General Railway Signal

General Railway Signal Company (GRS) was an American manufacturing company located in the Rochester, New York area. GRS was focused on railway signaling equipment, systems and services. 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.

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 the "General Railway Signal Company de Argentina" (GRSA) division in Buenos Aires, which provided manufacture, installation and technical support of GRS railroad signalling systems in Argentina. Some local railroad lines that were provided with GRSA products were Belgrano Norte, Belgrano Sur, Urquiza and Sarmiento. Most of the signals remain active. Among their products are railroad crossing signalling parts, branded with the GRSA logo, instead of the usual GRS. This facility was closed 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, when Alstom acquired Sasib Railways. The GRS name is no longer used. All products now use the Alstom brand.

Products

Carborne signaling equipment

Wayside signaling

DC code systems
Electronic communication systems
Electronic interlocking
Relays
Signals
switch machines
track circuits
trip stops
yard retarders

Central control signaling

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

Railroads

United States Amtrak
United States BNSF Railway
United States CSX Transportation
United States Kansas City Southern Railway
United States Norfolk Southern Railway
United States Union Pacific Railroad
Argentina Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Australia Transport Asset Holding Entity
Brazil Estrada de Ferro Central (1933–57)
Brazil RFFSA (1957–84)
Brazil CBTU Rio de Janeiro (1984–98)
Brazil Supervia
Canada Canadian National Railway
Canada Canadian Pacific Railway
South Korea Korean National Railroad
Mexico Ferromex
Mexico Transportación Ferroviaria
Netherlands ProRail

Transit

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.
Amtrak Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, 1980s.
100th Anniversary, 2004.

External links

- introduced 1908
John Street location 43°04′03″N 77°40′09″W/43.06750°N 77.66917°W/ 43.06750; -77.66917
Sawgrass Drive location 43°06′49.42″N 77°36′13.63″W/43.1137278°N 77.6037861°W/ 43.1137278; -77.6037861
West Avenue location 43°08′56.54″N 77°39′43.35″W/43.1490389°N 77.6620417°W/ 43.1490389; -77.6620417