Archives:Trafford Westinghouse Collection
The Trafford Historical Society www.traffordhistory.org/lookingback holds a collection of original photographs taken by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. As part of the Westinghouse plant site in Trafford, Pennsylvania, a high-voltage laboratory was built on a small knob located between present-day Stewart Station Road and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. The empty parcel that held the building can be seen today if one is standing on the Trafford Veterans Bridge near Brinton Avenue and looking north. Construction began in the fall of 1920 and was completed in 1921. The steel beam and sheet metal structure measured 110 feet by 120 feet, and stood 50 feet tall. The building was often referred to by the residents of the borough as the “Tin Shed,” because of its corrugated sheet metal construction, as compared to most of the other masonry buildings built on the Westinghouse property. From one of the backyards off Brinton Avenue, a look across the railroad cut would have revealed a two-story brick addition that served as the office and control room for the high voltage laboratory, its windows facing the bridge. Archived at the Trafford Historical Society is a collection of photographs documenting many of the experiments that took place in this laboratory during the nearly 50 years it operated. A cover sheet that accompanies the images declares, “The Westinghouse laboratory will be devoted entirely to pioneer development working connection with line insulation, lightning arresters, circuit breakers and transformers for high voltages. We believe we have the best equipment in the country for carrying on such work.”
