When trolley car 764 first rolled down the tracks of the Syracuse Rapid Transit Line in 1908, it carried with it a new product that would eventually set the stage for a century of innovation. That drive through the streets of Syracuse marked the first time that bearings from the Railway Roller Bearing Company had been installed and tested.

But even that milestone wasnit the true beginning of the company that would later become Rollway, a key brand in the Emerson Power Transmission? portfolio of products. In 1880, Charles E. Lipe founded C.E. Lipe Co., a new venture that in 1895 became Department of Railway Roller Bearing Co., soon followed by yet another name: Lipe-Rollway Corp.

Throughout the early part of the 20th century, the fledgling company flourished. Incorporated in 1908, Railway Roller Bearing Company expanded steadily during World War I, producing general-purpose roller bearings for heavy-duty equipment used in steel, pulp and paper mills.

Soon after the end of the war, the company began manufacturing a new line of straight cylindrical roller bearings. And in 1923, the firm once more changed its name, to Rollway Roller Bearing Company, and expanded its offerings even further, with the introduction of a line of automotive roller bearings.

That product-line expansion continued throughout World War II and into the 21st century, as Rollway developed and delivered new products t and new solutions to meet the demands of markets as diverse as aircraft, missiles, agriculture, construction and mining.

Today the company that first launched its product line on a single trolley car provides businesses and industries around the world with more than 8,000 different types of spherical, cylindrical and tapered roller bearings, ball bearings, and extra-large radial and thrust bearings. And the Rollway ? bearings line, originally produced only in Syracuse, New York, is now manufactured in multiple facilities around the globe.