Patriot Rail Corp. subsidiary, Sacramento Valley Railroad ('SAV'), announced that it will test an environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art low emission locomotive this month. This test is the result of SAV's efforts to seek ways to help reduce air emissions in the Sacramento, California, region.

The 2,000 horsepower RP20BD locomotive, provided by Railpower Technologies Corp. ('Railpower'), will be on loan to SAV for two weeks. The three engine multi-purpose GenSet locomotive utilizes Railpower's patented common DC buss design to provide maximum operating efficiency -- a 30% to 50% fuel savings versus conventional locomotives in similar duty cycles and approximately 70% to 90% reduction of NOx emission in both yard and road switching applications. Additionally, a modular component design significantly reduces maintenance and component replacement costs. The RP20BD locomotive is classified as "Ultra Low Emitting Locomotive" under California Air Resource Board's criteria.

SAV, based in McClellan, California, provides exclusive rail freight services on seven miles of rail line at McClellan Business Park. McClellan Business Park, a 3,000-acre business park located near Sacramento, California, has more than 2.4 million square feet of rail-served facilities, including 155 industrial buildings, 35 warehouses and a 10-acre rail transloading yard. SAV interchanges rail traffic with the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads.

'The RP20BD locomotive is a perfect fit for the stop-and-go switching operations at SAV. With its innovative use of three engines, this locomotive produces power when needed while reducing emissions and using less fuel when idling,' said Stan Wlotko, Senior Vice President ' Operations, of Patriot Rail Corp. 'Railpower is a leader in this technology and we appreciate them letting us test this locomotive. We are excited about possibly utilizing locomotives like these on all of our railroads, not only for the positive impact on the environment but for the operational efficiencies as well.'

Mitch Gillispie, Railpower Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, North America, said, 'The fuel savings and emissions reduction that our Eco-Motive line of locomotives provides to our customers represent only half of the Railpower value story. Using our proprietary control system, Railpower's family of Eco-Motive locomotives significantly improves tractive effort by up to 80%, when compared to a conventional locomotive, depending on model and application. For a short line like SAV, this means almost a one for two replacement ratio, allowing them to pull more with less.'

Patriot Rail Corp. is a short line and regional freight railroad holding company based in Boca Raton, Florida. The Company owns and operates five short line freight railroads comprising 321 total rail miles: the Tennessee Southern Railroad in Tennessee and Alabama; the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway in Montana; the Utah Central Railway in Utah; the Sacramento Valley Railroad in California; and the Louisiana & North West Railroad in Louisiana and Arkansas.