The New York Air Brake Corporation, located in Watertown,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, is a manufacturer of air brake and train control systems for the railroad industry worldwide.

History

Establishment 1876-1900

New York Air Brake was established on July 1, 1890 acquiring all of the property and business of Eames Vacuum Brake Company. Eames Vacuume Brake Company had previously been in existence since 1876 manufacturing

vacuum brakes The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum bra ...

. The new company erected ten new buildings on Beebee Island and nearby shores just in time for a booming brake market driven by an 1893 law mandating standardized brakes for all railroad cars.

Expansion and a new plant 1900-1914

In 1902, NYAB bought the Poole Farm in Watertown, NY, and began its move to its present location. The new Works were planned as a model industrial enterprise, providing housing, work, and recreation for 1,000 employees on the grounds. The workers, however, decided that they did not want to live next door to their workplace and the plan was scrapped. In 1903, the new

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

became the first part of the new plant to begin operations. During this period NYAB's main competition was

Westinghouse Air Brake Company The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (sometimes nicknamed or abbreviated WABCO although this was also confusingly used for spinoffs) was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had i ...

, which lead the market in locomotive braking sales. Despite Westinghouse's lead, American railroads preferred to have two brake suppliers. James Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railway, and the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

were especially supportive of New York Air Brake's technology. In 1912, NYAB and Westinghouse agreed to share the market, along with research and development. NYAB's 25 percent share of the brake market soared to $3 million per year by 1914.

World War I and The Depression 1915-1940

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

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Sales grew from $4.7 million in 1915 to $24 million in 1916. By 1918, the company employed 7,000 who were involved in defense manufacturing, including the production of horse-drawn

cannons A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder dur ...

. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, it was decided that a new braking system needed to be developed to provide braking power for the ever growing freight train industry. Engineers at New York Air Brake contributed to the development of what came to be known as the "AB" brake. During the mid-1930s, at the same time the "AB" brake was being widely implemented, the

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and ...

and

electro-pneumatic The electro-pneumatic action is a control system by the mean of air pressure for pipe organs, whereby air pressure, controlled by an electric current and operated by the keys of an organ console, opens and closes valves within wind chests, allowi ...

braking equipment for modern, high-speed

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

and

passenger trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...

were engineered and produced at the Watertown facilities. 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 Three point may refer to: * Three Points, Arizona * Three Points, California * Three-point lighting, a photographer's method of illuminating a scene * Three-point field goal, a field goal in a basketball game * Three-point play In basketball, a t ...

;" an "enormous affair, the four wheels alone weighing nearly one ton. The machine had a wheelbase, and an overall length of . It weighed about 8,100 pounds and had a carrying capacity of from three to six tons..." It was not a success. In 1925, new management announced another try at the auto industry with the introduction of the Gerlinger hydraulic lumber carrier; an engine, and a cab set high atop a lumber rack. The project faded quickly. Westinghouse and New York Air Brake began development of a replacement for the venerable "K Brake" in 1929.

The Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

slowed, but did not stop, development of the new brake and, in April 1932, New York Air Brake began construction of a 200-car test track, the largest in the world. In 1934, the

Association of American Railroads The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight Rail transport, railroads of North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States). Amtrak and some regional Commuter rail in North Am ...

(AAR) voted to adopt the new composite AB brake. Despite the Depression, the company maintained employment for 300 workers, many on a part-time basis.

World War II 1940-1945

In 1945, New York Air Brake again returned to aiding the United States' war effort in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Up until the end of the war, NYAB became a producer of tank hulls for the Sherman tank,

anti-aircraft shells Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

, 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 Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

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 1949, the company furthered its market reach with the purchase of the Hydraulic Equipment Company Dudco Products Company. As a result, sales leapt from $18 million in 1950 to more than $45 million in 1957.

General Signal & mass transit 1967-1988

On June 15, 1967, NYAB merged with General Signal Corporation. In 1980, Congress passed the

Staggers Act The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is a United States federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent, and it replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Backgroun ...

, which deregulated the railroad industry. As a result of the ending of tax breaks for railroad car ownership, new car and brake orders plummeted from 96,000 in 1979 to 5,800 in 1983. In November 1982, the company put into effect a series of workforce cutbacks that enabled NYAB to survive this difficult time. Meantime, in 1972 New York Air Brake's lobbying in Albany, NY landed a trial run with the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

transit system. The company was allowed to equip one eight car R44 train numbers 368-379, with one spare four car set of brakes each, making it a total of 12 cars equipped with same.. One trouble-free year later, New York Air Brake signed a $25 million contract to provide brake systems and controls for New York transit's entire fleet of 754 R46 subway cars, the beginning of over a decade of providing brakes to commuter lines. 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 Westminster is a city in northern Maryland, United States. It is the seat of Carroll County. The city's population was 18,590 at the 2010 census. Westminster is an outlying community within the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA, which is part of a great ...

Knorr-Bremse and the modern era 1991-Present

On January 2, 1991,

Knorr-Bremse Knorr-Bremse AG is a German manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated in the field for over 110 years. Other products in Group's portfolio include intelligent door systems, control components, air c ...

acquired New York Air Brake's rail braking business from General Signal, however, they did not purchase Stratopower, or Dynapower.European firms to buy General Signal units ''

Railway Age ''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine's ...

'' November 1990 page 9 By the end of 1993, NYAB stopped manufacturing the Westinghouse brake in favor of Knorr-Bremse's improved DB-60 air brake featuring

poppet valve A poppet valve (also called mushroom valve) is a valve typically used to control the timing and quantity of gas or vapor flow into an engine. It consists of a hole or open-ended chamber, usually round or oval in cross-section, and a plug, usua ...

technology. Consolidation of operations into one building,

tax abatement A tax holiday is a temporary reduction or elimination of a tax. It is synonymous with tax abatement, tax subsidy or tax reduction. Governments usually create tax holidays as incentives for business investment. Tax relief can be provided in the ...

s and state funding kept the company in Watertown. Since its acquisition, NYAB has modernized under Knorr-Bremse creating the most technologically advanced rail brake manufacturing facility in North America. At the end of 2009, NYAB operations included Train Dynamic Systems (TDS) in Irving, Texas, Knorr Brake Limited in Kingston, Ontario, a brake shoe manufacturer, a brake hose manufacturer, and two Service Centers in Little Rock, Arkansas and Riverside (Kansas City) Missouri.

Products

*DB60 - Pneumatic control valve *CCB II - (Computer Controlled Brake) *EP60 -

Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes are a type of modern railway braking system which offer improved performance compared to traditional railway air brakes. Overview Traditional train braking systems use pneumatic valves to control and ...

(ECP) *LEADER - (Locomotive Engineer Assist/Display & Event Recorder) is an on-board computer/display and off-board data management system designed to improve train handling and save fuel. *Air Hose Products *Freight Car Components *EL-60/ELRP - Protects wheels by reducing braking forces on empty cars *TMB60 - Parallelogram locomotive brake design *CSCTD - (Computerized Single Car Test Device) is a portable air brake test system *TDS-5000 - Operations and training simulation and analysis system

References

External links

New York Air Brake official siteKnorr-Bremse official site
{{Railway brakes Companies based in Jefferson County, New York