St. Louis Car Company
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The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives. It operated from 1887 to 1974 and was 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.
Later, 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; it was revived from 1938 to 1945, building gliders, trainers, alligators, flying boats, and dirigible gondolas.
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The company manufactured streetcars and trolleys for transit lines in various cities, including St. Louis, New York CityChicago, and the Paris Metro in France. Among their most successful products were the Birney Safety Car, made from 1915 until 1930, and the popular PCC streetcar, from 1936 to 1952.<ref>Andrew D. Young and Eugene Provenzo, The History of the St. Louis Car Company (Howell North Books 1978)</ref>
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1960, St. Louis Car Company was acquired by General Steel Industries.<ref name="Our 150 Years">Template:Cite book</ref>
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)<ref>"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 Template:Webarchive</ref> for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their use on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line to New Jersey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name="Urban Innovation">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>Young and Provenzo, 267.</ref>
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.<ref>"St. Louis Business Center" Green Street: Portfolio</ref>
Products
- PCC streetcars (1935-1952)
- 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)
- Electro-Motive Company (EMD) gas-electric railcars - car body shells (1920s)
- Fairbanks-Morse experimental center cab diesel switchers and FM OP800 railcars (1939)
- GCRTA Red Line "Bluebirds" (1954–55, 1958)
- MBTA #3 East Boston Tunnel cars (1951)
- State of the Art Car heavy rail transit demonstrator set for USDOT (1972–74) - now at Seashore Trolley Museum
- Illinois Terminal Railroad Streamliners (1948–50)
- IRT World's Fair Steinway Motors (1938) - built for 1939 World's Fair
- Metra Illinois Central Electric District Highliner electric MU cars (1971–72)
- NJ Transit/NJDOT/Penn Central Arrow I (PRR MP85E6) electric MU cars - push-pull coach conversion (1968)
- 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 R33S (1963)
- NYCT R36 (1963–64)
- NYCT R38 (1966–67)
- NYCT R40 (1967–68)
- NYCT R40A (1968–69)
- NYCT R42 (1969–70)
- NYCT R44 (1971–73)
- Chicago and North Western Transportation Company Gallery 7600 series coaches #1-16 (1955)
- Pacific Electric "Hollywood" cars (1920s)
- Philadelphia and Western Railroad original wood cars and freight motors (1907)
- Hudson & Manhattan Railroad/PATH "K-car"/MP51 (1958)
- PATH PA1 (1965) & PA2 (1967)
- San Diego Class 1 Streetcars (1910-1912)
- Seaboard Air Line 2027-2028 Railcars (1936)
- SEPTA Silverliner III (PRR MP85) cars (1967)
- Staten Island Railway R44 (1973) (last St. Louis cars)
- U.S. Army (USAX) cars - various types including coaches, ambulance, cafeteria, sleepers
- Union Pacific lightweight passenger cars, express and baggage cars (1960–65)
- Victorian Railways Petrol Electric railmotor (1928)
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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.
See also
- Brownell Car Company
- Canada Car and Foundry
- Canadian Vickers
- F-Market & Wharves Streetcar Line
- John I. Beggs
- List of rolling stock manufacturers
- New York City Subway rolling stock
- Ottawa Car Company
References
- Middleton, William Jr. The Interurban Era. Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, WI.
External links
- Builders of wooden railway cars: St. Louis Car Company from ironhorse129.com — some photos of early SLCC cars.
- 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
- www.cablecarmuseum.org at Cable Car Museum, San Francisco, CA
- www.streetcar.org at Market Street Railway, San Francisco, CA
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- Pages with broken file links
- Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States
- Bus manufacturers of the United States
- Defunct locomotive manufacturers of the United States
- Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of the United States
- Tram manufacturers
- Trolleybus manufacturers
- Manufacturing companies based in St. Louis
- American companies established in 1887
- Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1887
- Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1974
- 1887 establishments in Missouri
- 1974 disestablishments in Missouri
- Defunct companies based in Missouri