Product Description

New York Air Brake Company (Watertown, New York — today a subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse) was through the 20th century the principal U.S. competitor to Westinghouse Air Brake. NYAB supplied air-brake systems, brake shoes, and friction components to major U.S. railroads, mass-transit operators, and industrial rail users throughout the asbestos era.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that New York Air Brake’s composition brake shoes contained chrysotile asbestos friction material throughout the documented production era and that the company’s air-brake valves and rigging components were specified with asbestos gasket and packing materials. Railroad car repairmen, shop machinists, and rail maintenance workers who serviced NYAB equipment were exposed to respirable asbestos fibers during routine maintenance and brake-shoe replacement.

New York Air Brake Company has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Workers Exposed

  • Railroad car repairmen
  • Railroad shop machinists
  • Locomotive maintenance workers
  • Mass-transit shop workers