It was an exciting day in Building 10 at Wabtec as the first ever battery-diesel locomotive manufactured at the Erie plant moved into final assembly.
It's the first to reach that milestone in an order of 25 hybrids headed for the New York City Transit Authority, with the possibility of 40 more to come.
Erie News Now had an exclusive look inside the plant on the monumental occasion. The locomotive was rolled upside down for the work that happens next. It was surrounded by a team of employees from engineers to manufacturing support who will take it through the next steps to completion and validation for the customer. VP of Operations Joe Cavalier was extremely proud of the hard work that culmination in this moment. "It also stresses the importance of things that matter, flexibility in the form of people working across historical job boundaries, working in different skill sets, learning new things --a mix of different functions on the shop floor, collaborating everything from engineering to manufacturing support and quality. It's been a true team effort and this is a huge milestone for us, getting this first locomotive into final assembly."
At the same time, work is underway on a 100 locomotive order for Egypt. Some of the locomotives are still on the final assembly floor, but many are now painted and going through testing before they will be shipped out.
A diverse schedule of additional work is going on inside the busy Wabtec plant on both freight and transit locomotives. That includes modernizing older locomotives, projects moved to Erie from the company's Boise, Idaho facility, and battery bundling, sealing and testing for Wabtec's revolutionary all battery FLXDrive locomotive.
Cavalier said that the capacity and the expertise at the Erie plant are driving the expanding orders and work. "I'll tell you this year has been a great example of what the Erie team's been able to overcome. I mean when you think about how dynamic the supply chain's been, you know for us to be able to leverage our two greatest strengths which is the capability and expertise at this site -- we have all the infrastructure we need to be successful, we've been able to harness those and really deliver this year," he said.
And Cavalier credits the flexibility and collaboration of the work force for the success in 2022, in spite of the challenging economic conditions. "People having the ability to do one, two, three things and jump from one locomotive to another -- to deliver for customers and the business, it is a big deal for the Erie site," Cavalier said.
The steady flow of contracts and work means that Wabtec has brought back all laid off union workers on the UE 506 call back list and hired about 150 new workers.
The success of 2022 is a positive foundation for 2023, when the union and company will start talks for their next contract. The current deal, a 4-year plan hammered out when Wabtec first took over GE expires on June 9.