American Car and Foundry Company
American Car and Foundry (often abbreviated as ACF) is a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches under the brand names of (first) ACF and (later) ACF-Brill. Today ACF is known as ACF Industries LLC and is based in St. Charles, Missouri.[1]
Contents |
History
 |
This section requires expansion. |
American Car and Foundry was formed and incorporated in New Jersey in 1899 as the result of the merger of 13 smaller railroad car manufacturers. The company was made up of:
Later in 1899, ACF acquired Bloomsburg Car Manufacturing Company (of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania). Two years later, ACF acquired Jackson and Sharp Company (founded 1863 in Wilmington, Delaware), and the Common Sense Bolster Company (of Chicago, Illinois). The unified company made a great investment in the former Jackson & Woodin plant in Pennsylvania, spending about $3 million. It was at this plant that ACF built the first all-steel passenger car in the world in 1904. The car was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit system of New York City, the first of 300 such cars ordered by the railroad.
1904 and 1905 saw ACF build several motor cars and trailers for the London Underground. In these two years, ACF also acquired Southern Car and Foundry (founded 1899 in Memphis, Tennessee), Indianapolis Car and Foundry and Indianapolis Car Company.
Timeline
- 1899: American Car & Foundry is formed from the merger of 13 smaller companies.
- 1899: ACF acquires Bloomsburg Car Manufacturing Company
- 1901: ACF acquires Jackson and Sharp Company and Common Sense Bolster Company
- 1904: ACF builds the first all-steel passenger car in the world for the Interborough Rapid Transit
- 1904: ACF acquires Southern Car and Foundry
- 1905: ACF acquires Indianapolis Car and Foundry and Indianapolis Car Company
- 1922: ACF diversifies into the automotive industry with the acquisition of Carter Carburetor Corporation
- March 31, 1924: ACF acquires Pacific Car and Foundry
- 1925: ACF acquires Fageol Motors Company of Ohio and Hall-Scott Motor Car Company
- 1926: ACF acquires J.G. Brill Company
- 1927: ACF acquires Shippers Car Line
- 1935: ACF builds lightweight Rebel streamline trains for the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad
- 1939: ACF's Berwick plant switches to construction of military tanks.
- August 2, 1941: ACF's 1,000th military tank is completed for the United States military effort of World War II
- 1954: The company officially changes its name to ACF Industries, Inc.
- 1960: ACF completes the last passenger car that it is to build (New York City Transit R28 [3] IRT car).
- 1977: Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) came up with the idea of the first double-stack intermodal car in 1977.[4] SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year.[5][6]
Products
Historically, ACF built passenger and freight cars. One of the largest customers was Union Pacific, whose armor-yellow carbon steel lightweight passenger rolling stock was mostly built by ACF. Famous dome-observation Native Son was an ACF product. Today, the American passenger car market is erratic in production, and is mostly handled by specialty manufacturers. Competitors Budd, Pullman-Standard, and St. Louis Car have all either exited the market or gone out of business. Currently, ACF builds mostly covered hopper cars for hauling items like corn or other grains. Other products are mainly miscellaneous steel products.
See also
- American Car Company
- Canadian Car and Foundry
- Jan Rogers Kniffen - former company treasurer
References
- American Car & Foundry. Retrieved November 30, 2004
- ACF Industries (2001). ACF Information - History. Retrieved December 1, 2004
- ^ "Hoovers Company Search: ACF Industries". http://hoovers.com/free/search/simple/xmillion/index.xhtml?query_string=ACF+industries&which=company&page=1&search_x=23&search_y=9. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
- ^ White, John H., Jr. (1993). The American Railroad Freight Car. Boston and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 142. ISBN 0-8018-5236-6.
- ^ "R26/R28/R29". NYCSubway.org. 2005. http://www.nycsubway.org/cars/r262829.html. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
- ^ Chronological History - Union Pacific Railroad Company
- ^ Kaminski, Edward S. (1999). - American Car & Foundry Company: A Centennial History, 1899-1999. - Wilton, California: Signature Press. - ISBN 0963379100
- ^ "A new fleet shapes up. (High-Tech Railroading)". - Railway Age. - (c/o HighBeam Research). - September 1, 1990
External links
|
||||||||
