Wabtec

yeah

an economy that's running smoothly runs at about three percent inflation 2.8 2.7 would be really good but like you don't want to have negative because that would mean you're selling less stuff so anyway it would probably help it would help i mean the co2 emissions alone would be a benefit but maybe in the future it would be smaller increases as and we're yeah it's a good incentive because we're already moving so many things are moving to battery Wabtec has a train now.

I wrote a guy that I know because we were talking about what kind of fuel mileage trains get today with a coworker.

And I wrote this guy, Brad McCurdy, that writes us here on the show quite a bit.

And he was an electrician for GE on their trains.

And he was like, here's this Wabtec that's all battery.

Can you all and he said dynamic braking will charge the batteries, which they currently do in their hybrid.

They're they're locomotive engines that run the generators or they are, you know, they are the generators for the electric motors.

And then after that, we're going to look at a much more trivial story, but one that really grabbed my eye because I think it says quite a lot about the region and how the region is evolving and its relationships with its neighbors is evolving.

And this is Kyrgyzstan's purchase of 10 freight locomotives from an American company, Wabtec.

And I promise to listeners, this will make sense.

I know it sounds ridiculous, like buying locomotives isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but I think it's actually quite a fascinating story.

But this deal shows how other partners, notably the United States, U.S. companies, may be the U.S. government to some extent is also involved.

Just to get to the news.

So the news is that from last week is that Kyrgyzstan has ordered 10 of these freight locomotives from a company called Wapotec.

If people follow logistic news in Central Asia, these people exist.

He wanted to look at the tourist resorts they had up in the mountains up there because he thinks their model could translate well to skiing areas in Kyrgyzstan as well.

But he managed to get a contract for 10 locomotives from Wabtec, which has a factory.

It's a U.S. company that produces locomotives, and they have a factory in Kazakhstan.

So he did get those locomotives, which are going to be helpful for Kyrgyzstan because we know that they are developing their own internal railway network finally after all these years, and they have some big plans for a couple of railway networks that are set to open in the coming years.

Hsiao also targeted government-backed data collection centers, arguing that some of them helped generate what he described as false and unsustainable revenue.

Looking at public tender records, Hong Kong-listed Wabtec has also secured a significant portion of these data collection center contracts.

So while Galbot's valuation might be on the high side, they don't seem to be major players in the data collection business, making Xiao's decision to single them out particularly surprising.

When asked about the current wave of robotics, IPOs, Xiao grouped candidates into three categories, companies replacing foreign imports, companies serving niche industries, tech-driven firms powered by new AI.

For a full list of details, please be sure to check out the product pages listed on the Scale Trains website, as these locomotives are being modeled accurately to reflect their 2026 appearances.

In both HO and N scale, models now in the works include Cincinnati Scenic Railway's GP30 number 1776, SD40-2s, including BN's 1876 unit, Milwaukee Road number 156 in both 1976 and 2026 appearances, Norfolk Southern EMD SD70IACs for the first time from Scale Trains, ES44s for BNSF, Canadian National, Florida East Coast, Iowa Interstate, and Norfolk Southern, ET44s for CPKC, Dash 9s for the Buffalo and Pittsburgh and Indiana and Ohio, and finally, Wabtec CM44AC rebuilds for CSX, all in America 250 related paint schemes.

Exclusive to HO scale are special 250th scheme runs of Norfolk and Western Class J number 611 and SD45s for the New York, Susquehanna and Western number 3634 and Norfolk and Western 1776.

These America 250 ES44s, ET44s, Dash 9s, and CM44ACs are also available in special limited edition boxed sets directly from Scale Trains, so if those interest you as well, be sure to order soon to secure your set.

This was the center of steelmaking, still has some steel operations.

The company that we know in Pittsburgh called Wabtec is represented here with Jeremy Newhart, who's their senior director of communications and public affairs and he was on the scene working as part of the economic development team that is trying to make more connections in the business world for Pittsburgh.

Alfred Krupp and the steel industry celebrated in the concert hall.

There's a bust of Alfred Krupp.