The Electric Pullman: A History of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company

By Lawrence A. Brough

A history of the Ohio railroad car and equipment company and its 16-year run.

Entering an already crowded and established industry, the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company in Ohio began business with surprising success, producing well over 1,000 electric and steam railway cars—cars so durable they rarely needed to be replaced. That durability essentially put the company out of business, and it vanished from the scene as quickly as it had appeared, leaving little behind except its sturdy railway cars. The story of this highly regarded company spans just 16 years, from Niles’s incorporation in 1901 to the abandonment of railway car production and sale of the property to a firm that would briefly build engine parts during World War I. Including unpublished photographs and rosters of railway cars produced by the company and still in existence in railroad museums, The Electric Pullman will appeal to railroad enthusiasts everywhere.

Praise for The Electric Pullman

“Required reading for anyone interested in interurban history. It holds additional appeal for those interested in Ohio history or the junction point between business, society, and technology.” —Lexington Quarterly

“Although not one of the major manufacturers in its field, the Niles company produced some notable and well-remembered equipment during the height of the electric interurban railway era. Indeed, among some interurban railway historians, Niles cars are sacred objects. As such, its story deserves to be told and theoretically would be a logical complement to IUP’s books on the Brill and Jewett companies. Brough himself is a serious historian who knows his subject and has clearly mined all the sources that seem to exist.” —Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., author of The Railroad that Never Was and The New York, Westchester & Boston Railway

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9780253007995

Book preview

THE ELECTRIC PULLMAN

RAILROADS PAST & PRESENT • George M. Smerk, editor

A list of books in the series appears at the end of this volume.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS • Bloomington & Indianapolis

THE ELECTRIC PULLMAN

Lawrence A. Brough

A HISTORY OF THE NILES CAR & MANUFACTURING COMPANY

This book is a publication of

Indiana University Press

601 North Morton Street

Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA

iupress.indiana.edu

Telephone orders      800-842-6796

Fax orders              812-855-7931

© 2013 by Lawrence A. Brough

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brough, Lawrence A.

The electric Pullman : a history of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company / Lawrence A. Brough.

pages cm. — (Railroads past and present) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-00790-2 (cloth : alk. paper)

— ISBN 978-0-253-00799-5 (ebook) 1. Niles Car & Manufacturing Company. 2. Electric railroads—Cars—United States—History. 3. Railroad cars—United States—History. I. Title.

TF920.B77 2013

338.7'62523—dc23

2012042356

1 2 3 4 5      18 17 16 15 14 13

This story is dedicated to the volunteers in traction and

railroad museums across the country,

whose dedication to the preservation of equipment

and artifacts allows the rest of us to enjoy and

learn railroad history.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1   THE CURTAIN RISES

2   THE CATALOG

3   THE CARS ROLL OUT

4   THE SLOW DECLINE

5   A LOOK BACK

6   OBSERVATIONS

7   THE SURVIVORS

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX

REFERENCES

INDEX

PREFACE

High Voltage. Pullman. Two words that imply high energy, quality, excitement. While not widely adopted in the traction industry, the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company participated in building high-voltage cars for electric railways in several states. Although the electrical specification for the cars was developed by others, the cars completed in 1907 for the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway came to be called Electric Pullmans due to their heavy weight and quiet, comfortable operation. The designation stuck and was ever after associated with Niles cars.

A latecomer to the party that was the interurban era was the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company, of Niles, Ohio, a car builder that didn’t build its first trolley car until 1902 and was gone by 1917, a mere fifteen years of activity. Although its life was short, the Niles company left an indelible mark on the industry it served. Even nearly one hundred years after the firm’s demise, Niles cars are still regarded as some of the finest products of the car builder’s art and expertise and many survive in trolley museums around the country.

Historical research is like an archeological excavation, a process that seems to have no end. It may reach a stopping point but that may not be the end of the story. There comes a time, however, when diminishing returns do not justify the expenditure of additional effort. Such is the case with this account of the life of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company. While many years and countless hours have gone into this work, there is more to be told, if only the history can be recovered from wherever it is hidden. It is hoped that future historians may use this account as a basis for further digging.

This volume is intended to be a history of the company, and to that end will only report on cars as delivered to the original buyer, although it is known that many of the cars ran on successive traction lines. Hopefully this story will aid the reader in learning about the history of this firm and the scope of its influence on the industry it served. While the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company is long gone, it was a valued member of the community, creating jobs and excitement wherever the Niles name appeared, either in the factory in Niles, Ohio, or on the many traction lines that operated its cars.

Lawrence A. Brough

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Historical research is seldom a solo effort, and this account is certainly not. Uncovering the life of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company would not have been possible without the generous assistance of a number of individuals, including members of many traction museums throughout the United States. Among those who graciously shared their knowledge of traction history was P. Allen Copeland of El Cajon, California, whose knowledge of western traction lines, his review of this story, and suggestions for enhancement have been especially appreciated. In addition, Norman Krentel added much information about the traction lines in Michigan and William Fronzcek about lines in Pennsylvania, both states that received significant numbers of Niles cars. Audrey John, curator of the Niles Historical Society, got me started on this project and shared a wealth of material in the form of photographs and the previous research of the late Grace Allison, whose passion for Niles history seemed to have no bounds. I must also mention Bob Korach, Bill Vigrass, the late LeRoy O. King Jr., and Craig Berndt for their contributions. To all of those mentioned the author extends a big thank you.

THE ELECTRIC PULLMAN

FIGURES 0.1 AND 0.2. Picture postcards of New Haven, Ohio, typical of the isolated country towns awaiting rail service at the turn of the twentieth century.

INTRODUCTION

By 1901, the year that the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company was formed, the interurban era was well on its way, although its greatest growth still lay ahead. The Niles company was entering the industry at the right time. Why interurbans were so quickly and widely accepted can best be understood from studying the photo postcards of a wide place in an otherwise dusty country road known as New Haven, Ohio (Figs. 0.1 and 0.2).

You can sense the remoteness of the place when you realize that it has no contact with the outside world except via a long, slow wagon ride to the nearest town, which may have been hours, perhaps days, away. It would appear that visitors to the place were few and far between, as evidenced by children playing in the road without fear of being trampled by a horse or run over by a horse-drawn wagon. At the turn of the twentieth century, there were hundreds of New Havens across the country that were denied access to steam railroads and eagerly