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Yesterday, Wabtec Corp. announced its first-quarter earnings per diluted share more than doubled first-quarter 2005’s earnings.

Quarterly net sales of $262.4 million rose 9 percent primarily because of strong demand for locomotive and freight-car components in the original equipment and aftermarkets. Operating expenses as a percentage of sales increased slightly to 16.2 percent compared with first-quarter 2005’s 16 percent because of higher sales, and general and administrative expenses.

“We expect robust demand in our freight-rail markets … to continue throughout the year as railroads continue to report traffic growth, especially in the intermodal segment,” said Wabtec President and Chief Executive Officer Albert Neupaver in a prepared statement. “We are confident that our internal growth strategies, record multi-year backlog — which is particularly strong for our transit business — and further efforts to reduce our costs will benefit us in 2006.”

Wabtec subsidiaries supply locomotive, rail-car and transit vehicle components; build switchers and commuter locomotives; and provide locomotive and car aftermarket services.