In 1902, NYAB bought the 268-acre (1.08 km2) Poole Farm in Watertown, NY, and began its move to its present location.

In 1915, NYAB shifted focus of their current manufacturing of vacuum brakes to efforts toward the First World War.

A dramatic drop in sales following the end of World War I led New York Air Brake to seek new markets.

In 1919, the company built and marketed a "Three-Point Truck;" an "enormous affair, the four wheels alone weighing nearly one ton.

Up until the end of the war, NYAB became a producer of tank hulls for the Sherman tank, anti-aircraft shells, automatic pilots for aircraft, breech mechanisms for guns, hydraulic pumps for fighter aircraft, and other military hardware and had over 5,000 employees contributing to the war effort in the war-torn Europe by the end of 1944.

By the end of the Second World War, New York Air Brake had expanded its product line to include hydraulic aircraft pumps.

In November 1982, the company put into effect a series of workforce cutbacks that enabled NYAB to survive this difficult time.

By 1990, New York Air Brake had furnished $100 million worth of equipment for more than half of New York City's R62A's, R68's and R110A/R110B subway cars before NYAB's Transit Division was established as the Knorr Brake Company and moved to Westminster, Maryland.

Since its acquisition, NYAB has modernized under Knorr-Bremse creating the most technologically advanced rail brake manufacturing facility in North America.