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St. Louis Car Company

Coordinates: 38°42′38″N 90°13′32″W / 38.710668°N 90.225509°W / 38.710668; -90.225509
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St. Louis Car Company
IndustryBuilder
FoundedApril 1887; 138 years ago (1887-04)
FounderWilliam Lefmann, Peter Kling, Julius Lefmann, Henry Schroeder, Daniel McAllister, Henry Maune, Charles Ernst
Defunct1974; 52 years ago (1974)
FateCeased operations
Headquarters
St. Louis, Missouri
,
United States
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
ProductsRailroad passenger cars, locomotives, streetcars, and trolleybuses; automobiles
ParentGeneral Steel Industries (1960–)
SubsidiariesSt. Louis Aircraft Corporation

38°42′38″N 90°13′32″W / 38.710668°N 90.225509°W / 38.710668; -90.225509

The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, it operated from 1887 to 1974.

Among its most successful products were the Birney Safety Car, made from 1915 until 1930, and the PCC streetcar, from 1936 to 1952.[1]

History

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The St. Louis Car Company was formed in April 1887 to manufacture and sell streetcars, trolleys, and other rolling stock to the street railway industry. The company supplied transit companies in various cities, including St. Louis, New York City, Chicago, and the Paris Metro in France.

From 1906 to 1911, the company built automobiles, including the American Mors, the Skelton, and the Standard Six.

In 1917, the company joined with Huttig Sash and Door to launch the St. Louis Aircraft Corporation. It operated for about a year, then went dormant. Revived in 1938, it built gliders, trainers, alligators, flying boats, and dirigible gondolas until 1945.

"ST. LOUIS CAR CO. ST. LOUIS MO." "Builders of Electric Cars of every kind" in Electric Railway Review, 1908

In 1939, it made the FM OP800 railcars for the Southern Railway.

Company president Edwin B. Meissner Sr. died at age 71 on Sept. 12, 1956. He was succeeded by Edwin B. Meissner Jr.[2]

In 1960, St. Louis Car Company was acquired by General Steel Industries.[3]

In 1964, it completed an order of 430 World's Fair picture-window cars (R36 WF) for the New York City Subway and was building 162 PA-1s (110 single units, 52 trailers)[4] for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their use on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line to New Jersey.[5]

In the mid-1960s, the company built the passenger capsules, designed by Planet Corporation, to ferry visitors to the top of the Gateway Arch at the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis.[6]

The company's last products were R44 subway cars for the New York City Subway and Staten Island Rapid Transit, and in 1972, the R44-based USDOT State-of-the-Art Car rapid transit demonstrator set.

The company closed in 1974.[7]

The St. Louis Car assembly plant and general office at 8000 Hall Street is now the St. Louis Business Center, a mixed-use industrial and commercial complex redeveloped starting in 2005.[8]

Products

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  • A St. Louis Car-built trolley bus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1967
    A St. Louis Car-built trolley bus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1967
  • One of the few surviving Lisbon's São Luís type cars (series 400–474): of the original batch of 75 units, imported in 1901 and retired up to 1973, most were scrapped, three remain operational in Lisbon (a museum car restored to original condition and two modified for tourist duty since 1965, fitted with luxury upholstering — No.2, former No.435, on the photo), and five saw heritage use in Detroit in 1978–2003.
    One of the few surviving Lisbon's São Luís type cars (series 400–474): of the original batch of 75 units, imported in 1901 and retired up to 1973, most were scrapped, three remain operational in Lisbon (a museum car restored to original condition and two modified for tourist duty since 1965, fitted with luxury upholstering — No.2, former No.435, on the photo), and five saw heritage use in Detroit in 1978–2003.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Andrew D. Young and Eugene Provenzo, The History of the St. Louis Car Company (Howell North Books 1978)
  2. ^ Cohn, Robert A. "Clang, Clang, Clang Went the Trolley!". www.stljewishlight.com. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  3. ^ Flagg, James S.; Madison County Sesquicentennial Committee (1962). Our 150 Years, 1812–1962: In Commemoration of the Madison County Sesquicentennial. Edwardsville, Illinois: East 10 Publishing Company, Inc. p. 53.
  4. ^ "An Ode to PATH's PA-1s", Philip G. Craig, ERA Bulletin, December 2011, page 16 https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2011-12-bulletin.pdf Archived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Transportation: Back on the Rails". Time Magazine. August 28, 1964. Archived from the original on December 14, 2011.
  6. ^ Moore, Bob (1994). Urban Innovation and Practical Partnerships: An Administrative History of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 1980-1991. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  7. ^ Young and Provenzo, 267.
  8. ^ "St. Louis Business Center" Green Street: Portfolio
  • Middleton, William Jr. The Interurban Era. Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, WI.
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