Type | Subsidiary (after 1906) |
---|---|
Founded | 1845 |
Founders | Thomas W. Wason Charles Wason |
Defunct | 1932 |
Fate | Purchased by J. G. Brill and Company in 1906, dissolved in 1932 |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | H. S. Hyde George C. Fisk |
Products | Trams, railcars |
Owner | J. G. Brill Company |
The Wason Manufacturing Company was a maker of railway passenger coaches and streetcars during the 19th and early 20th century. The company was founded in 1845 in Springfield, Massachusetts by Charles Wason (1816-1888) and Thomas Wason (1811-1870). [3] Although the concept would later be popularized by the Pullman Company, Wason was the first to manufacture sleeping cars in America. [4]
Wason's earliest clients included the Michigan Southern Railroad (1846–1855), Alton Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and Boston and Maine Railroad, as well as foreign operators such as the State Railway of Chile, and Egyptian National Railways, providing the latter with 161 cars as well as an ornate state carriage for Sa'id of Egypt, the viceroy at that time. [5] [6] By 1867 the company had about 300 employees. [3] The company made the first passenger coaches used on the Transcontinental railroad. One of these became the personal rail car of Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific Railroad. By 1868 the company had consolidated with the Springfield Machine Company, keeping the name Wason Manufacturing. [7]
Around 1900 Wason concentrated on manufacturing streetcars and electrified railway cars. Clients included the Holyoke Street Railway Company and Manhattan Railway Company. The company became a subsidiary of J. G. Brill and Company in 1906. It continued to manufacture both streetcars and conventional railroad cars until 1932, when the Great Depression forced Brill to close the plant. [3]
One of the only surviving examples of a Wason coach can be found at the California State Railroad Museum's Railtown facility in Jamestown, California, located in the Sierra foothills. Wason streetcars on display at museums include 13 streetcars, interurban cars, and rapid transit cars at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME; an 1896 model at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum (Mass.) [8] and a 1901 model at the Connecticut Trolley Museum. [9]
Wason was a prominent manufacturer of trolley plows and street cleaning equipment. Philadelphia and Western #10, built by Wason in 1915, was the last street railway plow to operate in the United States. It is preserved at the Rock Hill Trolley Museum in Pennsylvania. [10]
The Minnesota Transportation Museum is a transportation museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. was an American manufacturer of streetcars based in High Point, North Carolina. Following the liquidation of Southern Car Works, its engineer Perley A. Thomas in 1916 founded the new company named for himself. Along with the manufacture of complete streetcars, Thomas Car Works also renovated and repaired existing cars to supplement its production.
A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastructure and labor cost than conventional streetcars. Production of Birney cars lasted from 1915 until 1930, and more than 6,000 of the original, single-truck version were built. Several different manufacturers built Birney cars. The design was "the first mass-produced standard streetcar " in North America.
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
The J. G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars, interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for almost ninety years, making it the longest-lasting trolley and interurban manufacturer. At its height, Brill was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurban cars in the US and produced more streetcars, interurbans and gas-electric cars than any other manufacturer, building more than 45,000 streetcars alone.
The Connecticut Trolley Museum, founded in October 1940, is the oldest incorporated museum dedicated to electric railroading in the United States. The museum is located in East Windsor, Connecticut and is open to the public April through December. The museum features static and moving displays, and self-guided tours of the state's trolley history.
The Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum is a small railroad museum in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, United States.
Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962.
The McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Company was a streetcar and street-railway equipment builder based in the U.S. state of Illinois. It was originally based in Chicago, but had a subsidiary factory in Paris, Illinois, and in its last years it was based in the latter city. It was founded in 1888 as the McGuire Manufacturing Company, later becoming McGuire-Cummings, and finally the Cummings Car and Coach Company. Snowplow cars and snow sweepers – street railway cars designed specifically for snow removal – were among its most popular and best-known products. The company built its last streetcars in 1930, but remained in business until 1943. McGuire-Cummings was one of a few suppliers for the Toronto Civic Railways.
The G. C. Kuhlman Car Company was a leading American manufacturer of streetcars and interurbans in the early 20th century. The company was based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cincinnati Street Railway (CSR) was the public transit operator in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1859 to 1952. The company ceased streetcar operations and was renamed Cincinnati Transit Company.
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines in Long Island City.
The Jewett Car Company was an early 20th-century American industrial company that manufactured streetcars and interurban cars.
The New York Museum of Transportation (NYMT), founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization located at 6393 East River Road, in the Rochester suburb of Rush. A private rail line built by volunteers connects NYMT with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, over a distance of two miles. This demonstration railway allows both museums to offer train rides with their collections of vintage railroad equipment. NYMT operates the only electric trolley ride in New York State, not to be confused with the similarly named Trolley Museum of New York located in Kingston, New York.
The Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway was a rural trolley line that operated in the western Massachusetts towns of Buckland, Shelburne and Colrain from late 1896 to late 1927. Interchange was with the Boston and Maine Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad at the south end of the line at the Boston and Maine's Shelburne Falls station, which was on the Buckland side of the village.
The Holyoke Street Railway (HSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Holyoke, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee, Easthampton, Granby, Northampton, Pelham, South Hadley, Sunderland, Westfield, and West Springfield. Throughout its history the railway system shaped the cultural institutions of Mount Tom, being operator of the mountain's famous summit houses, one of which hosted President McKinley, the Mount Tom Railroad, and the trolley park at the opposite end of this funicular line, Mountain Park.
The Connecticut Valley Street Railway was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Greenfield, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Deerfield, Hadley, Hatfield, Montague, North Amherst, Northampton, and Whately.
The Manchester Street Railway was a light interurban railway that ran from Manchester to Nashua, New Hampshire.