Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd
Encyclopedia
The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd was created in 1935 when the Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company Ltd, dropped the 'Saxby' from their title. For most of the 20th century, it manufactured railway air braking, signalling
Railway signalling
Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...

,mining & colliery equipment,industrial automation and power rectifier equipment in the engineering works in Chippenham
Chippenham
Chippenham may be:* Chippenham, Wiltshire* Chippenham * Chippenham, Cambridgeshire-See also:* Virginia State Route 150, also known as Chippenham Parkway, USA* Cippenham, Berkshire, UK...

, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, England and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, 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 of Chippenham railway station
Chippenham railway station
Chippenham railway station serves the market town of Chippenham in Wiltshire, England. The station is on the Great Western Main Line, in between and , and is served by First Great Western main line services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, and a smaller First Great Western local...

.

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 IXSYS) 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.

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 equipments, 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), 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.

Predecessors and background

Predecessors included Evans O'Donnell Limited and Saxby and Farmer. Saxby and Farmer was started by John Saxby and John Stinson Farmer in the mid-19th century to manufacture railway signalling
Railway signalling
Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...

 equipment. The railway air brake was patented in the United States of America by George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse, Jr was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry. Westinghouse was one of Thomas Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system...

 in 1869 and introduced in 1872. In 1920, Saxby and Farmer and Evans O'Donnell formed Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company Ltd.

History

Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd formed part of BTR plc who acquired it from the Hawker Siddeley group in 1982. In 1999, BTR merged with Siebe to form Invensys
Invensys
Invensys plc is a global 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 has offices in more than 50 countries and its products are sold in around 180 countries.Invensys is organised into...

.

Successors

Invensys quickly split the company into Westinghouse Signals
Westinghouse Rail Systems
Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd is a British supplier of railway signalling and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office is in Chippenham, Wiltshire, where it manufactures a variety of mechanical and electrical/electronic railway signalling equipment...

 Ltd and Westinghouse Brakes Ltd, selling Westinghouse Brakes to Munich-based competitor Knorr-Bremse
Knorr-Bremse
Knorr-Bremse is a manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated in the field for over 100 years. The company also produces door systems for rail vehicles and torsional dampers. In 2009, the Group's workforce of over 14,000 achieved worldwide sales of EUR 2.761...

.

Also formerly a part of The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company is Westcode, a high-power semiconductor manufacturer, now part of IXYS group.
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