A locomotive manufacturer that introduced a new battery-powered last year, and it’s made its largest sale to date: to an Australian coal mining company interested in “going green,” the Associated Press reports.
Pittsburgh-based Wabtec introduced its FLXdrive locomotives in 2021, and Rio Tinto purchases four of the heavy-haul locomotives for their mining operations in Australia. Earlier, Wabtec announced the Canadian National Railroad and another Australian mining company had also purchased one locomotive each.
A freight carrier line in the US, BNSF, and Canadian Pacific Railroads will also test a hydrogen-powered locomotive as railways attempt to move away from coal-powered locomotives.