FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens (>> Siemens) and Alstom (>> Alstom) have agreed to merge their rail businesses, creating a bigger second player to China's CRRC (>> CRRC Corp Ltd), with sales of 15.3 billion euros ($18 billion).

The move is the latest in a wave of rail industry consolidation in the past few years.

Below are details of previous deals, and how Siemens and Alstom stack up together and against the competition.

PREVIOUS DEALS:

2013- Siemens bought Britain's Invensys Rail Group for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion). Siemens becomes global number 2.

2015 - Alstom bought the signaling unit of U.S. conglomerate General Electric (>> General Electric Company) for 700 million euros. Alstom is becomes global number 3.

2015 - China's state-owned CNR and CSR merged to create CRRC, the world's biggest manufacturer of rolling stock.

2015 - Japan's Hitachi (>> Hitachi Transport System Ltd) bought Ansaldo STS & Breda from Italy's Finnmeccanica (>> Leonardo) for about 800 million euros. Hitachi Rail is now the world's sixth-biggest rail company.

2016 - Switzerland's Stadler Rail bought the Valencia-based Rail Vehicles from Germany's Vossloh (>> Vossloh AG) for about 48 million euros. Stadler is now the world number 10.

2016 - U.S.-based Wabtec (>> Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp) bought a majority in French railway systems and services provider Faiveley in a deal that will total about $1.7 billion. Wabtec is now global number nine.

SIEMENS-ALSTOM COMBINATION:

ORDER BACKLOG - Siemens 26.4 billion euros; Alstom 34.8 billion; total 61.2 billion euros.

LAST FISCAL YEAR ORDERS - Siemens 8 billion euros; Alstom 10 billion; total 18 billion euros.

REVENUE - Siemens 8 billion euros; Alstom 7.3 billion; total 15.3 billion euros.

ADJUSTED EBIT - Siemens 800 million euros, margin 10.1 percent; Alstom 400 million euros, margin 5.8 percent; total 1.2 billion euros, margin 8 percent.

EMPLOYEES BY REGION:

EUROPE - Alstom 20,700; Siemens 22,700; total 43,400

AMERICAS - Alstom 5,200; Siemens 2,500; total 7,700

ASIA PACIFIC - Alstom 4,000; Siemens 3,500; total 7,500

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA - Alstom 2,900; Siemens 800; total 3,700

WORLD - Siemens 29,500; Alstom 32,800; total 62,300

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan. Editing by Jane Merriman)