My good friend Ray Sykes passed away June 20, 2023. Ray was an Electrical Engineer and started working for EMD in the Product Delivery Group in June of 1966. He later worked as a District Engineer handling Amtrak, Penn Central, and the Western Maryland. I met Ray in my first work for EMD on the Western Maryland at Hagerstown.

In the mid to late 1970's he worked in Sales Engineering, and around 1980 he became manager of the Sales Engineering Group. He subsequently became EMD District Sales Manager - Marine and Industrial, based in Valley Forge, PA.

After he left EMD, he went to work for Peaker Service as V.P. Sales, and in the late 1990's he joined Rail Systems (RSI) as Service Manager and worked out of Houma, LA until his retirement. He assisted many preservation groups with information and parts sourcing in the RSI years.

Ray was one of the most pleasant and helpful people in the industry and his knowledge and ability to remember details of the entire EMD product line was very impressive.

PC

Ray was always very knowledgeable and helpful to our group, when we had questions and needed information during his days at RSI. That was a great resource and parts vendor, due in no small part to Ray's efforts. He (and RSI) will be missed.

Howard P.

Sad. He seems to have been a neat guy.

Ray and I had many interactions. I bought hundreds of thousands dollars worth of parts from him. A true gentleman. This was during the time RSI was handling EMD parts for shortlines and regionals. Sorry to hear about this.