Company type | Public |
---|---|
NYSE: WAB | |
Industry | Transport |
Founded | September 1869 |
Founder | George Westinghouse |
Defunct | 1999[1] |
Fate | Merged with MotivePower to form Wabtec in 1999[1][2] |
Successor | Wabtec |
Headquarters | Westinghouse Building, , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Railway air brakes |
Parent | American Standard (1968–99)[3] |
Footnotes / references [4] |
The Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WABCO) was an American company founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[5] Earlier in the year he had invented the railway air brake in New York state.
After having manufactured equipment in Pittsburgh for a number of years, he began to construct facilities and plants east of the city where homes for his employees were built. In 1889, the air brake manufacturing facility was moved to Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, and the company's general office building was built there in 1890.
In 1921 the company began manufacturing a modified air brake system for installation in trucks and heavy vehicles.[6]
In 1953 WABCO entered the heavy equipment marketplace, buying the assets of leading equipment designer R.G LeTourneau.[7] An entity known as "LeTourneau-Westinghouse" sold a range of innovative products, including scrapers, cranes and bulldozers until 1967, when it shortened its name to "Wabco". In 1968 American Standard purchased Wabco.[8]
WABCO's direct successor companies include WABCO Vehicle Control Systems, a commercial vehicle air brake manufacturer now owned by ZF Friedrichshafen; and Wabtec, a railway equipment manufacturer, which have been owned and operated independently of each other since the mid-twentieth century.
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