General Railway Signal

General Railway Signal Company

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Former type	Private
Industry	Manufacturing
Fate	Merged with Alstom
Predecessor	Pneumatic Signal Company Taylor Signal Co. New York and Standard Railroad Signal Company
Successor	Alstom
Founded	1904
Founder	John Taylor
Defunct	1998 (1998)
Headquarters	Rochester, New York , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	John Taylor, Wilmer Salmon, Winthrop Howe
Products	Grade crossing signals, Railroad signaling
Number of employees	350

General Railway Signal Company (GRS) was a supplier of railway signaling equipment, systems and services in the Rochester, New York area. The company was established in 1904 and became part of Alstom Transport in 1998. GRS was a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1928 to 1930.

History

GRS was founded in 1904 with the merger of three companies (Pneumatic Signal Company of Rochester, New York, Taylor Signal Co. of Buffalo, New York and Standard Railroad Signal Company of Arlington, New Jersey). In 1923 GRS acquired the Federal Signal Company of Albany, New York.

File:Grs railw formerlogo.png

Company's former logo.

General Railway Signal was one of the 30 stocks when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was expanded from a 20-stock average on October 1, 1928. It was replaced in the DJIA by Liggett & Myers on July 18, 1930. In 1965, General Signal Corporation (GSX) was created with the intent to diversify into areas other than railway signaling. GRS was a wholly owned subsidiary of GSX.

In 1960, GRS opened up a division called the "General Railway Signal Company de Argentina" (GRSA) in Buenos Aires, which took care of manufacturing, installing, and providing technical support of GRS railroad signalling systems in Argentina. Some of local railroad lines that were provided with GRSA products were Belgrano Norte, Belgrano Sur, Urquiza and Sarmiento. Most of the signals are still active. Noticeably among their products are their railroad crossing signalling parts, branded with the GRSA logo, instead of the usual GRS one. This facility was closed down in the early 1980s.

In 1986, GRS joined with China National Railway Signal & Communication Group Corporation (CRSC) to form the Chinese-American Signal Company (CASCO) in Shanghai, China, which produces products and systems for railways in the People's Republic of China.

In 1989, GRS was acquired by the Italian company Sasib and joined the Sasib Railways group. From its founding until 1993, GRS main office and manufacturing facilities were located at 801 West Avenue in Rochester. In 1993, it moved to two new suburban facilities: administration and engineering to Sawgrass Drive in Brighton, and manufacturing to John Street in West Henrietta. In 1998, it became part of Alstom, a French corporation, when Alstom acquired Sasib Railways. The GRS name is no longer used. All products now use the Alstom brand.

In 2003, the Sawgrass facility was closed and all activity was consolidated at the John Street plant, renamed Alstom Station.

Products

File:Pan calle roca.jpg

red lights signal and gates device manufactured in Argentina and still active as of May 2014.

File:CSX Cap Sub-Ammendale 2011a.jpg

GRS color position light signal.

File:GRS Model 2 Interlocking machine.jpg

GRS Model 2 interlocking machine. (1915).

File:Padilla sign levelcross.jpg

Semaphore and lights devices still active in Padilla station, Buenos Aires, 2015.

• Carborne signaling equipment
  • Automatic Train Control (ATC)
  • Automatic Train Protection (ATP)
  • Automatic train stop (ATS)
• Wayside signaling equipment
  • DC code systems
  • electronic communication systems
  • electronic interlocking
  • relays
  • signals
  • switch machines
  • track circuits
  • trip stops
  • yard retarders
• Central Control signaling equipment
  • computer-based Manual Control Systems
  • computer-based Traffic Management Systems
  • dark territory control systems
  • electro-mechanical centralized traffic control (cTc) machines
  • yard control systems

Clients

• Railroad
  • Amtrak
  • BNSF Railway
  • Canadian National Railway
  • Canadian Pacific Railway
  • CSX
  • Ferromex
  • Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana
  • Ferrocarriles Argentinos, through GRS de Argentina (GRSA)
  • Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil, (Rio de Janeiro) (1933-1957).
  • RFFSA, (Rio de Janeiro) (1957-1984).
  • CBTU, (Rio de Janeiro) (1984-1998).
  • Supervia, (Rio de Janeiro) (1998–Present).
  • Kansas City Southern Railway
  • Korean National Railroad
  • Norfolk Southern Railway
  • ProRail, operator of the railway infrastructure in The Netherlands
  • Union Pacific Railroad
  • RailCorp (Rail Corporation New South Wales) and its predecessors
• Transit
  • Bay Area Rapid Transit
  • Chicago Transit Authority
  • Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf, the municipal transport company in Amsterdam
  • Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
  • Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
  • NJ Transit
  • New York City Transit Authority
  • Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
  • Toronto Transit Commission
  • Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Major accomplishments

• First Centralized traffic control (cTc) machine, 1927.
• "NX" (eNtrance-eXit) systems (relay-based cTc), 1937.
• First fully automated freight yard, 1955.
• Computer-based central control office, 1968.
• First fully automatic computer-planned and executed train meet, 1981.
• Microprocessor based Interlocking ("Vital Processor Interlocking"), 1986.
• Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, 1980s.
• 100th Anniversary, 2004.

See also

• Union Switch and Signal, the other major US railway signaling company.
• North American railroad signals

External links

• Alstom Signaling division
• Photos of GRS Model 2A Dwarf Signal - introduced 1908
• John Street location
• Sawgrass Drive location
• West Avenue location