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Wabtec closes historic Westinghouse plant in the USA

19 January 2024
Reading time ~ 1 min
Wabtec's plant at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA
Wabtec's plant at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA. Source: Dan Cupper
Savenkova Ekaterina, Editorial Contributor to International Projects of ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Reading time ~ 1 min
Stolchnev Alexey, Russian Projects Editor, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency

USA: The 53,000m² facility in the centre of Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA, was sold to the local company Wilmerding Warehouse for $1.3m at the end of 2023.

The company had already agreed with the union to close the plant back in 2022. According to Wabtec’s representative Tim Bader, the plant has been operating at less than a third of its capacity in recent years. The building has an outdated layout that is not suited to modern production processes and requires excessive maintenance costs due to its dilapidated state. The remaining 94 employees will retire before the plant closes completely on 1 July.

Wabtec's plant at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA Wabtec’s plant at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Wilmerding site was in many ways the beginning of Wabtec’s history, founded in the 19th century by the inventor of the railway air brake, George Westinghouse. The company even bears his name, as Wabtec stands for Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies. The company moved into this building in 1889 to expand its brake production. In recent years, the plant has been producing components for locomotives.

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