A Scottish engineering firm is in talks with Mongolian authorities to supply robots that could be used to cut the cost of maintaining the famed Trans-Siberian Railway.
QTS hopes to clinch a deal under which it will supply rail robots to automate work involved in keeping the hundreds of miles of track that cross the sprawling central Asian state in good shape.
Developed by QTS, the remote-controlled robots straddle the rails on treads. They can be used for tasks such as transposing tracks so the side of the rail that gets worn by the wheels of trains is switched to the outside.
The firm is in the early stage of talks which are being facilitated by the honorary consul for Mongolia in Scotland, David Scott.
South Lanarkshire-based QTS also hopes to win business in Australia.
Owned by Alan McLeish, a qualified tree surgeon, the company plans to move into exports to help maintain the rapid growth rates it has achieved in recent years.
In the year to March, QTS increased profits before tax by almost 50%, to £2 million, compared with £1.4m in the preceding year.
Sales surged 75%, to £24m, from £13.8m.
Started by Mr McLeish in 1991 with a £300 loan that he used to buy a chainsaw, QTS has become a big player in the rail maintenance market.
In the latest year the company won a series of contracts to work on projects for Network Rail across Scotland.
The workload included the design and construction of a new station building at Dalmuir, Clydebank; fitting major rock-fall netting near the railway line at Lunan Bay in Angus; and fencing work on the West Coast Main Line.
The company has been extending its reach south of the Border, and is currently working on a rail project in Kent.
The company's expertise in areas such as removing vegetation from structures is also in demand from the likes of BT and local authorities.
Based on current trends, directors expect the company to achieve further growth in the current year.
Mr McLeish said: "These results allow us to really build for the future, whether that is with overseas work, developing our workforce or investing in green energy at our HQ.
"Crucially these results allow us to reinvest profit in our Road Rail Vehicle research, development and production which will help keep us ahead of our competition in railway operations."
The company has doubled staff numbers to 81 in the past two years.
It expects to invest more than £1m in upgrading its vehicle fleet, plant and machinery in the current year.
The QTS group is the shirt sponsor of Kilmarnock football club for the 2012/13 season.
After leaving school with no qualifications, Mr McLeish built a career in forestry out of seasonal work in the sector before he started working on rail-maintenance projects.
Mongolia opened a consulate in Edinburgh in April as part of a drive to encourage Scottish companies to help the state maintain its rapid economic growth.
The country recorded growth of 17.3% in 2011 on the back of demand for commodities.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article