Canadian Car and Foundry

Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F) also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry," or more familiarly as "Can Car," manufactured buses, railroad rolling stock and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history goes back to 1897, but the main company was established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later became part of Hawker Siddeley Canada through the purchase of Avro Canada in the late 1950s.

History

Canadian Car & Foundry (CC&F) was established in 1909 in Montreal as the result of an amalgamation of three companies:

In 1911 the CC&F Board of Directors recognized that the company could improve its efficiency if they were able to produce their own steel castings, a component that was becoming common to all their products. They purchased Montreal Steel Works Limited at Longue Pointe, QC, the largest producer of steel castings in Canada, and the Ontario Iron & Steel Company, Ltd. at Welland, ON, which included both a steel foundry and a rolling mill.

A few years later, CC&F acquired the assets of Pratt & Letchworth, a Brantford, ON, rail car manufacturer. In the latter part of World War I, the expanding company opened a new plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to manufacture rail cars and ships. In an attempt to enter the aviation market, CC&F produced a small series of Grumman fighter aircraft under licence and developed an unsuccessful, indigenous-designed fighter aircraft, the Gregor FDB-1.

The Second World War

By 1939, with war on the horizon, Canadian Car & Foundry and its Chief Engineer, Elsie MacGill, were contracted by the RAF to produce the Hawker Hurricane. Refinements introduced by MacGill on the Hurricane included skis and de-icing controls for operating in the winter. MacGill's success with the Hurricane earned her the nickname: "Queen of the Hurricanes." She was even featured in a comic book in the US under that name. When the production of the Hurricane was complete in 1943, CC&Fs workforce of 4500 (half of them women), had built over 1400 aircraft.

Following the success of the Hurricane contract, CC&F sought out and received a production order for the troublesome SB2C Curtiss Helldiver. A continuous stream of specification changes from the Curtiss aircraft designers jeopardized the mass production of the aircraft. Eventually, 834 Helldivers were produced by CC&F in various versions from SBW-1, SBW-1B, SBW-3,SBW-4E and SBW-5. Some of the Curtiss divebombers were sent directly to the Royal Navy under Lend-lease arrangements.

In 1944, the Canadian Car & Foundry built a revolutionary new aircraft in its Montreal shops designated the CBY-3, also called the Loadmaster. There were two examples built of a "flying-wing" design originally developed by Vincent J. Burnelli. The CBY-3 was in some ways, far superior to the planes of its day (its primary competition was the DC-3 Dakota) in terms of cargo lifting capacity and overall performance, but the CBY-3 was fated never to enter full-scale production and was cancelled less than one year later.

Postwar developments

After the Second World War, the CC&F returned to its roots as a rail car manufacturer. They also made a successful leap into the streetcar business, supplying Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver and the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with various types of streetcars.The company's products were mostly from J.G. Brill and Company's roster. Buses were produced at Fort William, Ontario and railcars in Montreal. Streetcars were manufactured between 1897 to 1913, but it focused on rebuild only after 1913.

In 1957, wishing to diversify, the British Hawker Siddeley Group through its Canadian subsidiary, A.V. Roe Canada Company, acquired CC&F. In 1962, A.V. Roe Canada was dissolved and its assets became part of Hawker Siddeley Canada. Through a series of further acquisitions and inevitable mergers and rationalisations, CC&F faded from the annals of significant Canadian manufacturers, although the company still exists today.

Products

Transit

Brill T44 trolley
Brill 44S trolley bus
Brill T48A trolley bus
President Conference Committee Car A6 SE DT
President Conference Committee Car A7 SE DT
President Conference Committee Car A8 SE DT
Small Peter Witt
Large Peter Witt with trailers

Other

Tanks for World War II
cars for the Intercolonial Railway
cars for the Grand Trunk Railway
cars for the Grand Trunk Pacific
cars for the Canadian Northern Railways
cars for the Canadian Pacific Railway
cars for the Canadian National Railways

Aircraft

Grumman GE-23 (SF-1 variant under license)
Gregor FDB-1
Canadian Car and Foundry Maple Leaf Trainer II
Hawker Hurricane (under license)
Curtiss SBW Helldiver (under license)
CC&F CBY-3 Loadmaster http://www.neam.org/inventory/invimages/Burnelli-1.jpg
Beechcraft T-34 Mentor (under license)

Clients

External links

Brill Trolley
Avroland - Canadian Car and Foundry
Transit Toronto All Canadian PCC
On A Streak of Lightning Electric Railways Cars in Canada, J.E. Martin, p99.