MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- Caterpillar Inc. plans to start building diesel-electric locomotives in a vacant former transformer factory in eastern Indiana, potentially hiring 650 workers in the next two years.
Company executives announced the Muncie factory on Friday, which they said would allow Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail to seek business from transit rail projects.
The Peoria, Ill.-based company plans to spend $50 million to reopen the 740,000 square-foot plant on Muncie's south side that ABB Power T&D Co. closed in 1998. Caterpillar also plans to build a locomotive test track on the facility's 75-acre campus.
