About Us

With 15 years experience in locomotive rebuilding, sales, leasing and service, MPR will always provide our clients with the highest level of professionalism, service and integrity. Whether your needs are for full maintenance services, customized rebuilt locomotives, major component replacement, rebuilt electrical & mechanical systems or in-field repair services, we welcome the opportunity to quote our services. We pride ourselves on customer service building quality relationships by delivering competitively priced, high quality service and parts in a manner that meets or exceeds our customer expectations.

Founded by Steve Bomba in 2007, Motive Power Resources, Inc. has a mission to provide quality locomotives, parts, components, and services to meet or exceed our customer’s expectations and to do so with value, service and integrity. Steve has personally selected experts in the locomotive rebuild business to surround him & head up key operational departments. Over the last 15 years MPR has purchased and sold over 500 locomotives by modifying and upgrading older units to be more responsive to new customer guidelines. We offer improved fuel economy enhancements, greater starting tractive effort systems to increase tonnage and the latest computerized systems that eliminate 50% of the original wiring and relays just to name a few….designed to simplify and make older operating systems more reliable & modern.

Steve Bomba and his Team bring many years of direct experience in the field of locomotive sales, leasing, rebuilding, maintenance and repair services. His background, prior to starting MPR, included Locomotive Sales Manager and Vice President of Sales for two major competitors in the locomotive rebuilding industry. Steve’s experience and commitment to foster relationships built on trust, integrity and on-going customer support, serve as the core principal philosophy of MPR.

Our goal is not to become the largest supplier of Locomotive Distribution Services – simply to be the BEST! To date our customer have been very satisfied with the products, services & value provided… at a fair & reasonable price. All our locomotives are customized by MPR working with our clients to meet new work assignments in a very efficient manner.

We would be pleased to provide a full list of customer references and welcome the opportunity to offer our expert approach to your locomotive, repair and component part needs.

Over the last 23 years, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with a vast number of customers, vendors and colleagues in the locomotive maintenance, repair, leasing and supply business – thank you to all those with whom I’ve shared great business relationships and the many friendships we created along the way. The locomotive industry has always felt like home for me and my family. It has been a great ride along the way!

I founded Motive Power Resources, Inc. (MPR) in November 2007 with the encouragement and support of so many in this industry. Finding myself suddenly “self employed” at the time of start up as a result of market conditions at the time, I was blessed to realize immediate support amongst friends in the industry. Business back then consisted of performing locomotive inspections, parts sales, brokering a few locomotives – all from customers that I had conducted business with over the course of many years.

The business grew quickly and to a point that myself and Nick Wills  needed more space than working out of the 3-bedroom rented apartment we had for a facility at the time. We were scrapping locomotives in the field, getting parts and components rebuilt and sold, buying and selling locomotives, taking on larger contracts and quickly growing our list of customers. We were using everyone else’s storage yards for parts and locomotives, outsourcing repairs and component rebuilds, and storing what small parts we could in the very limited space we had at the time.

In early 2011, we moved into a beautiful, 5-year-old 10,000 sq ft facility we headquartered in Newark, Ill, until mid 2015. During those 4 years, we continued growing rapidly, refining our processes and building the foundation for a much larger and more successful business structure that we operate today.

In 2015, we moved into our newly renovated Minooka, IL facility, featuring 30,000 sq ft of heavy locomotive overhaul and repair space, a brand-new 12,000 sq ft warehouse and 5,000 sq ft of newly renovated office and administrative space. New rail installation is in process and will allow us the capacity to service over 30 locomotives at a time. Our new facility is a platform for delivering a full line of quality products and services to our existing and growing customer base.

By mid 2017, MPR had sold over 350 locomotives total, all to very satisfied customers. We employ over 40 dedicated and professional staff members, operate 5 well-equipped field service trucks, typically have 30+ locomotives available for sale or lease at any time, and operate a full trucking operation. I believe that our success is a result of our philosophy of doing right by the customer each and every time. By doing so, the customer rewards us with not only repeat business and excellent referrals, but more importantly, we earn their respect and loyalty which for me, and our entire staff, means so much more. It’s the most basic and fundamental way, it’s where we came from, the basis for all our relationships, and will be the success of our company going forward as we continue to grow.

We take pride in where we are today, but also in knowing where we came from not long ago. We do business the right way and we keep customers’ motive power on track and in service. Thank you to everyone that continues to support us, we truly do appreciate your continued confidence in “How We Roll”.

Sincerely,

Steve Bomba
President