page_title: New York Air Brake
section_title: World War I and The Depression 1915-1940
hierarchical_section_title: New York Air Brake / History / World War I and The Depression 1915-1940
caption_attribution_description: English: Gauges of locomotive at the Saskatchewan Railway Museum
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: In 1915, NYAB shifted focus of their current manufacturing of vacuum brakes to efforts toward the First World War.  Sales grew from $4.7 million in 1915 to $24 million in 1916.  By 1918, the company employed 7,000 who were involved in defense manufacturing, including the production of horse-drawn cannons.
  After World War I, it was decided that a new braking system needed to be developed to provide braking power for the ever growing freight train industry.  Engineers at New York Air Brake contributed to the development of what came to be known as the "AB" brake.  During the mid-1930s, at the same time the "AB" brake was being widely implemented, the pneumatic and electro-pneumatic braking equipment for modern, high-speed locomotives and passenger trains were engineered and produced at the Watertown facilities.
  A dramatic drop in sales following the end of World War I led New York Air Brake to seek new markets.  In 1919, the company built and marketed a "Three-Point Truck;" an "enormous affair, the four wheels alone weighing nearly one ton.  The machine had a 15-foot (4.6 m) wheelbase, and an overall length of 19 feet (5.8 m).  It weighed about 8,100 pounds and had a carrying capacity of from three to six tons..." It was not a success.
  In 1925, new management announced another try at the auto industry with the introduction of the Gerlinger hydraulic lumber carrier; an engine, and a cab set high atop a lumber rack.  The project faded quickly.
  Westinghouse and New York Air Brake began development of a replacement for the venerable "K Brake" in 1929.  The Great Depression slowed, but did not stop, development of the new brake and, in April 1932, New York Air Brake began construction of a 200-car test track, the largest in the world.  In 1934, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) voted to adopt the new composite AB brake.  Despite the Depression, the company maintained employment for 300 workers, many on a part-time basis.
caption: New York Air Brake gauges to control a Rotair Valve Westinghouse Air brake[1]
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