St. Louis Car Company
St. Louis Car Co. Builders - vehicle badge
|
|
| Industry | Builder |
|---|---|
| Fate | ceased operations |
| Founded | April 1887 |
| Founder | William Lefmann, Peter Kling, Juilius Lefmann, Henry Schroeder, Daniel McAllister, Henry Maune, Charles Ernst |
| Defunct | 1974 |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
|
Number of locations
|
St. Louis, Missouri |
|
Area served
|
United States; Canada |
|
Key people
|
George J. Kobusch, Peter Kling, John H. Kobusch, Henry F. Vogel, John I. Beggs, Robert McCulloch, Richard McCulloch, Robert P. McCulloch, Edwin B. Meissner |
| Products | Railroad passenger cars, locomotives, streetcars, and trolleybuses; automobiles |
| Parent | General Steel Industries (1960–) |
| Subsidiaries | St. Louis Aircraft Corporation |
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887–1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company was formed in April 1887 to manufacture and sell streetcars and other kinds of rolling stock of street and steam railways supporting the traction industry. In succeeding years the company built automobiles, including the American Mors, the Skelton, and the Standard Six. The St. Louis Aircraft Corporation division of the company partnered with the Huttig Sash and Door company in 1917 to produce aircraft. During the two world wars, the company manufactured gliders, trainers, Alligators, flying boats, and dirigible gondolas. Among their most successful products were the Birney Safety Car and the PCC streetcar, a design that was very popular at the time.[1]
The firm went on to build some of the vehicles used in the transit systems of New York City and Chicago, as well as the FM OP800 railcars manufactured exclusively for the Southern Railway in 1939.
In 1960, St. Louis Car Company was acquired by General Steel Industries.[2] In 1964, St. Louis Car completed an order of 430 World's Fair picture-window cars (R36 WF) for the New York City Subway and was continuing work on 162 PA-1's in 1966, and an additional 44 PA-2's in 1967 air-conditioned aluminum cars (PA1/PA2) for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their use on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line to New Jersey.[3] Also in the mid-1960s, the company completed building the passenger capsules, designed by Planet Corporation, to ferry visitors to the top of the Gateway Arch at the Jefferson National Expansion Museum in St. Louis, Missouri.[4]
St. Louis Car continued business until 1968 and finally ceased operations by 1974.[5] The final St. Louis Car products were R44 subway cars for the New York City Subway and Staten Island Rapid Transit, and the USDOT State of the Art Car rapid transit demonstrator set whose design was based on the R44.
The St. Louis Car assembly plant and general office at 8000 Hall Street, St. Louis is now the St. Louis Business Center, a mixed use industrial and commercial complex redeveloped starting in 2005.[6]
Today, "San Francisco’s Municipal Railway has assembled one of the most diverse collections of vintage streetcars, trolleys, and trams in transit service anywhere. Up to 20 or more of these wonderful vintage vehicles carry passengers along Market Street and The Embarcadero every single day."[7]
Products
- PCC streetcars (1930s-1950s)
- Peter Witt streetcars
- Trolley buses
- Interurban cars
- Gas-electric railcars
- CRT/CTA 5003-5004 PCC elevated-subway cars (1947) - retired 1985
- CTA 6000-series PCC elevated-subway cars (1950–59) - retired 1992
- CTA 1-50 PCC elevated-subway cars (1959–60) - retired 1999
- Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad Electroliner (1941)
- MBTA #3 East Boston Tunnel cars (1951)
- State of the Art Car heavy rail transit demonstrator set for US DOT (1973–74) - now at Seashore Trolley Museum
- Illinois Terminal Railroad Streamliners
- Metra Illinois Central Electric District Highliner electric MU cars (1971–72)
- NJ Transit (NJ DOT/Penn Central) Arrow I electric MU cars (1968–69)
- New York Central ACMU 4500 series (1950–51)
- NYCT R8A (1939)
- NYCT R17 (1954–55)
- NYCT R21 (1956–57)
- NYCT R22 (1957–58)
- NYCT R27 (1960–61)
- NYCT R29 (1962)
- NYCT R30 (1961–62)
- NYCT R33 (1962–63)
- NYCT R33 WF (1963)
- NYCT R36 (1964)
- NYCT R36 WF (1963–64)
- NYCT R38 (1966–67)
- NYCT R40 (1967–69)
- NYCT R40M (1969)
- NYCT R42 (1969–70)
- NYCT R44 (1971–73)
- Philadelphia and Western Railroad original wood cars and freight motors (1907)
- Hudson & Manhattan Railroad/PATH "K-car"/MP51 (1958)
- PATH PA1 (1965)
- PATH PA2 (1967)
- San Diego Class 1 Streetcars (1910-1912)
- Seaboard Air Line 2027-2028 Railcars (1936)
- SEPTA Silverliner III (PRR MP85) cars (1967)
- Southern Railway FM OP800 Railcars (1939)
- Staten Island Railway R44 (1973) (last St. Louis cars)
- Victorian Railways Petrol Electric railmotor (1928)
See also
- Brownell Car Company
- Canada Car and Foundry
- Ottawa Car Company
- New York City Subway rolling stock
- F-Market & Wharves Streetcar Line
- John I. Beggs
- List of rolling stock manufacturers
References
- ↑ Andrew D. Young and Eugene Provenzo, The History of the St. Louis Car Company (Howell North Books 1978)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Young and Provenzo, 267.
- ↑ "St. Louis Business Center" Green Street: Portfolio
- ↑ Market Street Railway
- Middleton, William, Jr. The Interurban Era, Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee WI.
External links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
- Builders of wooden railway cars: St. Louis Car Company from ironhorse129.com — some photos of early SLCC cars.
- Guide to the St. Louis Car Company Collection at Washington University in St. Louis (PDF)
- St. Louis Car Company Records, 1887-1997 | WUA University Archives at Washington University in St. Louis (html)
- St. Louis Car Company history at Mid-Continent Railway Museum, North Freedom, Wisconsin
- [1] at Cable Car Museum, San Francisco, CA
- [2] at Market Street Railway, San Francisco, CA
