Hi Clint - I think I found the information you are looking for at the google news archives. That search engine includes a few legal sites. You will have to pay a fee to get the entire record, but it was very inexpensive for only one case. go to this page http://news.google.com/archivesearch enter "George W. Gerlach" +chicago in the search box and it will bring you to this entry which seems to be related to the one you were asking about. CHICAGO, RI & P. RY. CO. Subscription - United States Court of Appeals, Eighth... - Fastcase - Jun 26, 1933 Action by George W. Gerlach against the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company. From a judgment dismissing plaintiff's action, plaintiff appeals. ... if you search only for George Gerlach, there are 2 cases from Texas in 1922/1923 that will come up on the first page. I don't know if these are for the same George. Since you have the patent numbers, I'm guessing you already found patent information at the us patent office website. If not, you can search there http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html and get all kinds of information about the patents. There is also some information at wikipedia about automatic train controls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Train_Control Lisa [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clint Humbert" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:43 PM Subject: [IOWA] Looking for information and History :I am looking for some of the old timers to tell what they may have recollection of when automatic train control came into being and when they first got the crossing lights. : : My grandfather was an inventor, and got his inventions patented. His name was George W. Gerlach. The inventions pertained to automatic train control. There was a patent infringement suit in the 1930's. : : He also invented/had patented (1,191,414) Safety Block Signal, : and (1,135,574) Block Signal Control Safety Appliance for Locomotives. I am looking for any individuals who may be familiar with what he invented, who may have knowledge of this suit, and who would be willing to correspond about automatic train control history being made related to the railroad.