General Railway Signal Company (GRS) was an American manufacturing company located in the

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

area. GRS was focused on

railway signaling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...

equipment, systems and services. The company was established in 1904 and became part of

Alstom Transport Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

in 1998. GRS was a member of the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

from 1928 to 1930.

History

GRS was founded in 1904 with the merger of three companies (Pneumatic Signal Company of

; Taylor Signal Co. of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

and Standard Railroad Signal Company of Arlington,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

). In 1923 GRS acquired the Federal Signal Company of

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

General Railway Signal was one of the 30 stocks when the

was expanded from a 20-stock average on October 1, 1928. It was replaced in the DJIA by

Liggett & Myers Liggett Group ( ), formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Durham, North Carolina, though its manufacturing facility is 30 miles to the west in ...

on July 18, 1930. In 1965, General Signal Corporation (GSX) was created with the intent to diversify into areas other than railway signaling. GRS was a wholly owned subsidiary of GSX. GRS Model 2 Interlocking machine

In 1960, GRS opened the "General Railway Signal Company de Argentina" (GRSA) division in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, which provided manufacture, installation and technical support of GRS railroad signalling systems in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Some local railroad lines that were provided with GRSA products were Belgrano Norte, Belgrano Sur, Urquiza and

Sarmiento Sarmiento may refer to: Places Argentina *Sarmiento Department, San Juan, a subdivision of the San Juan Province *Sarmiento Department, Santiago del Estero, a subdivision of the Santiago del Estero Province *Sarmiento Department, Chubut, a subdivi ...

. Most of the signals remain active. Among their products are railroad crossing signalling parts, branded with the GRSA logo, instead of the usual GRS. This facility was closed in the early 1980s. In 1986, GRS joined with China National Railway Signal & Communication Group Corporation (CRSC) to form the Chinese-American Signal Company (CASCO) in

Shanghai, China Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, which produces products and systems for railways in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 1989, GRS was acquired by the Italian company Sasib and joined the Sasib Railways group. From its founding until 1993, GRS main office and manufacturing facilities were located at 801 West Avenue in Rochester. In 1993, it moved to two new suburban facilities: administration and engineering to Sawgrass Drive in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, and manufacturing to John Street in West Henrietta. In 1998, it became part of

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

, when Alstom acquired Sasib Railways. The GRS name is no longer used. All products now use the Alstom brand.

Products

Carborne signaling equipment

Automatic Train Control Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver do ...

Automatic Train Protection Automatic train protection (ATP) is a type of train protection system which continually checks that the speed of a train is compatible with the permitted speed allowed by signalling, including automatic stop at certain signal aspects. If it is ...

Automatic train stop Automatic train stop or ATS is a system on a train that automatically stops a train if certain situations occur (unresponsive train operator, earthquake, disconnected rail, train running over a stop signal, etc.) to prevent accidents. In some scena ...

Wayside signaling

* DC code systems * Electronic communication systems * Electronic

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

Relays A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

Signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

* switch machines *

track circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind t ...

s * trip stops * yard retarders

Central control signaling

* Computer-based Manual Control Systems * Computer-based Traffic Management Systems *

Dark territory Dark territory is a term used in the North American railroad industry to describe a section of running track not controlled by signals. Train movements in dark territory were previously handled by timetable and train order operation, but since t ...

control systems * Electro-mechanical

centralized traffic control Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system con ...

(cTc) machines *

Yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...

control systems

Clients

Railroads

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and ...

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

Ferrocarriles Argentinos Ferrocarriles Argentinos (abbreviated as FA; ) was a state-owned company that managed the entire Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years. It was formed in 1948 when all the private railway companies were nationalised during Juan Perón's fir ...

Transport Asset Holding Entity Transport Asset Holding Entity of New South Wales (TAHE) is a state-owned corporation of the New South Wales Government in New South Wales, Australia, established under the ''Transport Administration Act 1988''. It was converted and renamed fro ...

* Estrada de Ferro Central (1933–57) *

RFFSA The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA, pronounced as ''Refesa'') () was the State-owned national railway company of Brazil created from ''Brazilian Federal Law #3.115'' on March 16, 1957, after several railroads were nationaliz ...

(1957–84) * CBTU Rio de Janeiro (1984–98) *

Supervia SuperVia Trens Urbanos () (English: ''SuperVia Urban Trains'') is a rapid transit and commuter rail company operator, founded in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in November 1998. It carries around 750,000 passengers a day on a railroad network comprising ...

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

Korean National Railroad The Korea Railroad Corporation (Korean: 한국철도공사, Hanja: ), branded as KORAIL (코레일, officially changed to in November 2019), is the national railway operator in South Korea. Currently, KORAIL is a public corporation, managed ...

Ferromex Ferromex ( syllabic abbreviation of Ferrocarril Mexicano or "Mexican Railway") is a private rail consortium that operates the largest (by mileage) railway in Mexico with combined mileage (Ferromex + Ferrosur) of and is part of the North Americ ...

* Transportación Ferroviaria *

ProRail ProRail () is a Dutch government organisation responsible for the maintenance and extension of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro or tram), the allocation of rail capacity, and controlling rail traffic. Prorail is a part o ...

Transit

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Description The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...

Metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

Niagara Frontier The Niagara Frontier refers to the stretch of land in the United States that is south of Lake Ontario and north of Lake Erie, and extends westward to Cleveland, Ohio. The term dates to the War of 1812, when the northern border was in contention b ...

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Southeastern Pennsylvania The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the List of United States cities by population, sixth most populous city in the nation ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

* Amsterdam Municipal Transport

Major accomplishments

* First

Centralized traffic control Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system con ...

(cTc) machine, 1927. * "NX" (eNtrance-eXit) systems ( relay-based cTc), 1937. * First fully automated

freight yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

, 1955. * Computer-based central control office, 1968. * First fully automatic computer-planned and executed train meet, 1981. * Microprocessor based

Interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

("Vital Processor Interlocking"), 1986.Alstom Signalling Inc.(2010)
"Rochester Signalling and Control Systems."
/ref> * Amtrak Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, 1980s. * 100th Anniversary, 2004.

References

External links

Alstom Signaling division

- introduced 1908 * John Street location * Sawgrass Drive location * West Avenue location {{Authority control Manufacturing companies established in 1904 Railway signalling manufacturers Defunct companies based in New York (state) Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average American companies disestablished in 1998 Alstom Manufacturing companies based in Rochester, New York American companies established in 1904 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1998