Cathcart Rail

Cathcart Rail was founded in 2015 by Thomas and Casey Cathcart through the acquisition of a distressed asset, the Bucyrus shop location. At the time of Tikehau Star Infra's initial investment into Cathcart Rail in September 2020, Cathcart Rail had two operating divisions: a railcar division, providing various mechanical operations and railcar repair services, and a rail division, providing short-line railroad operations and other related services.

Star’s rationale to invest into Cathcart Rail was to support the organic growth of the company in the rail car service segment as well as acquisition of short-line railroads to support the service segment. In December 2020, Cathcart Rail took a major step towards implementing its growth strategy by acquiring Appalachian Railcar Services (ARS), a key player in the freight car repair segment, creating one of the largest railcar services companies in North America. With the acquisition, Cathcart Rail is now able to provide fully integrated and geographically diversified offerings to its clients, including freight and tank car contract repair, repair agent services, railcar cleaning, parts, and storage, in-plant switching and repair, transloading, track maintenance, tank car cleaning and short-line operations. The combined company will employ 800 people across 60 locations in 22 states. Furthermore, in December 2020, ARS, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cathcart Rail, acquired the Amarillo railcar repair facility located in Texas (Amarillo) from Progress Rail, further enhancing location geographical diversification. To fund the ARS and Amarillo acquisitions, Tikehau Star Infra increased its investment into Cathcart Rail.

Link to website: http://www.tcrailholdings.com/