American Car and Foundry Company

A 1907 postcard depicting the ACF plant at St. Charles, Missouri

A refrigerator car built by ACF in 1911.

American Car and Foundry (often abbreviated as ACF) is an American 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] It is owned by investor Carl Icahn.

History

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 that system.

1904 and 1905 saw ACF build several motor cars and trailers for the London Underground.^[3] In those two years, ACF also acquired Southern Car and Foundry (founded 1899 in Memphis, Tennessee), Indianapolis Car and Foundry and Indianapolis Car Company.

During World War I ACF produced artillery gun mounts and ammunition, submarine chasers and other boats, railway cars, and other equipment to support the Allies.^[3] ACF ranked 36th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts.^[4]

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^[3]
• March 31, 1924: ACF acquires Pacific Car and Foundry
• 1925: ACF acquires Fageol Motors Company of Ohio and Hall-Scott Motor Car Company^[3]
• 1926: ACF acquires J. G. Brill Company^[3]
• 1927: ACF acquires Shippers Car Line^[3]
• 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.^[3]
• 1954: ACF purchases Engineering and Research Corporation.^[5]
• 1954–1955: ACF delivers 35 "Astra Dome" dome cars to the Union Pacific Railroad
• January 1961: ACF delivers its last passenger car, (NYCT IRT R28^[6][7] IRT car), Berwick plant closed, sold, to later re-open as Berwick Forge & Fabricating Corporation.
• 1977: Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) came up with the idea of the first double-stack intermodal car in 1977.^[8] SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year.^[9][10]
• 1984: ACF is purchased by Carl Icahn
• 1997: ACF reaches leasing agreement with GE Capital Railcar for 35000 of its 46000 railcars, mostly on 16 year leases with optional purchase agreements.^[11]
• 2003: ACF Industries LLC became a successor to ACF Industries, Incorporated on May 1, 2003.^[3]

Products

External-braced wooden boxcar built for sugar service in Cuba by ACF. ca. 1922

In the past ACF built passenger and freight cars, including covered hopper cars for hauling such cargo as corn and other grains. One of the largest customers was the Union Pacific Railroad, whose armour-yellow carbon-steel lightweight passenger rolling stock was mostly built by ACF. The famous dome-observation car Native Son was an ACF product.

Another important ACF railroad production were the passenger cars of the Missouri River "Eagle", a Missouri Pacific streamliner put on service on march 1940. This train, in its original shape, consisted of six cars including one baggage, one baggage-mail, two coaches one food and beverage car and finally the observation lounge-parlor car. All the passenger equipment was styled by industrial designer Raymond Loewy.

Today the U.S. passenger car market is erratic in production and is mostly handled by specialty manufacturers and foreign corporations. Competitors Budd, Pullman-Standard, Rohr Industries, and the St. Louis Car Company have all either left the market or gone out of business.

An M300 operated by the California Western Railroad at Willits Jct., CA in 1970

The manufacturing facility in Milton, Pennsylvania, is served by the Norfolk Southern Railway and is capable of manufacturing railcars and all related railcar components. The plant is capable of producing pressure vessels in sizes 18,000–61,000 gwc, including propane tanks, compressed gas storage, LPG storage, and all related components, including heads. The plant, covering 48 acres, provides 500,000 square feet of covered work area and seven miles of storage tracks. The Huntington, West Virginia, production site ceased production in late 2009. The site continues only as a repair facility.^[1]

See also

• American Car Company
• Canadian Car and Foundry
• Jan Rogers Kniffen - former company treasurer
• List of rolling stock manufacturers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to American Car and Foundry Company.

• ACF Industries - Official site
• ACF Industries Archival Collection - University of Missouri
• History of ACF trucks - Trucksplanet