Product development
Railway signaling
US&S built the first power interlocking system in the United States, a pneumatic design, in 1882 at East St. Louis, Illinois.
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.
The first digital rail yard control system was built by US&S in 1970, for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway at Kansas City, Kansas.
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The "Teardrop" mechanical bell
US&S first patented the Model 15A Highway crossing bell on February 20, 1917. The bell has been commonly referred to as the "Teardrop" bell by railroaders and signal fans alike because of its unique shape and thus the name has stuck. This bell has appeared on advertising literature for railroad signals as far back as the 1920s as far abroad as Chile and Italy on early wig wag crossings and flashers. There have been subtle variations in the Teardrop bell over the years ranging from different sized electric coils, inclusion of the patent date on the rain hood, as well as a very early version with a less characteristic rain hood that simply read "UNION, patent pending." This is the least commonly seen variation of the Teardrop. This bell is treasured by many signal collectors for its slow, low pitched ring at an irregular cadence. The production of this bell was discontinued sometime by the 1960s, but WABCO carried replacement castings and service manuals into the 1970s.
Wartime production
During World War I the Le Rhône 9C 9 cylinder rotary engine was manufactured under license by US&S. It was one of the most common engines for fighter planes from different companies and around 10,000 were made at Swissvale.
US&S 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.
Modern products
Central control signaling equipment
Computer-based manual control systems
Computer-based traffic management systems
Dark territory control systems
Electro-mechanical centralized traffic control machines
Note
1 US&S was the only company to make 180 degree electronic bells.
