George Westinghouse Jr. was a prolific American inventor, engineer, and entrepreneurial industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who is best known for his creation of the railway air brake and for being a pioneer in the development and use of alternating current (AC) electrical power distribution. During his lifetime, he received 362 patents for his inventions, and established 61 companies, many still in existence today.
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted.
Westinghouse may refer to:
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes also enjoyed a brief period of adoption in the United States, primarily on narrow-gauge railroads. Their limitations caused them to be progressively superseded by compressed air systems starting in the United Kingdom from the 1970s onward. The vacuum brake system is now obsolete; it is not in large-scale usage anywhere in the world, other than in South Africa, largely supplanted by air brakes.
Rail transport terms are a form of technical terminology applied to railways. Although many terms are uniform across different nations and companies, they are by no means universal, with differences often originating from parallel development of rail transport systems in different parts of the world, and in the national origins of the engineers and managers who built the inaugural rail infrastructure. An example is the term railroad, used in North America, and railway, generally used in English-speaking countries outside North America and by the International Union of Railways. In English-speaking countries outside the United Kingdom, a mixture of US and UK terms may exist.
Main components found on a typical steam locomotive include:
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German technology manufacturing company that supplies systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology. It is headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south-west German state of Baden-Württemberg. Specializing in engineering, it is primarily known for its design, research and development, and manufacturing activities in the automotive industry and is one of the largest automotive suppliers in the world. Its products include driveline and chassis technology for cars and commercial vehicles, along with specialized plant equipment such as construction equipment. It is also involved in the rail, marine, defense and aviation industries, as well as general industrial applications. ZF has 162 production locations in 31 countries with approximately 168,700 (2023) employees.
A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational features are more complex because of the need to control multiple linked carriages and to be effective on vehicles left without a prime mover. Clasp brakes are one type of brakes historically used on trains.
The New York Air Brake Corporation, located in Watertown, New York, is a manufacturer of air brake and train control systems for the railroad industry worldwide.
A train horn is an air horn used as an audible warning device on diesel and electric-powered trains. Its primary purpose is to alert persons and animals to an oncoming train, especially when approaching a level crossing. They are often extremely loud, allowing them to be heard from great distances. They are also used for acknowledging signals given by railroad employees, such as during switching operations. For steam locomotives, the equivalent device is a train whistle.
The electro-pneumatic brake system on British mainline railway trains was introduced in 1950 and remains the primary braking system for multiple units in service today, although London Transport underground trains had been fitted with EP brakes since the 1920s. The Southern Region of British Railways operated a self-contained fleet of electric multiple units for suburban and middle-distance passenger trains. From 1950, an expansion of the fleet was undertaken and the new build adopted a braking system that was novel in the UK, the electro-pneumatic brake in which compressed air brake operation was controlled electrically by the driver. This was a considerable and successful technical advance, enabling a quicker and more sensitive response to the driver's operation of brake controls.
Knorr-Bremse AG is a German manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated since 1905. Other products in Group's portfolio include intelligent door systems, control components, air conditioning systems for rail vehicles, torsional vibration dampers, and transmission control systems for commercial vehicles.
Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes are a type of railway braking systems.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
WABCO Holdings, Inc. was a U.S.-based provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension and transmission automation systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. In 2007, the Vehicle Control Systems was spun off as WABCO Holdings Inc., an American provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension and transmission automation systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Their products are present in many commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses, trailers and off-highway vehicles but they only fill the niche roles. WABCO was acquired by ZF Friedrichshafen in May 2020.
The Westinghouse Air Brake Company General Office Building in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania is a building from 1890. It was listed on the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1975, National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Originally built as an office building for the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, it housed the George Westinghouse Museum from 2006 to 2016. In 2016 it was sold to the Priory Hospitality Group with the intention of being developed into a boutique hotel. However, the 2020 global pandemic affected those plans and it was announced in November 2021 that the building will be used for an art academy and to house classrooms for the Westinghouse Arts Academy, a nearby high school.
LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. was an American manufacturer of heavy construction equipment founded by R. G. LeTourneau. In 2011, the company was acquired by Joy Global.
Crown Metal Products was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock based in Wyano, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Ken Williams in 1946 and initially sold pot cleaners and then electric fence wires and other products. In 1959, the company began to transition into producing narrow gauge locomotives, a personal interest of Williams. The company went on to produce steam locomotives and passenger cars of various sizes for amusement park railroads. The firm ceased production in 1989; however, much of its rolling stock continues to operate at various locations around the world.
MotivePower, Inc. (MPI) was an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives. The company traces its history back to being a division of Morrison-Knudsen (MK) since 1972. After MotivePower spun-off from MK, the company merged with the air brake manufacturer WABCO to form "Wabtec" in 1999, remaining as a brand of it.
The Westinghouse Interworks Railway was a short line railroad that operated in the lower Turtle Creek valley east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A subsidiary of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the railway used former Turtle Creek Valley Railroad tracks that Westinghouse rebuilt and extended from Trafford through Wilmerding to East Pittsburgh along the right bank of the creek. The railroad transported freight between the Westinghouse plants and also tested and demonstrated electric rail cars.
