MALAYSIAN national railway KTMB has ordered 20 locomotives from Dalian Loco in China which are to be fitted with air and vacuum brakes. Production of the complex integrated braking racks was subcontracted to Wabtec International.
’This braking system was very unusual and needed to be custom designed’, said Wabtec International Vice-President Tim Logan. ’Dalian lacked the resources to design, develop and test the needed equipment in the available timeframe, and ultimately hired Wabtec to do the job’. The first 11 sets were delivered to China in late 2004, the others following this year. ’This was the first time we combined vacuum and air equipment onto a single integrated panel’, said Senior Application Engineer Mike Romansky.
Wabtec has previously supplied ADBX brakes to China for use on wagons built for export to Venezuela and Brazil, and Vice-President of Sales & Technical Support Jim Zemyan sees China as a growing market. ’In 2004 we sold about $3m worth of equipment to China. That volume could double in the next few years.’
Wabtec International, USA
