Westmoreland plastics firm to expand to build parts for Amtrak Airo trains

Amtrak’s upgraded passenger trains, expected to be put into service later this decade, will have a West­more­land County connection.

Roechling Industrial Mt. Pleasant, a machine plastics company that has operated in the county since 1981, has been tapped to produce interior ceilings, door motor cases and other projects for the new Airo trains that are expected to operate along Amtrak’s northeastern service routes, including the rail line that links Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

To facilitate that work, the company said it will expand its local operation at Westmoreland Technology Park I in East Huntingdon. The county announced the company paid $319,000 to purchase a 6.39-acre lot that represented the last available property for sale in the industrial park.

Craig Crutchfield, general manager of Roechling’s facility, said an expansion had been in the works but the company now intends to build a 36,000-square-foot addition to its building, where about 62 people are employed.

The company will serve as a contractor to Siemens in California, which will build the trains. Roechling will produce the materials for its portion of the train construction at the company’s plant in Cleveland and do the finishing work and assembly at the East Huntingdon location.

“The bulk of the work will be here,” Crutchfield said. “It is exciting the trains will come into Pennsylvania, eventually. If this is successful, Amtrak may put these everywhere in the United States. There is unlimited potential growth.”

The additional lot will allow for future expansion, and officials said 40 additional employees could be hired in the coming years. No plans to build on the additional lot have been finalized, Crutchfield said.

“This purchase of the new lot is to ensure we can stay in Westmoreland County,” he said.

Roechling is a German company that started its local operations under the name Cea-Tek in 1981 in Latrobe. It relocated to the county’s industrial park in 2001 and supplies custom-machined plastic components for light-rail vehicles, oil-filled transformers, food processing equipment and construction equipment.

County officials said Roechling is among the 14 businesses employing about 580 workers at Westmoreland Technology Park I. In all, there are 19 properties in Westmoreland’s industrial park system, hosting 165 companies that employ more than 8,700 workers. The parks generate about $6.5 million in annual tax revenue for the county.

Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. director Jason Rigone said Roechling’s purchase means six of the county’s industrial parks are sold out.

“It’s certainly very promising, and it’s what we’re in business to do. A lot of people are working in these industrial parks, and, when there are local companies expanding, it creates a lot of value,” Rigone said.