Wabtec has built three iterations of RailGhost, a rail-mounted robotic platform designed to eliminate manual brake checks on freight trains departing US classification yards, and is testing the device in real-world conditions at the MxV Rail facility in Pueblo.

The company presented RailGhost at InnoTrans 2026 as one of the first products to emerge from Forgeworks, its newly established R&D incubator. The platform runs along the rail beneath a standing train formation, using LiDAR, high-definition cameras and other sensors to inspect key components and collect condition data.

What does the robot actually do?

RailGhost targets the underframe and inter-wagon spaces that are hard for human inspectors to reach. Wabtec says it captures consistent, evidence-based inspection data in those areas.

The mechanical design addresses a specific problem: how to move along the track under a train without being blocked by wheelsets. Retractable wheels, controlled through an obstacle detection system, let the platform pass between wheelsets while keeping some axles mounted on the rails. A so-called 'turtle mode' retracts all wheels, leaving the vehicle stationary on the ballast between the rails.

Wabtec is direct about the operating environment the robot must handle. 'This isn't a lab robot', a company spokesman explained. 'It has to work in the reality of a rail yard — on existing track, around active operations, and in the places where the work actually happens.'

The initial US application is narrow and concrete: replacing the manual brake inspection performed before freight trains depart classification yards. That task is labour-intensive, repeated on every outbound train, and currently requires staff to walk the length of consists checking equipment by hand.

Why Forgeworks exists

Wabtec launched Forgeworks to act as an incubator for technological innovation across its increasingly broad portfolio. The name deliberately echoes Skunk Works, the R&D lab set up by Lockheed Martin during World War II, which became a US business byword for internal teams shielded from everyday administrative processes.

Wabtec showed a range of Forgeworks R&D projects in a dedicated zone on its InnoTrans stand, with RailGhost the most developed example on display.

What comes next?

Wabtec describes RailGhost as a scalable platform rather than a single-purpose tool. Potential future applications the company lists include:

• infrastructure monitoring;
• asset condition assessment;
• operational support workflows;
• autonomous maintenance activities;
• other emerging rail automation use cases.

These remain projections. The measured results so far are limited to the ongoing tests at Pueblo, with three vehicle iterations developed to date and no commercial deployment, order volume or service entry date announced.

The near-term test is whether the robot can perform pre-departure brake checks reliably enough in active yards for US freight operators to change existing inspection workflows — and Wabtec's next announcements on RailGhost are likely to confirm or revise that timeline.