W. R. Sykes Interlocking Signal Company Limited

The platform indicator from Ryde Pier Head is currently being renovated for display at Havenstreet on the IOWSR . In the course of this a brass plate has been revealed which shows it was made by the above concern.

Now a fourth platform went in at Pierhead in 1933 whilst W.R. Sykes' death in 1917 led to his company being acquired by Westinghouse.

Does anyone know if Westinghouse continued to use the Sykes name after his company was acquired by them. The more likely explanation is, of course, that this is another bit of second hand "stuff" that ended up in the IOW.

Thanks for any help that anyone may have.

Paul H

 

The Sykes factory at Clapham continued to trade under the Sykes name until it closed in 1964, when production was transferred to Westinghouse at Chippenham. I believe the brand name was still used into the 1980s. In the immediate post-WWII era, a Sykes advertisement described them as manufacturers of relays, train describers, block instruments, signal and light repeaters, and "other Signalling Apparatus of many kinds".

 

Thank you very much.

Paul H

 

W R Sykes was brought into the "Consolidated Signal Co" around 1912 as a result of deliberate price undercutting by the latter company to put pressure on the former. See "100 Years of Speed with Safety" by O S Nock and others, 2006, The Hobnob Press, ISBN0 946418-51-9 for more information.

 

Thanks for info;

Paul H