Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (formerly ''Westinghouse Signals Ltd'') was a British supplier 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 enormou ...

and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office was in

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

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 ...

, where it manufactured a variety of mechanical and electrical/electronic

equipment. It had six other UK offices in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2011 census was 16,226. History I ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. It also had a number of overseas offices, particularly in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, including

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 ...

. Westinghouse was the largest signalling design and control engineering company within the UK. Its largest contract was awarded in 2004: a ten-year £850m re-signalling of eight

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

lines for the

Metronet Metronet may refer to: *Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008. *Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...

Public-Private Partnership. The company was owned by

Invensys Invensys Ltd. was a multinational engineering and information technology company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in 1999 through the merger of BTR plc and Siebe plc. It had offices in more than 50 countries and its produc ...

plc before being sold to Siemens in 2013. It is now part of

Siemens Mobility Siemens Mobility GmbH is a separately-managed company of Siemens, arising from a corporate restructuring effective 1 August 2018. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedi ...

, the Westinghouse name having been dropped.

History

Westinghouse Rail Systems' origin is in the signals division of Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company, which was founded as Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company in 1920.

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...

purchased that company in 1979 and sold it to

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 ...

in 1992. In 1999, BTR merged with Siebe to form

. Invensys split the business into two companies, Westinghouse Signals and Westinghouse Brakes, then sold Westinghouse Brakes to

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 con ...

in April 2000. Westinghouse Signals (invensys) is now part of

Products

Westinghouse produces a variety of signalling and railway control equipment, including: * Style 63 point machine *

Solid State Interlocking Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structural ...

Westlock Interlocking WESTLOCK Interlocking is a Computer-based Interlocking (CBI) product now sold and maintained by Siemens Mobility Limited, following their purchase of Westinghouse Rail Systems. Westlock builds on many of the features that made SSI popular in the ...

* WESTRACE * WESTEX * WESTCAD

References

External links

Siemens Mobility websiteWestinghouse Rail Systems website
archived in May 2007 {{Railway signalling Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Railway signalling manufacturers