ALSTOM Signaling Inc. history

ALSTOM Signaling Inc. history

INTRODUCTION
This history of ALSTOM Signaling Inc. (formerly General Railway Signal Company (GRS)) records the events and accomplishments of a successful organization throughout the years of ever-changing conditions in industrial America, throughout wars and panics, good times and bad.

Like every progressive business organization, ALSTOM Signaling Inc. is concerned more with what lies ahead than with the past achievements. But those, whose job it is to build for the future must also fully appraise past performances, must profit by the successes and analyze the failures of those who have brought the signaling art to its present high stage of development.

In 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in the United States, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, in England, began business as common carriers. From these beginnings there has developed one of the greatest industries in the world - rail transportation.

A survey of railway development in the United States shows that although railroad construction received strong impetus from the start, the most rapid extension of track mileage was during the 65-year period from 1865 to 1930. In 1930, the mileage of track owned reached a peak of 410,634 miles. At the end of 1969, it was reduced to 339,000 miles although operating efficiency, as expressed in net ton-miles per freight train-hour, quadrupled during this 39-year period.

Railroading in the 1970's saw rapid changes resulting from a wave of bankruptcies and mergers, particularly in the East and Midwest. Out of the insolvency of the giant Penn Central and several smaller eastern lines, emerged the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) for freight traffic and the National Railway Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) for passenger service. These changes spurred the abandonment of poor revenue trackage and increased operating efficiency until, by 1976, there were 324,000 miles of track and net ton-miles had increased 12 percent over 1969.

The Staggers Act of 1980 deregulated the railroad industry to a significant extent, replacing the regulatory structure that existed since the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act. Railroads were permitted to determine where they ran trains and how much to charge. This act provided the basis for the railroads to once again become competitive and market driven. While track miles have continued to decrease to 152,000 in 2003, ton-miles have increased by 180% from 1980 to 2003.
Two salient facts have brought about this increase in efficiency in spite of a decrease in track mileage:

Fact 1: To move a 100 percent increase in traffic with a decrease in track mileage has meant moving heavier trains faster. This has been accomplished by better equipment, by heavier motive power (especially the diesel-electric locomotive), by improved roadbed, by grade reduction, and by the aid of modern signaling systems such as centralized traffic control (cTc).

Fact 2: Although signaling was introduced to American railroads as early as 1857, no extensive installations were made until after the year 1900. Railroad management recognized the value of signaling in expediting traffic.

RAILWAY SIGNALING SYSTEMS -The early years

The main purpose of any railroad is to transport passengers and goods swiftly, safely, and economically. The aim of railway signaling systems is to provide safety and efficiency for rail transportation. Safety to persons, goods, and equipment - efficiency to keep trains moving with a minimum of delays and with the most effective use of personnel and equipment.

The railway signaling systems and apparatus manufactured by GRS provide for safe and efficient rail transportation. Following is a brief history of the company as it parallels signaling development.

MECHANICAL INTERLOCKING

Mechanical interlocking uses manpower to move the large levers in the interlocking machine which, in turn, operate switches and signals through pipe connections or, in early days, wire pulls.

Mechanical interlocking was first installed in England, in 1843, at Bricklayer's Arms Junction. The first mechanical interlocking was installed in America in 1870 at Trenton, New Jersey. The first one made in America was manufactured by Messrs, Toucey and Buchanan. It was installed at Spuyten Duyvil, New York, in 1874.

The Standard Railroad Signal Company of Arlington, New Jersey, was organized in 1896 by participants in a former company, the Johnson Railroad Signal Company of Rahway, New Jersey. The Standard Railroad Signal Company offered railroads the Johnson type of mechanical interlocking. When the Company was purchased by A.H. Renshaw (Trojan Car Coupler Co. of Troy) and J.T. Cade, a plant was established at Troy (Green Island), New York, in 1899. It manufactured mechanical interlocking machines of the Saxby and Farmer type. Sales offices were maintained in New York and Chicago. In 1900, Standard, a predecessor of GRS, marketed the Style A interlocker, an improved mechanical machine.

LOW-PRESSURE PNEUMATIC INTERLOCKING

In an effort to overcome the limitations of mechanical interlocking, Dr. J.H. McCartney of Rochester, New York, substituted pneumatic pressure for muscle power in his system of low-pressure pneumatic switches and signals, patented in 1890. Dr. McCartney and associates formed the Auto-Pneumatic Railway Signal Company in Rochester, New York. The Company pointed out in their "Interlocking Switch and Signal Plant" reference catalog of 1894, that their system "embodied certainty of action, simplicity of operation and construction and, finally, low cost operation and maintenance" — requirements still fundamental in modern railway signaling.

In June of 1897, the Auto-Pneumatic Railway Signal Company sold its patent rights and property to the Pneumatic Railway Signal Company of Rochester, New York (formed by J.N. Beckley). The first contract made by the new Company was with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad for a low-pressure pneumatic interlocking plant at the Exchange Street Station in Buffalo, New York. This was put in service in January of 1898. In 1900, the company provided a low-pressure pneumatic interlocking at Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

In July of 1898, Pneumatic contracted to have the Standard Railway Signal Company of Troy, New York, manufacture signal equipment for them and make installations of pneumatic systems in North and South America and Cuba.

In 1900, the Pneumatic Railway Signal Company expanded its sales territory to include outlets in England by forming the International Pneumatic Railway Signal Company with headquarters in Rochester.

To increase their efficiency, the Pneumatic Railway Signal Company, the International Pneumatic Railway Signal Company, and the Standard Signal Company of Troy were reorganized on February 27, 1902 to form the Pneumatic Signal Company. The Troy plant was maintained for the manufacture of mechanical interlocking apparatus. A new plant was constructed in 1902 on West Avenue in Rochester.

ELECTRIC INTERLOCKING

The all-electric interlocking employing dynamic indication was invented by John D. Taylor of Chillicothe, Ohio. In the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad shops, Mr. Taylor constructed the first interlocking machine and apparatus installed by the Taylor Switch & Signal Company, in 1889, at East Norwood Ohio, at the crossing of the B&O Southwestern and the Cincinnati Northern Railroads. This was the first installation where track switches were moved by electric power. The original interlocking plant was removed in 1904 and replaced by a new model electric interlocking machine manufactured by GRS.

After making only one other installation, at Edgewood, Illinois, on the Illinois Central Railroad, in 1896, the company reorganized as the Taylor-Sargent Signal Company in 1898 at Chillicothe, Ohio. The new company made three installations: New Albany, Indiana, in 1898, on the Baltimore & Ohio; Brussels, Belgium, for the Continental Hall Signal Company, in 1898; and Nortonville, Kentucky, on the Illinois Central, in 1899.

In May 1900, the Taylor Signal Company was organized by Alvah W. Hall, formerly of the Hall Signal Company, by acquiring the properties of the Taylor-Sargent Signal Company. The Taylor Signal Company started in a two-story factory in Buffalo, New York, with offices in that city and in Chicago. The first Taylor electric interlocking was installed in 1901 at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway. After making a number of electric interlocking installations of the new and improved design, the Taylor Company built a new plant at Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo on the New York Central Belt Line. As the Taylor interlocking was the only all-electric system in existence, and as it offered unusual safety and facility in train operation, installations both in this country and Europe followed rapidly. Notable US installations include those at LaSalle Street Terminal and at 16th and Clark Streets, Chicago; at South Englewood, Chicago; and at Omaha, Nebraska.

Quoting from an article entitled "Big Merger of Signal Plants," appearing in the Buffalo Express of May 4, 1904: "Authoritative announcement was made yesterday that Buffalo is to be made the headquarters of the big $5,000,000 General Railway Signal Company which is to be organized with the merging of the Taylor Signal Company of Buffalo and the Pneumatic Signal Company of Rochester.... Yesterday afternoon a party of Rochester capitalists, including some of the officials of the Pneumatic Signal Company of that city, came to Buffalo to inspect the plant of the Taylor Signal Company They made the trip to this city in the private car of John N. Beckley, President of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway Company Mr. Beckley is also president of the Pneumatic Signal Company...... Upon reaching this city, President Beckley's car was switched to the Belt Line tracks and taken out to the plant of the Taylor Signal Company There the Rochester men were met by a large number of Buffalonians......... Both the Buffalo and Rochester men were delighted with the Taylor Signal Company's plant. It was built a little over two years ago, is absolutely fireproof in construction, is operated entirely by electricity and its equipment is perfect in every respect..... Both companies manufacture interlocking switch and signal devices for railroads, and it is understood that after the merger has been perfected, the Buffalo plant will manufacture the electric system exclusively while all mechanical and low-pressure forms of signals will be turned out at the Rochester plant.

'The merging of the two companies, of course, is expected to result in material economy in the engineering, experimental, advertising and sales departments as well as in manufacture.'

The General Railway Signal Company was officially incorporated under the laws of the State of New York on June 13, 1904. The Taylor plant in Buffalo was named the General Railway Signal Company, while the plant in Rochester retained the name of the Pneumatic Signal Company, although a part of the corporation.

The chief business of the new company was in the manufacture of electric interlocking systems. The system proved so far superior to existing forms of power interlocking that the company soon decided to abandon manufacture of the outmoded pneumatic system.

In May of 1907, after enlarging the Rochester plant, all manufacturing operations were moved to Rochester. Work no longer needed to be transferred from one plant to another, thus greatly reducing confusion, which arose from the shipment of orders in two parts from two different factories.

THE MEN WHO STARTED IT ALL

In 1904, as a result of the various mergers that led to the formation of General Railway Signal, the company was able to offer complete product lines for three basic interlocking technologies - mechanical, pneumatic and electric. It was, however, their innovation, design and development in the electric interlocking technology that propelled the company into the forefront of signaling companies.

John D. Taylor - the Inventor


The Signal Engineer for January 1, 1914 carried an obituary for John D. Taylor (1861-1913) entitled 'A Tribute to the Man Whose Monument Is the Electric Interlocking System'. Mr. Taylor "began his inventing career in 1888 when he was a telegraph operator on the Scioto Valley Railroad at a small town in Ohio. Having obtained a number of patents on electrical devices to be used in train despatching, he set out..... that the principles of his scheme might be used in signaling......John graduated from Piketon high school when he was about 17, and he never had the advantages of a college education.......He was a natural mathematician and inventor and his love of books occupied a large part of his life. His studies in higher mathematics, thermodynamics, chemistry, and electricity brought him recognition as an authority in those branches of science..... His education was self secured."

Wilmer W. Salmon (1866-1936) became President and General Manager of Taylor Signal Company in Buffalo, NY in 1901, a position he maintained with the formation of General Railway Signal Co. in 1904 until his death in 1936. A graduate of Dickinson College with both Bachelor's (1886) and Master's (1890) Degrees, Mr. Salmon began his career in 1 886 in the engineering corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with additional career moves to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1887, and to the Chicago & Northwestern Railway in 1890. In 1893 he joined the Hall Signal company as an engineer and successively moved into sales manager and European representative and vice-president.

His February 1, 1936 obituary in Railway Age stated "he was sent to Europe to interest foreign railways in signaling systems and during his stay abroad he designed and was responsible for the first subway signal system ever put in service, which system is today in operation on the Metropolitan (Underground) Railway of Paris. He also installed the first automatic block signal system in Europe on the Paris, Lyons, & Mediterranean railway of France, and made several similar installations on the Belgian railways."

The same article also stated "Mr. Salmon combined in a remarkable degree the qualities of an engineer with those of a successful business executive. He was not only responsible for the creation and growth of General Railway Signal Company but he was the guiding spirit in the development of electric interlocking so widely used throughout the country........ Many of the detail devices and other products which the General Railway Signal Company now markets are due to his knowledge of railway problems - the fruit of life experience - which enabled him to visualize in advance the operating benefits which would accrue to the railroads from these inventions. Mr Salmon's skill as a business executive was manifest by the manner in which he guided his company through the difficult years of the depression."

Winthrop K. Howe (1868-1954) was an 1889 graduate of Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering and stayed on to pursue a year's worth of graduate work in electrical engineering. Mr. Howe entered the signaling business in 1900 when he took a position at Taylor Signal Company in Buffalo, NY as a principal assistant engineer in charge of the electrical department under John D. Taylor.

The Signal Engineer for December 15, 1913 included an article entitled 'A Personal Tribute to the Steinmetz of Railway Signaling - A Real Gentleman.' This article described Howe as "Between the theorists who figure things out that ought to be done and the individuals who derive pleasure or profit from them after they are done, stand the men who do them - the men who reduce theories to practice. Winthrop Keith Howe is such a

man.....He has done some notable things in the thirteen

years he has been connected with signaling. For example, he designed the Model "2-A" signal mechanism - the "A. 1" proposition that put the "A's" in adaptability - and the Model "4" switch machine, one of the foremost devices of its kind. He was the first to suggest and produce a highpower light signal for use on interurban railways; and he is responsible for many of the developments in alternating current signaling for electric lines, and for a good many improvements in electric interlocking. He designed the well known "polyphase" relay, the lock-and-block apparatus and a number of other devices which his company manufactures. He is the originator of the one-power alternating-current system of supply and distribution for signal systems now so largely used, and in which not only the track circuits but all of the signals, relays, lamps, indicators, etc., as well, are operated by alternating current taken from the same transmission line."

Mr. Howe quickly rose to the position of Chief Engineer of Taylor Signal in Buffalo and remained in that position with the formation of General Railway Signal in 1904. He maintained the position of Chief Engineer until his appointment to Vice President in charge of engineering in 1943. Mr. Howe retired from GRS in 1945 having been awarded 191 patents during his long and distinguished career.

A December 15, 1913 article in The Signal Engineer highlighted the successful teamwork of Messr's Salmon and Howe when it stated "And it is safe to say that Salmon, whose genius formed the company, and the rest of that earnest, loyal and hardworking bunch who made it successful, are all mighty glad they know Howe and that Howe knows how. If Salmon put the "general" in General Railway Signal, Howe put the "signal" in it....."


RAILWAY SIGNALING SYSTEMS -The advancement years

BLOCK SIGNALING

Concurrent with the development of the interlocking are the crude beginnings of block signaling systems. The first block signal system was installed in America between New Castle, Delaware, and Frenchtown, Maryland, on the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, in 1832. Indications were provided by ball signals spaced 3 miles apart and read by means of a telescope at each block office.

Perhaps the most important page in the history of railway signaling was the invention of the closed track circuit by Dr. William Robinson in 1872. This track circuit made automatic block signaling possible and is the foundation of modern signal systems.

The advent of electric railways presented a signal engineering problem because the rails had to be used both for track circuits and for return of the propulsion current. The Young System patents, purchased by the Pneumatic Signal Company in 1903, covered a system providing continuous a-c track circuits for electrified lines.

During the early part of the century, GRS developed several types of block signals: the Model 3 two position, lower-quadrant motor semaphore, installed on the Union Pacific in 1906; the Model 6 a-c lower-quadrant semaphore and Model 7 d-c semaphore in 1906; and the Model 2A upper-quadrant semaphore in 1908 which became an industry standard. This signal was first installed on the Baltimore & Ohio and over the next 10 years 24,500 Model 2A semaphore signals were installed making it one of the most successful signal designs of the century.

In 1910, considerable interest developed in signaling for high-speed, single-track electric lines of the trolley type. Many state governments, as well as railroad officials, instigated studies into the possibilities of adequate signaling for these rapidly expanding services. Up to this time, such railways had in general either not regarded signaling as a necessity, or believed that some form of contact device actuated by the trolley would suffice for signal control. GRS automatic block systems proved very effective and were applied to many miles of trolley lines soon after this time.

GRS invented Absolute Permissive Block (APB) signaling, making the first installation on the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway in 1911. This was the first system to provide complete siding-to-siding protection for opposing movements and signal-to-signal protection for following movements, the same as on double track. All the basic principles of the original GRS APB system are in use today. In fact, absolute permissive block signaling is a basic part of centralized traffic control.

CENTRALIZED TRAFFIC CONTROL

On July 25, 1927, the first centralized traffic control system in the world went in service between Stanley and Berwick, Ohio, on the Ohio Division of the New York Central Railroad. This system, invented by Sedgwick N. Wight of GRS, was a tremendous stride forward in improving facility and economy of train operation.

Here is a first-hand account of operation with the new system as given in an address by Mr. J.J. Brinkworth of the New York Central Railroad before the Signal Section of the Association of American Railroads in 1947. "... I was particularly involved in centralized traffic control in 1927.. I went to Rochester, to the General Railway Signal Company plant, and saw the actual machine there. I, of course, became aquainted with Mr. S.N. Wight of that Company, who studied out the details of the cTc machine. I went to his house and in the back room we talked it over in detail for hours."

"Then we came to 1927, when the final date was set to install centralized traffic control on the Toledo & Ohio Central and put it into service. Needless to say, we were all over at Fostoria, Ohio, and we watched the progress of the various signals being put in along the approximately 40 miles of railroad between Toledo and Berwick. Then, after a comparatively short time, trains started to move over that piece of single track for the first time without train orders".

"I recall very distinctly, as we had supper in the hotel at Fostoria and got through, I said to the gang, I do not know what you fellows are going to do tonight, but I'm going over to the tower at Fostoria and stay there until I see a non-stop meet.' Well, they all decided that if the boss was going over, the rest of the gang had better go, too. So we went over to the tower at Fostoria in the evening. The dispatcher was there and he was just filled up with enthusiasm on this new gadget called centralized traffic control. Along about 10:00 o'clock, he just yelled right out loud, 'Here comes a non-stop meet.' Well, we all gathered around the machine and watched the lights that you know all about, watched the lights come towards each other and pass each other without stopping."

"That, to me, and to you, too, was history on American railroads, the first non-stop meet on single track without train orders, of course, that we knew of. We waited at Fostoria until the southbound train arrived there and you never saw such enthusiasm in your life as was in the minds and hearts of that crew, the first non-stop meet of which they had ever heard."

Thus occurred the first non-stop meet, today commonplace on thousands of miles of cTc. ALSTOM Signaling Inc.
Today, instead of manually operated lever-type control machines, GRS provides minicomputer-and microprocessor-based control consoles which enable one man to efficiently control an entire railroad.

ALL-RELAY INTERLOCKING

The invention of an all-relay interlocking was an outgrowth of the principles applied successfully in centralized traffic control. Now the cumbersome lever locking beds of the electric interlocking machine were abandoned in favor of relay interlocking between the switches and signals in the field. Control distance ceased to be an important factor.

GRS furnished equipment for the first remotely controlled, unit-wire all-relay interlocking system, put in service February 1929, on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy at Lincoln, Nebraska.

The first installation of an all-relay interlocking with pushbutton automatic selection of routes and positioning of switches and signals, the GRS Type NX (eNtrance-eXit), was made at Brunswick, England, on the Cheshire Lines in February of 1937. The first NX route-type interlocking in the United States was installed at Girard Junction, Ohio, on the New York Central in 1937.

Sedgwick N. Wight (1879-1968) joined General Railway Signal Company in 1910 as an assistant commercial engineer. He received a BS Degree from Hiram College in Ohio in 1903 and started as a draftsman for the signaling department of the Lake Shore & Michican Southern (New York Central) in Cleveland Ohio, and later became a signal inspector.

The May, 1910 issue of Signal Engineer announced Wight's move from the railroad to GRS and prophesized the future when it stated as to his being 'in close and intimate touch with the executive and technical phases of signal construction work; and he made excellent use of his opportunities. His associates and all who knew him cannot but feel that General Railway Signal Company is pursuing the right policy in securing men of Mr. Wight's character and ability.' Wight's GRS inventions included Automatic Permissive Block Signaling (1911), Centralized Traffic Control (1927) and eNtrance-eXit (NX) push button interlocking control (1937). Mr. Wight received patents for these and other inventions, ultimately receiving 92 patents in his long career at GRS.

In 1971, the Elmer A. Sperry Award was posthumously awarded to Mr. Wight (in memoriam) for recognition of "a distinguished engineering contribution which, through application in actual service, has advanced the art of transportation whether by land, sea, or air." The award cited Mr. Wight "for his foresight and ingenuity in the planning and execution of the first practical installation of Centralized Traffic Control on a railway This first installation gained worldwide acclaim." The award committee said, "Mr. Wight's concept of decentralizing the safety features while centralizing the control facilities ushered in a new era of safe and efficient train operation."