to support Railtec in delivering this project to ÖBB Technical Services in Austria. For us, this project is the first one in Austria and we are very proud of this breakthrough with Railtec. Our mission is to make system integrators’ life easier, and the ÖBB project is a good example of this.”