St. Louis Car Company


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.

History

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. 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.
In 1960, St. Louis Car Company was acquired by General Steel Industries.
In 1964, it completed an order of 430 World's Fair picture-window cars for the New York City Subway and was building 162 PA-1s for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their use on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line to New Jersey.
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.
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.
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.

Products