Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (formerly Westinghouse Signals Ltd) is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 supplier of 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...

 and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office is in Chippenham, Wiltshire

Chippenham, Wiltshire

Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England, located east of Bath and west of London. In the 2001 census the population of the town was recorded as 28,065....

, where it manufactures a variety of mechanical and electrical/electronic railway signalling equipment. It has six other UK offices in Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

, York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, Crawley

Crawley

Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...

, Swanley

Swanley

Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located on the south-eastern outskirts of London, north of Sevenoaks town. The town boundaries encompass the settlements of Swanley itself, Hextable and Swanley Village...

 and Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. It also has a number of overseas offices, particularly in the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

, including Melbourne.

Westinghouse is deemed to be the largest signalling design and control engineering company within the UK. Westinghouse sealed its biggest ever contract in 2004. The £850 Million contract was issued to Westinghouse by Metronet, and was for the resignalling of eight of the London Underground

London Underground

The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 lines. The ten year contract is part of the PPP (Public-Private Partnership

Public-private partnership

Public–private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...

) funded regeneration of the Underground system, and will run until 2014.

The company, owned by 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...

 plc, is part of the Invensys Rail Group.

History

Westinghouse Rail Systems origin is in the signals division of Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company which was founded as Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company in 1920. Hawker Siddeley purchased that company in 1979 and sold it to BTR plc in 1992. 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...

.

The brake and signal company split into two separate companies: Westinghouse Signals and Westinghouse Brakes. Invensys sold Westinghouse Brakes to 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...

 in April 2000.

Products

Westinghouse produces a variety of signalling and railway control equipment, including:

• Style 63 Point Machine
• SSI
  Solid State Interlocking
  Solid State Interlocking is the brand name of the first generation processor-based interlocking developed in the 1980s by British Rail's Research Division, GEC-General Signal and Westinghouse Signals Ltd in the UK.- Interlocking hardware :...
  
  
• Westlock
  Westlock Interlocking
  WESTLOCK Interlocking is a Solid State Interlocking product by Westinghouse Rail Systems.Westlock builds on many of the features that made SSI popular in the United Kingdom. This includes re-use of SSI's programming language and its external hardware....
  
  
• WESTRACE
• WESTEX