L.K. Comstock & Company

L.K. Comstock & Company has achieved many noteworthy milestones in its 100-year history. Each one contributed to advancing the company from a “new and unproven field of endeavor” to one of the nation’s oldest and most accomplished electrical contractors. Congratulations to past and present employees, customers, suppliers and industry friends who all contributed to this remarkable American success story.

A Century of Service

A RailWorks Company

1900s

January 1, 1904 - Louis K. Comstock begins

organizing L.K. Comstock & Company.

June 20, 1904 - The business is formally

incorporated.

1900s - Comstock’s first projects include

the Seventy-First Regiment Armory, the

Trinity Building and U.S. Realty Building

(twin towers), the City Investing Build-

ing, the Prudential Insurance Company in Newark, NJ, and

power-generating facilities, including

New York Edison Company’s Waterside

Station the BMT’s Williamsburg Power

House. Comstock also performs the

electrical contracting work on the Hud-

son Terminal Building, one of its earliest

clients. At the time this business was re-

garded as the largest electrical contract

ever awarded.

1910s

1910s - While Comstock performed prac-

tically every branch of interior electrical

installation, most of the work -- well

over three-quarters of its business in the

pre-World War I years -- was commercial

office buildings and similar structures.

1917 - Canadian Comstock is formally chartered in Quebec

to operate as a division of the parent company, L.K. Com-

stock & Company, Inc.

1920s

December 11, 1925 - L.K. Comstock resigns as president. Earle

Stewart is elected president and leads the company for the

next 30 years. Under his leadership, Comstock begins to di-

versify its work and expand its business outside

the New York metropolitan area. Stewart also

begins establishing a number of spin-off firms

that use the Comstock name but are not

owned by the parent company.

1904It was the year Teddy Roosevelt won the White

House, the first New York City subway system

began operation in Manhattan, and the New

York Times Building in Times Square opened

for business.

It also was the year Louis Kossuth Comstock

staked his career on what he viewed as “a new

and unproven field of endeavor” and founded

his own company. Comstock resigned from his

previous job on the last day of 1903, and on New

Year’s Day 1904, he began organizing

L.K. Comstock & Company, Inc.

Over the years the company nurtured a long

and proud tradition. New owners and leaders

have forged new direction for the business as

new electrical technology has become available.

Today L.K. Comstock & Company is one of the

oldest and most respected electrical construc-

tion companies in the country.

Louis K. Comstock

Hudson Terminal Building, ca. 1909, one of Comstock’s earliest clients

201st Street Power Station, United Electric Light & Power Company, New York

Charles L. Scharfe, Scharfe, Sr. (upper right) and fellow electricians, 1921, while Scharfe was working as an electrian and foreman for E.J. Reid Company

Late December 1925 - Two weeks following Stewart’s appointment

as president, L.K. Comstock is elected as chairman, a position

he holds until October of 1941.

1926 - Louis K. Comstock receives the electrical industry’s

McGraw Award. The citation references his efforts in pioneering

cooperative relations between management and labor: “He has

devoted himself with persistent purpose to the promotion of a

better understanding between the electrical construction industry

and the labor it employs.”

1926 - Canadian Comstock passes from U.S. to Canadian owner-

ship. The company retains “Comstock” in its name, an indication

of the good will already achieved by the U.S. company.

1930s

1931 - Comstock wins the bid to wire the Empire State Building,

a huge job with a short construction time. This project offers L.K.

Comstock a “crowning jewel” to his career in New York City con-

struction. Twenty years later, Comstock also performs massive

electrical upgrades to the building.

1930s - Comstock performs all the electrical contracting work

on the first of three New York City urban housing developments,

all financed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The

Parkchester project is built to house over 40,000 people in 51

individual but interrelated apartment buildings, ranging from 7

to 13 stories, containing over 12,000 apartment units of 2 to 5

rooms. The development features a centralized shopping center

and heating plant, several car garages and a movie theater. When

completed, Parkchester is the world’s largest housing complex of

its kind.

Late 1930s through the late 1950s - Comstock wins a series of

contracts with the New York City Transportation Authority through

joint ventures with other companies. Comstock builds a key area

of expertise: mass transportation.

1940s

1940s - Comstock performs electrical contracting work on de-

fense plants in St. Louis and Milwaukee.

1943 - Louis K. Comstock retires.

1943 - Construction begins on K-25, a uranium processing plant

within the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, TN. The plant played

a pivotal role in the atomic bomb development during World War

II and required massive amounts of electrical power. Approxi-

mately 3,000 electricians, or roughly five or six times the number

required for an extraordinarily large peacetime project, work on

the project. The electrical work requires a huge array of equip-

ment: thousands of pumps, regulators for the gas flow, and com-

plex control instrumentation, and an extensive power distribution

system and transmission lines. The project is completed in 1945.

1945 - Work begins on K-27, another gaseous-diffusion plant

completed after WWII.

1947 - The success of Parkchester leads to two other local urban

renewal projects: Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper developments.

1949 - Comstock participates in a joint venture with several

electrical contractors, including Canadian Comstock and Em-

erson-Comstock of Chicago (two Stewart spin-off companies),

to standardize electrical equipment for 750,000 customers in

southwest Ontario. Regarded by the company’s chairman as “the

largest electrical engineering program of its kind in the world,” the

project requires reconverting electrical equipment from a 25- to

60-cycle frequency. The reconversion involves changing over 6

million items and takes a decade to complete.

Comstock’s electrical crew, headed by Charles L. Scharfe Sr., on the Empire State Building, 1931.

1950s

1950s - Comstock performs electrical contracting work on new

buildings for these major clients: the New York Daily News, New

York Life, the three major television networks, and the Chase Man-

hattan Bank. The Chase project was important because it helped

to create a long-term client relationship and repeat business - two

hallmarks of the company since L.K. Comstock’s day - and it epit-

omized the changing energy needs for the modern office building.

March 1955 - Stewart retires as president. John W. Frommer be-

comes president, a position he holds until October of 1962.

1956 - Comstock acquires Emerson-Comstock Company, a Chicago-

based firm established by former Comstock President Earle Stewart.

1957 - Comstock wins a joint venture with Fischbach and Moore,

Inc., to contract electrical services in the new Chase Manhattan

Bank in the New York City Financial District.

1960s

1960s - Three forces begin driving dramatic changes that shape

the company’s future: 1) the transition from a family-held private

company, 2) the rising importance of the general contractor, and

3) the increasing importance of joint-venture work. Key Comstock

projects include the National City Bank, Crowell-Collier Building,

the windup of Metropolitan Life’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter

Cooper developments, and a series of subway signal contracts

with the New York City Transit Authority.

November 1962 - Charles L. Scharfe, Sr. is elected president but

resigns during the same meeting of the board of directors. He said

the company would be best served if a younger man would assume

the position and responsibility of president. Subsequently, his son,

Charles L. Scharfe, Jr., is elected president. Scharfe, Sr. serves as

chairman until just before his death in September of 1981.

December 1962 - Comstock, Chase Manhattan Bank and Canadian

Comstock signed a joint purchase agreement to buy PEC (Pat-

terson-Emerson-Comstock Company), an engineering company

founded in part by former President Earle Stewart.

December 1964 - After winning a contract to maintain New York

City street lights and traffic signals, Comstock creates Elkcom

Company, Inc., a construction equipment materials and tools

leasing company.

1968 - Comstock buys Brooklyn and Queens Elevator Company.

1970s

1970s - Comstock makes the first of two merger attempts to

become a public company. The first attempt, with L.E. Meyers,

another electrical contracting company that had gone public in

1968, is designed to raise capital: 1) to satisfy rising needs for

larger projects and, 2) to allow the Scharfe family to withdraw

equity in the firm. The merger is never consummated due in large

part to the differences in corporate direction.

1971 – Comstock, in a joint venture with Fischbach & Moore, Inc.,

is awarded the contract for the first segment of the Washington

Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority system.

June 1971 - Comstock acquires the balance of the shares of an

engineering firm known at the time as Consolidated Comstock,

Inc. The engineering company is subsequently renamed L. K.

Comstock Engineering Company, Inc.

1971 - Comstock purchases two companies: 1) Jacobs Electric

Company, a Long Beach, Calif., firm active in the nuclear field at

that time, and 2) Kern Electric Company of Albany, Ore., to enter

the pulp paper market.

1972 - Comstock buys the James Bond Electric Company of Los

Angeles, which specializes in installing and maintaining printing

press equipment. It also purchases Faust Electric, a Houston-

based firm, and opens an office in San Francisco along with

L.K. Comstock & Company Engineering Company to handle it

western operations.

1975 - George F. Nicol is elected president, a position he holds

until his retirement in 1979. Charles L. Scharfe, Jr. is named vice

chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer.

Late ‘70s - Comstock escalates its role in building new power

plants and rehabilitating and maintaining existing plants. Over the

next 15 years the company will build more than two dozen new

power plants in the Midwest.

April 1978 - Comstock initiates its second merger attempt with E.C.

Ernst, a Washington, D.C.-based electrical construction company.

Louis K. Comstock on his 95th birthday

November 1978 - Within six months after the merger with Ernst,

Scharfe and the other former shareholders of Comstock institute a

lawsuit to rescind the merger, citing Ernst’s misrepresentation and

omission of crucial financial information prior to the merger. Shortly

after the rescission lawsuit is commenced, Ernst files for bankrupt-

cy protection. Two years later, after long, intense and time-consum-

ing legal battles, Comstock emerges relatively unscathed.

1980s

1980 - Comstock establishes LKC, Inc., which will become a

holding company under which its several subsidiaries provide

a range of engineering and construction services. As part of

Comstock emerging from the rescission of the Ernst merger,

Comstock implements a major reorganization through LKC, Inc.,

which adds younger executives and creates a holding company-

subsidiary form organization that owns Comstock and its affili-

ated operating companies. It also develops a five-year business

plan along with strategic map for the next 15 years based on a

study by Braxton Associates. The study directs the company to

establish its niche among contractors: 1) by securing middle-

range contract work on jobs ranging from $5 million to $50 mil-

lion, and 2) by concentrating on technologies where it has a lead,

primarily transportation and utilities.

1984 – LKC, Inc. changes its name to Comstock Group, Inc. In

October of 1984, Comstock Group completes its public offer-

ing of one million shares of common stock. The shares trade on

NASDAQ under the symbol CSTK. At the time of the offering,

Comstock Group’s subsidiaries are L. K. Comstock & Company,

Inc., headquartered in New York, New York; Comstock Engineer-

ing, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Comstock Mechanical,

headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.; Comstock Communications head-

quartered in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Elkcom Company, headquar-

tered on Long Island, New York.

1986 - New York City Transit Authority awards Comstock the

Eighth Avenue (Zone 3) Project. At that time, the $164-million

contract was the largest contract ever awarded by NYCT or won

by Comstock. It was the first of five major transit awards over the

next seven years that expanded Comstock fourfold. The projects,

with a combined value in excess of $400 million, extended into

the early ‘90s and included Lexington Avenue ($62 million), Asto-

ria ($33 million), Brighton ($59 million) and Jamaica ($112 million).

1988 - Comstock provides electrical installation for the complete

renovation or “life extension” of America Electric Power’s London,

Marmet and Winfield hydroelectric plants, which were originally

constructed in the 1930s.

1989 - Spie Batignolles completes its gradual acquisition of Com-

stock Group, Inc., and assumes full ownership. Yannic Burin des

Roziers is named president and CEO.

1990s

1990s - Comstock continues to build on its expertise in the

transit market by installing electric traction power and signal

and communications equipment for light and heavy rail systems.

During the past 30 years, the company works on transit systems

in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pitts-

burgh, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, D.C.

and New York City. National transit work continues in the ‘90s

with projects in San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles and

New York City.

1992 - Pierre Lescaut is named president and CEO, replacing

Yannic Burin des Roziers who leaves to be-

come president and CEO of Spie-Trindel,

France’s largest electrical contractor.

1993 - Comstock installs the electrical

components for new scrubbers at Ameri-

can Electric Power’s 2600 MW Gavin

plant and Public Service Indiana’s 635

MW Gibson Unit 4. These two projects

represent a combined value of more

than $500 million. Installing a new signal on the Jamaica LineAmerican Electric Power’s Mountaineer plant

Fall 1993 - Comstock reorganizes into three market sector groups

designed to improve team work between technical experience

and contract operations: 1) Commercial and Traffic, 2) Power and

Industrial, and 3) Transit Group. The Power and Industrial group

consolidates it offices into its headquarters in Cincinnati, in prox-

imity to many Midwest industrial/power customers.

1995 - Comstock performs complex, multi-million-dollar electri-

cal installations for Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust and Societe

Generale.

June 1996 - Comstock

completes work to install

the train control and

communications sys-

tems on the new 7.5-mile

extension to Metro Atlanta

Rapid Transit Authority

(MARTA). Completed just

in time for the Summer

Olympic Games, the two

contracts require installing

215,000 feet of multi-con-

ductor control/telephone

cable and 88,000 feet of

fiber optic cable. It marked

the completion of Com-

stock’s 22nd project for

MARTA, an association that

began in 1976.

1996 - Comstock wins the

$84.4 million contract for the

63rd Street Tunnel by New

York City Transit (NYCT). The project, one of the most complex

projects ever undertaken by the firm, requires tying five preced-

ing construction, signal and rehabilitation contracts into one

complete working tunnel system and designing and installing the

state-of-the art signal integration system.

April 1997 - Seven senior managers buy the company from its

former parent, Spie Batignolles.

November 1997 - Comstock wins the Automatic

Train Supervision (ATS) project on the Interboro

Rapid Transit division of NYCT. The project

centralizes into one Rail Control Center (RCC) in

Manhattan the division’s dispatch and train control

currently taking place in 23 master towers and

dispatch offices spread across New York City.

When completed, the seven-year project will pro-

vide more timely subway service by giving NYCT

greater control and flexibility to correct, add,

delete or reroute trains.

1998 - Comstock forms Com-Tech, a new spe-

cialty division dedicated to providing integrated

solutions for its telecommunications clients.

1998 - Comstock and its sister company Com-

trak Construction, Inc. win a $6 million project

for a two-mile extension to Atlanta’s existing

MARTA transit line.

August 4, 1998 - RailWorks Corporation completes the successful

initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock, which trades on

the NASDAQ under the symbol RWKS. A new public company

is launched comprised of 14 rail industry service and product

providers, including Comstock, which represented 59.9% of the

pro forma revenues. Lester O. Wuerfl, Jr. is appointed the interim

Comstock President and CEO and a search begins for a perma-

nent replacement.

March 1999 - Bill Moore is named president of Comstock, a posi-

tion he holds until November of 2003.

1999 - Comstock wins the $17.8 million contract award for the

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) North Central & Northeast Cor-

ridors light rail extension.

1999 - RailWorks enhances the growth potential of its three New

York City transit contracting companies by combining their resourc-

es into a new single operating entity. The new organization, RWKS

Comstock, is a joint venture between L.K. Comstock and F&V

MARTA Transit System, Atlanta

Comstock’s Senior Management Team, 1997

NYCT’s Rail Control Center in Manhattan, November 2004

Metro, and includes Sheldon Electric Co, Inc. RWKS Comstock is

to handle all future systems projects including signal, communica-

tions and special systems, such as radio and public address sys-

tems for metropolitan New York transit agencies. Ben D’Alessandro

is named president and managing principal of the joint venture.

Late 1999 - Comstock’s New York Transit Group merges with its

affiliated company, Impulse Electric.

Late 1999 - The new entity, RWKS Comstock, wins its first two

major NYCT signal modernization contracts:

CBTC Project - A $74 million award to install Computer Based

Train Control (CBTC) technology on the Canarsie line. The

project is a joint venture of RWKS Comstock, Siemens

Transportation Systems and Union

Switch & Signal. The new technology

will upgrade the conventional, fixed

block wayside signals to intelligent

radio frequency communications-based

technology. Train control is achieved

by two-way communications between

rail car and wayside equipment. This

information is used by the Rail Control

Center (RCC) and Automatic Train Su-

pervision (ATS) system to control train

movements.

Flushing Signal Project - A $69 million, 48-month signal system

rehabilitation project on New York City Transit’s line in Flush-

ing, New York. RWKS Comstock will install a modern, fixed-

block signal system, which will upgrade signal safety stan-

dards and improve operational reliability.

2000s

2000 - Comstock wins the $6.5 million subcontract to install the

signal system on St. Louis’ 17-mile MetroLink light rail extension.

2000 - Comstock wins the $10.8 million contact award for New

York City Transit Authority’s 72nd Street Subway Station. The

project requires electrical renovation and signal modification as

well as power, lighting, fire/life safety, signal relocation and oper-

ating upgrades.

2000 - Comstock and RailWorks Track Services win the

$100 million contract to perform the electrical and track

work portion of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line in Minne-

apolis, Minn. The electrical portion includes site improve-

ments, the traction power, catenary and signal systems

and grade crossing protection.

2000 - Comstock wins the $89 million contract for White

Plains-Phase II, a signal

system rehabilitation

project on New York

City Transit’s line in

White Plains, New York.

Comstock will install

a modern, fixed-block

signal system, which will

upgrade signal safety

standards and improve

operational reliability.

June 2001 - Com-

stock begins work on the five-year, $72 million AirTrain project in

Queens, New York, to rebuild and mod-

ernize Jamaica Station and construct the

AirTrain Terminal. Comstock is to install all

the lighting, public address, closed-circuit

television, electrical service and distribution

equipment systems, as well as lightning

protection and mechanical system. This

project is part of a $1.9 billion, light-rail

system by the Port Authority of New York

and New Jersey to provide ground trans-

portation service to, from and around John

F. Kennedy International Airport.

September 2001 - Parent company RailWorks Corporation and its

subsidiaries file for bankruptcy protection.

June 2002 - Comstock wins the Bergen Street Project, a $25 mil-

lion contract to pilot Solid State Interlocking (SSI) technology. The

project will replace the existing relay-based Bergen Street inter-

locking with NYCT’s first microprocessor-based interlocking. This

new technology will provide NYCT the capability to monitor system

performance, increase interlocking operations reliability and make

available real-time equipment information to signal maintainers.

November 2002 - Comstock wins the $25 million Canarsie Yard

project. The project includes furnishing and installing a new

signal system to support a new relay room, including maintainers’

panels, and a control and indication panel in the new yard tower.

AirTrain’s VCB/JCC Security Console

AirTrain project Management Team

Hiawatha Light Rail Transit Vehicle in Minneapolis

November 2002 - RailWorks

Corporation reorganizes

and emerges from bank-

ruptcy as a privately held

company.

April 2003 - Comstock

wins the $97.7 million

subcontract to rehabilitate

signal and communica-

tions systems for the

NYCT Grand Concourse

subway line in the Bronx,

New York, a key com-

muter artery linking the

Bronx with Manhattan.

The project will replace

the existing electro-me-

chanical-based signal

system (circa 1939) with

conventional fixed-block

technology. Comstock will construct and install signal equip-

ment in a new master signal tower, five relay rooms, and a central

instrument room and signal power room.

July 2003 - RailWorks is named one of five prime contractors for

St. Louis’ light rail Cross County Extension project. Valued at

$101 million, this project involves Comstock and RailWorks Track

Services. The extension will add eight miles to St. Louis ‘ existing

34.4-mile light rail system called MetroLink, which services the

metro region in Missouri and Illinois.

May 2004 - Ray List is named president and CEO of parent com-

pany RailWorks Corporation and shortly later named president of

L.K. Comstock & Company, Inc.

July 2004 - Comstock wins the $48 million contract to rehabilitate

the signal system on Phase II of the Flushing Line, part of New

York City Transit’s subway system. NYCT awarded the contract

to modernize the signal system and interlockings by installing

new fixed-block signal equipment. Comstock also will construct

two new relay rooms and renovate the existing workshop, master

tower and relay room to accommodate the communication and

fiber optic technology.

August 2004 - Comstock and sister company RailWorks Track

Systems are selected as the primary subcontractor to install the

automated people mover (APM) system at Washington Dulles In-

ternational Airport. Sumitomo Corporation of America, the project

prime contractor, awarded the $62.7 million subcontract for the

six-year project.

August 2004 - Comstock wins the $14.87 million subcontract to

install the signal system on Sound Transit’s new 14.5-mile rail line

linking downtown Seattle with the Sea-Tac Airport.

October 2004 - In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the first

ride on the New York City subway, RailWorks and Comstock run

a congratulatory ad in New York Construction News to honor the

MTA and New York City Transit Authority. Both the subway sys-

tem and Comstock celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2004.

A RailWorks Company

PRINTED IN USA 12/04

Comstock electricians install a portion of the approximately 1.5 million feet of signal cable required for the Grand Concourse project

NYCT’s 72nd Street Station

A RailWorks Company