The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd was a British manufacturer of

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

signs. Founded by

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...

, it was registered as "Westinghouse Brake Company" in 1881. The company reorganised in 1920, associating with Evans O'Donnell, and Saxby and Farmer which merged to form the "Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company". The 'Saxby' would be dropped from their title in 1935.Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co
on Grace's Guide to British Industrial History For most of the 20th century, Westinghouse manufactured air brakes,

signalling 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'' ...

, mining & colliery equipment, industrial automation and power rectifier equipment in the engineering works in Chippenham,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. There were associate companies in South Africa (Saxby & Farmer Private) and India. The company's main factory of around 35 acres was located immediately north-east of Chippenham railway station on the Great Western Railway.
A Hundred Years of Speed with Safety: The Inception and Progress of the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd., 1881-1981
', Publisher: Polunnio 2014, .

History

Beginning and development

The railway air brake was patented in the United States by

in 1869 (straight air brake) and 1872 (automatic air brake), establishing the

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 ...

. Predecessors of the British company included Evans O'Donnell Limited and Saxby and Farmer. Saxby and Farmer was started by

John Saxby John Saxby (17 August 1821 – 22 April 1913) was an English engineer from Brighton, noted for his work in railway signalling and the invention of the interlocking system of points and signals. He was later a partner in the firm Saxby and Farmer. ...

and John Stinson Farmer in the mid-19th century as pioneers in the manufacture of

railway signalling 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 enormo ...

equipment. In 1875 Saxby and Farmer had developed a mechanical linked braking system, which connected vehicles to brake simultaneously. In 1920, Saxby, Farmer and Evans O'Donnell merged to form the ''Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company'' Ltd.

Selling and successors

In 1979, the company was acquired by Hawker Siddeley.

BTR plc BTR plc was a British multinational industrial conglomerate company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1924, grew strongly by acquisition under Sir Owen Green's leadership, and merged with Siebe plc in 1999 to form BTR ...

then bought Westinghouse Brake and Signal in 1992. In 1999, BTR merged with

Siebe plc Siebe may refer to: *Augustus Siebe: inventor of the standard diving dress *Siebe Gorman Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company that developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salva ...

to form " BTR Siebe plc", later renamed "Invensys". Invensys quickly split the company into two divisions,

Westinghouse Rail Systems Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (formerly ''Westinghouse Signals Ltd'') was a British supplier of railway signalling and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office was in Chippenham, Wiltshire, where it manufactured a varie ...

and Westinghouse Brakes Ltd, selling Westinghouse Brakes to Munich-based competitor

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 ...

. Also formerly a part of The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company is

Westcode IXYS Corporation is an American company based in Milpitas, California. IXYS focuses on power semiconductors, radio-frequency (RF) power semiconductors, and digital and analog integrated circuits (ICs). History Dr. Nathan Zommer founded IXYS Co ...

, a high-power semiconductor manufacturer, now part of the

IXYS Corporation IXYS Corporation is an American company based in Milpitas, California. IXYS focuses on power semiconductors, radio-frequency (RF) power semiconductors, and digital and analog integrated circuits (ICs). History Dr. Nathan Zommer founded IXYS Co ...

. On 2 May 2013, the acquisition of Invensys Rail by Siemens was successfully completed.Siemens completes Invensys Rail acquisition
on ''The Railway Gazette'', 2 May 2013 On 1 July 2013, the new company name for Invensys Rail Limited became 'Siemens Rail Automation Limited', with Westinghouse Brake & Signal Holdings becoming Siemens Rail Automation Holdings Limited. With this, the Westinghouse name disappeared from the railway signalling industry. Several years later, Siemens announced that it planned to merge its rail assets, including the former Westinghouse Signal business, with Alstom.

Operations

There were also factories in Kingswood, Bristol ( Douglas Ltd – formerly Douglas Motorcycles then Douglas Vespa and vehicle air brake equipment), Hobbs Automatic Transmissions (epicyclic gearbox), Westcode Semiconductors (now

) The main factory was east of Foundry Lane, Signal & Automation design offices as well as Brake Engineering, drawing offices and design/test laboratories on island site shared with Hugh Baird & Sons, Maltsters and the Wiltshire Bacon Company. The Rectifier Design Department was at Derriads House, some design offices opposite the main factory site, other test & development laboratories beyond the semiconductor site at Avon House, north of the main factory site. On-site manufacturing capability covered every part of the engineering spectrum other than electron beam welding. There were acres of machine shops containing almost every variety of machine tool, extensive press shops, iron and non-ferrous foundries together with pattern shop and core shop, extensive drop-stamp forge, die-casting shops and tool room, tin-smiths' shop, copper oxide and selenium rectifier shops, electro-plating shop. The assembly and erection shops included wiring shops for signalling equipment, rectifier equipment, colliery equipment, railway signaling relays. The list is almost endless. Support activities included a well-equipped and staffed medical centre and apprentice training school and hostel. Apprentices fell into Trade, Craft, Student and Graduate categories. The company had a works restaurant (overalls allowed), a staff restaurant (smartish dress), and a directors' restaurant, all of which were supplied from the company allotments outside the north gate (now a housing estate). There was an immense amount of innovative work done. To name a few things, railway vacuum brakes, numerous mechanical, electrical and electronic signalling innovations. The company pioneered the use of S.G. Iron (spheroidal graphite) for crank shafts and other items (followed in this by Ford U.K.) and was the first to produce an all-electronic control & monitoring system (Westronic, in various "styles") initially for the railway market but then extending into oil, water, gas, electricity and sewage.

Bibliography

The detailed history of the company from 1881 to 1981 was recorded in O.S. Nock's final book, 'A Hundred Years of Speed with Safety', not published until 2006 – many years after Nock's death. Nock, a prolific writer of railway books and magazine articles for many years, was the chief mechanical engineer for Westinghouse until his retirement in 1970. A second book, ''Westinghouse Brake & Signal in Photographs 1894 to 1981'', was published by polunnio.co.uk in 2010, this not-for-profit project raising funds for the Chippenham Museum & Heritage Centre which holds a significant collection of documents and artefacts about the company. Other documentation is held at the Swindon & Wiltshire History Centre in the town.

History

Beginning and development

Selling and successors

Operations

Bibliography

References

External links