Wabtec

Wabtec Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: WAB
Industry	Rail industry
Founded	1999 via merger
Headquarters	Wilmerding, Pennsylvania[1], USA
Number of locations	Various : USA, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South America. ~50 plants[1]
Key people	Albert J. Neupaver, President and chief executive officer Alvaro Garcia-Tunon, Senior Vice President and chief financial officer[1]
Products	Rail braking systems, locomotives, air condition and heat exchanging systems, other rolling stock components[1]
Services	Locomotive servicing, overhaul and repair[1]
Net income	Sales[note 1] 2007: US$1360 million[2] Operations:[note 1] 2007: US$180 million[2]
Employees	7000[1]
Divisions	Motive Power Inc.
Website	www.wabtec.com

Wabtec Corporation (derived from Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.

Wabtec manufactures products for locomotives, freight cars and passenger transit vehicles, and builds new locomotives up to 4,000 horsepower (3 MW).

History [edit]

The company's origins go back as far as 1869 with the foundation of the Westinghouse Brake Company; this company (also known as WA&B later as WABCO) became independent in 1990 via a management buy out and went public in 1995.^[3] Another company: WABCO Vehicle Control Systems also created from the Westinghouse Brake Company is independent of Wabtec and was spun off by American Standard (the ultimate owner) in 2007.

The other company forming Wabtec, MotivePower Industries, can be traced back to 1972 with the formation of a Rail Systems Group by the Morrison Knudsen group; and the purchase of a manufacturing facility in Boise. In 1994 Morrison Knudsen created a subsidiary MK Rail Corporation; during the first half of the same decade the MK Rail group expanded with the acquisition of various other locomotive component companies. In 1996 MK Rail group is separated from the parent Morrison Knudsen and adopted the name MotivePower Industries Corporation. In the later half of the 1990s further companies were acquired – again all in the locomotive components business.^[4]

In July 2010, Wabtec announced that it had purchased two manufacturers of rail equipment, Bach-Simpson Corp. and G&B Specialties. The companies produce locomotive components and track products respectively. The purchase price was reportedly US$48 million.^[5]

In November 2010, Wabtec acquired all of the assets of Cleveland, Ohio, based manufacturer of traction motors and electric coils for rail and power generation markets Swiger Coil Systems.^[6] On February 28, 2011, Wabtec announced that it had acquired Brush Traction, an English locomotive builder and maintainer, for US$31 million.^[7]

In November 2011, Wabtec acquired Bearward Engineering Ltd [1], an industrial radiator manufacturer employing some 600 people based in Northampton, England. Bearward Engineering primarily supplies the power generation market with uniquely designed cooling systems. At the time of purchase Bearward had an annual turnover of US$70 million.^[8]

References and notes [edit]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Figures rounded down to nearest 1 million

References [edit]

See also [edit]

• List of low emissions locomotives

	Pittsburgh portal
	Companies portal
	Rail portal

External links [edit]

• Wabtec corporation company website
  • Motive Power Inc. company website