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American Car and Foundry (Railroad) - Stock Certificate

Inv# RS2003   Stock
American Car and Foundry (Railroad) - Stock Certificate
State(s): New Jersey
Years: 1917

1917, Jersey City, NJ. Preferred Stock. Neatly hole and stamp cancelled. Extremely Fine Condition. Extremely Scarce.

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. It is owned by investor Carl Icahn.

American Car and Foundry was formed and incorporated in New Jersey in 1899 as the result of the merger of thirteen smaller railroad car manufacturers. The company was made up of:

Company Founded Location
Buffalo Car Manufacturing Company 1872 Buffalo, New York
Ensign Manufacturing Company 1872 Huntington, West Virginia
Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company 1861 Berwick, Pennsylvania
Michigan-Peninsular Car Company 1892 Detroit, Michigan
Minerva Car Works 1882 Minerva, Ohio
Missouri Car and Foundry Company 1865 St. Louis, Missouri
Murray, Dougal and Company 1864 Milton, Pennsylvania
Niagara Car Wheel Company   Buffalo, New York
Ohio Falls Car Company 1876 Jeffersonville, Indiana
St. Charles Car Company 1873 St. Charles, Missouri
Terre Haute Car and Manufacturing Company   Terre Haute, Indiana
Union Car Company   Depew, New York
Wells and French Company 1869 Chicago, Illinois

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. In 1903 the Company was operating overseas in Trafford Park Manchester UK and was featured on a Triumphal Arch built for the Royal Visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandrain 1903. The factory buildings were later used by Ford cars who began manufacturing in Trafford Park in 1911.

1904 and 1905 saw ACF build several motor cars and trailers for the London Underground. 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. ACF ranked 36th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts.

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 in 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.

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.

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A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $86.00