Railpower Technologies Corp., once a high-flying cleantech play, has struggled of late and continues to play in penny-stock waters waiting for the tide to lift its fortunes. Oil above $130 a barrel helps, given the company is in the business of making hybrid locomotives for railyards that significantly reduce emissions and fuel consumption. But a number of expensive recalls on its first round of sales has left it with a confidence deficit, so the only hope for this company is for sales to move beyond a trickle and into a strong momentous flow. Railpower, based in Quebec, has had some help from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which invested $35 million in the company earlier this year and just announced it’s throwing in another $20 million, in the form of a convertible debenture, to help Railpower build a manufacturing facility near Montreal. The new plant will lead to 125 new jobs, but more importantly it allows the company to bring quality control under its belt and improve manufacturing efficiencies, not to mention margins. It’s a good sign, if only because the injection from a conservative pension fund is a vote of confidence that the company — while it struggled as many startups do — has a good product at a good time for an industry about to face tightened emission limits. General Electric is also in this game, and others, though they have focused more on longer range locomotives. Railpower has a niche business, but it’s also venturing into new territory, whether it’s hybrid tugboats or hybrid loading crains. What the company really needs is to follow up this latest announcement with a major sale or two, which would indicate that railway customers haven’t given up on the company.

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