Union Switch & Signal: История американской компании (1881–2009)

American company (1881–2009)

George Westinghouse founded Union Switch & Signal Inc. in 1881, consolidating the assets of the Union Electric Signal Company (founded by track circuit inventor William Robinson) and the Interlocking Switch & Signal Company (which had pioneered interlockings). In 1925 US&S acquired the Hall Signal Company, primarily to obtain the latter company's patents for searchlight signals.

US&S operated as an independent company until 1917, when it became a subsidiary of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO). In 1968, American Standard purchased WABCO and reorganized US&S as a separate division. In 1988, Ansaldo STS, a global supplier of signaling, control and automation systems, purchased US&S from American Standard. In November 1993, US&S became a publicly traded company with shares listed on Nasdaq. Ansaldo was acquired by Hitachi and Ansaldo STS became Hitachi Rail STS in 2019. Throughout its history, US&S had manufacturing facilities in the borough of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The Swissvale plant was closed in 1985 and demolished in 1986. US&S moved manufacturing operations to a facility in Batesburg Leesville, South Carolina.

US&S built the first power interlocking system in the United States, a pneumatic design, in 1882 at East St. Louis, Illinois. Within several years the company developed an electro pneumatic system, which was widely adopted by railroads across the country. In 1901 US&S developed the first electro pneumatic automatic train stop system for the Boston Elevated Railway. This system was later adopted by the New York City Subway and other transit systems. In 1908 the company introduced an electrically controlled highway crossing gate. In 1923 US&S developed the first inductive train control system. (See also pulse code cab signaling.) The company developed coded track circuits, supporting bi directional cab signaling, in 1934. Union Switch & Signal was one of the five contractors (including Colt, Remington Rand, Ithaca Gun Company, and Singer Sewing Machine) to make M1911A1 pistols during World War II. The production blocks assigned to them in 1943 were between SN's 1,041,405 to 1,096,404. Colt duplicated 4,171 pistols in the 1,088,726 to 1,092,896 SN range. Since only 55,000 1911A1's were produced by US&S, they are highly collectible. The reason for the low production numbers is US&S was the last company awarded a government contract and as requirements were reduced in early 1943, the last contract awarded became the first to be cancelled. As a general rule, US&S produced high quality pistols. With the government owned machine tooling already in place at US&S, they were offered a subcontract arrangement to produce M1 Carbine components. Only Singer produced fewer 1911A1's at 500 total production.