Collection # P 0376

 

 

CINCINNATI CAR CORPORATION COLLECTION

1902-1931; 1965

 

 

Collection Information

 

Historical Sketch

 

Biographical Sketch

 

Scope and Content Note

 

Box and Folder Listing

 

Cataloging Information

 

 

 

 

Processed by

Pamela Tranfield

20 September 2000

 

Visual Collections Department

William Henry Smith Memorial Library

Indiana Historical Society

450 West Ohio Street

Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269

www.indianahistory.org

 

 


 

COLLECTION INFORMATION

 

VOLUME OF COLLECTION:

2,096 original black-and-white photographs (9 x 11 inches, 21 x 28 centimeters or smaller); 263 sales drawings (most drawings 9 x 11 inches, 21 x 28 centimeters or smaller; 1 drawing in series @ 22 x 20 inches, 20 x 51 centimeters); 65 linen trace drawings (22 x 60 inches, 56 x 153 centimeters or smaller); 5 blueprints (22 x 48 inches, 56 x 123 centimeters or smaller); manuscript and printed material.

 

COLLECTION
DATES:

1902-1931; 1965

PROVENANCE:

William M. Fronczek, Jr., M.D., McMurray, Pennsylvania, December 1999

RESTRICTIONS:

None

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:

Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society.

ALTERNATE FORMATS:

None

RELATED HOLDINGS:

None

ACCESSION NUMBER:

2000.0239


HISTORICAL SKETCH

 

The Cincinnati Car Corporation, a subsidiary of the Ohio Traction Company, designed and manufactured interurban railway cars, streetcars, and busses in Cincinnati, Ohio between 1902 and 1931. The company mainly supplied passenger and freight interurban cars, and Birney-type engines to city and commuter railway lines across the United States and into Canada. The business operated as the Cincinnati Car Company until a merger with the Versare Corporation of Watervliet, New York in December 1928. The new company was named the Cincinnati Car Corporation.

 

Versare made gas-electric busses and electric trolley-coaches. Oliver F. Warhus became vice president in charge of engineering and sales for the new company. Sales orders for busses in 1929 included gas-electric busses for the Cincinnati Street Railway Company. These may have been the only gas-powered vehicles built by the Cincinnati Car Corporation. It is not known if this model saw active service. Between 1929 and 1931 sales of trolley-coaches totaled nine cars. Customers included the Utah Light and Traction Company, the United Traction Company (Albany, New York) and the Louisville Railway Company.

 

In 1921 chief engineer Thomas Elliot designed the curved-side car, a lightweight model that used curved steel plates rather than conventional flat steel plates in body construction. The side plates and side sills, rather than the floor, bore the bulk of the weight load. Longitudinal floor supports were no longer needed, which made the cars lighter than conventional cars. Curved-side cars were also called "Balanced Lightweight Cars." The company completed production of the first curved-side cars for the Kentucky Traction and Terminal Company in February 1922. The Cincinnati Car Corporation dropped the curved-side design for interurbans after July 1929. The West Penn Railway Company ordered the last cars of this model, which were completed in December.

 

Interurban production continued until the company ceased operations in 1931. A number of factors contributed to the demise of the company, including the Great Depression and competition in the trolley-coach and gas-powered bus markets. Traditional customers that were able to avoid bankruptcy became judicious with their funds and purchased second hand railway equipment rather than new cars. Other customers abandoned rail systems altogether in favor of busses and trolley-coaches, but the Cincinnati Car Corporation was not able to compete in this market. The corporation's assets were liquidated in 1938.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

 

Theodore Groene (1860-1911) and Louis Rombach operated photographic studios in Cincinnati from 1883. The studios were located at Third and Park Streets until 1888 when the business moved to 812-814 West Fourth Street. Rombach and Groene specialized in landscape and merchantile photography. 

 

SOURCES:

 

Material in the collection.

 

Hilton, George W., and John F. Due. The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960.

 

Keller, Cynthia (ckeller@cincymuseum.org), electronic mail transmission to Pamela Tranfield (Visual Collections Archivist) 21 September 2000.

                                                                                                               

Wagner, Richard, and Birdella Wagner. Curved-Side Cars Built by Cincinnati Car Co. Cincinnati: Wagner Car Company, 1965.

 

Wilkins, Van. "Cincinnati Car Corp. Trolley-Coach and Bus Production." Motor Coach Age (March-April 1991): 26-29.


SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

 

The collection includes original black-and-white photographs, blueprint sales drawings, linen trace drawings, blueprints, and manuscript material created by and for the Cincinnati Car Corporation between 1902 and 1931. The collection also contains a company history, Curved-Side Cars Built by Cincinnati Car Company, written by Richard and Birdella Wagner in 1965.

 

The company is known among railway history enthusiasts as the "Cincinnati Car Company." The business used this name through most of its history, but archival description standards suggest that corporate collections should be named for the corporate entity that last created or used the material. The Cincinnati Car Corporation existed as an active entity from late 1928 to 1931, and during that time created photographs and sales drawings found in this collection. This collection guide refers to the company as the Cincinnati Car Company in relation to material created before December 1928.

 

William M. Fronczek, Jr., M.D. donated the collection to the Indiana Historical Society in 1999. Fronczek and other collectors, including Richard and Birdella Wagner and Walter Simpson, acquired the material over a number of years. The processor at the Indiana Historical Society arranged the material in five series according to format.

 

Series 1: Photographs. The photographs include interior and exterior views of completed interurban cars and cars under construction, truck assemblies, seat details, and trolley-coach and gas-powered busses. The interurban cars include Birney-type cars, passenger cars, freight cars, dining cars, locomotives, and curved-side cars. Identification on the photographs usually includes the shop or mechanical order number (stamped on the front or back of the image) and the name of the company that purchased or intended to purchase the equipment. Identification may be handwritten in pencil or ink, or typed in black ink. More than one company name may be written on the back of a photograph. A list of photographs appears on page 7 of this collection guide.

 

A stamp bearing the name of Cincinnati photographers Rombach and Groene appears on the back of approximately one-third of the photographs. Rombach and Groene, and possibly Cincinnati Car Corporation employees photographed the cars most often in what appears to be a train yard, possibly the yard at the assembly plant at Grove and Mitchell streets in Cincinnati. Other images were made inside the assembly plant. The photographs are stored in fourteen full-size document cases and one half-size document case in the Visual Collections storage area. The processor arranged the items in acid free folders according to order number.

 

Series 2: Sales Drawings. Sales drawings consist of 263 blueprint drawings made by the Cincinnati Car Corporation between 1914 and 1931. The designs represented in the drawings include plans for Birney-type cars, passenger cars, freight cars, dining cars, locomotives, and curved-side cars. Information on the front of the drawings includes the order number, the sales drawing number, type of car, details regarding the general dimensions of the car, and the seating capacity. Other information on the back of the drawings includes the name of the purchasing railroad or railroads, the number of cars made for the order, names of electrical, air brake, and truck contractors, and the year that the order was completed. The series also includes a table (sixteen pages on blueprint paper) that lists the names of corporate customers, the order number associated with the customer, and number of cars ordered or built for the customer. This table is stored in Box 16, Folder 1. The drawings are stored in two OVA-size boxes in the Visual Collections storage area. Tables that list the drawing number, company name, item title, date, and folder location of each drawing begin on page 32 of this collection guide.

 

Series 3: Blueprint Drawings. The blueprint drawings consist of five drawings (22 x 48 inches) made between 1904 and 1910. The scale of the drawings suggests that they may have been intended for use during actual construction of the cars, rather than as sales drawings. These drawings are stored in "mammoth" size file drawers in the Visual Collections storage area. A table that lists the drawing number, company name, item title, date, and folder location of each blueprint drawing begins on page 52 of this collection guide.

 

Series 4: Linen Trace Drawings. The linen trace drawings consist of sixty-five engineering drawings of interurban cars designed by the Cincinnati Car Company between 1902 and circa 1913. The drawings arrived at the Indiana Historical Society in rolled bundles. Collectors had labeled the bundles "Cars Built" and "Cars Never Built." Employees of the Cincinnati Car Company created the traces by following the designs of the original blueprint drawings. The information on the traces includes the original blueprint number, title of the drawing (e. g. type of car), date of the original blueprint, and the date of the tracing. Dates on the drawings indicate that employees usually made the trace less than one week after the original blueprint was completed.

 

The processor at the Indiana Historical Society arranged the linen trace drawings in six folders, according to drawing number. For conservation reasons she placed smaller drawings (20 x 35 inches, 51 x 89 centimeters or smaller) out of sequence, designating these as the first items within their respective folders. The folders are stored in "mammoth" file drawers in the Visual Collections storage area. A table that lists the drawing number, corporation name, item title, date, and folder location of each drawing begins on page 53 of this collection guide. Information under the column "Item Title" was transcribed directly from the document and includes abbreviations and non-standard spellings of company names as annotated on the drawing.

 

Series 5: Manuscript and Printed Material. Manuscripts include contracts between the Dayton, Covington & Piqua Traction Company and the Cincinnati Car Company; and the Dayton, Covington & Piqua Traction Company and the Barney and Smith Car Company. Other manuscript material consists of a list of cars built by the Cincinnati Car Corporation. Collector Walter Simpson compiled this list. Printed material consists of the book Curved-Side Cars Built by Cincinnati Car Company by Richard and Birdella Wagner (Cincinnati: Wagner Car Company, 1965).

 

The spelling and style of corporate names, as annotated on the backs of the photographs and drawings, is not consistent from item to item. For example, the name "Columbus, Urbana & Western Railway Co." was also written as "Columbus, Urbana and Western Railway Company." The variant spellings and styles may reflect names used by Cincinnati Car Corporation employees, photographers, and collectors over the years. Also, a particular corporate name, as written on one item, may have been accurate when the drawing or photograph was made, but changed later in the company’s history.

 

The processor established standardized spellings and styles for company names represented in this collection for the purpose of creating uniform folder headings and item titles. When possible she used the spelling and style of the corporate name shown on railway equipment in individual photographs. If no name was visible on the railway equipment, the processor chose the most commonly used spelling and style of the corporate name annotated on the back of the photographs. The processor adapted spellings and styles used in outside sources (see page 3 of this guide) if no common name could be discerned from the material. The standardized spellings may help researchers find the materials in the collection associated with a particular company, but the names as listed are not necessarily the legal names of those companies.


BOX AND FOLDER LISTING

 

Series 1: Photographs

 
Box 1: Cincinnati Car Corporation Photographs, Shop Orders 155-845

 

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Indiana Union Traction Co., Shop Order 155

2

Rhode Island Company, Shop Orders 185, 190

3

Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co., Shop Orders 195, 200

4

Central Illinois Construction Co., Shop Order 205

5

Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, Shop Order 220

6

Columbus, Urbana & Western Railway Co., Shop Order 250

7

Cincinnati Traction Co., Shop Order 255

8

Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co., Shop Order 260

9

Toledo Bowling Green & Southern Traction Co., Shop Order 265

10

Atlanta Northern Railway Company, Shop Order 280

11

Rhode Island Company, Shop Orders 285, 290

12

Connecticut Railway and Light Company, Shop Orders 295-305

13

Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Co., Shop Order 315

14

Providence & Burrellville Street Railway, Shop Order 320

 

15

Lebanon and Thorntown Traction Co., Shop Order 325

 

16

Brooklyn Heights R. R.  Co., [Transit Development Co.] Shop Order 330

 

17

Toledo Bowling Green & Southern Traction Co., Shop Order 335

18

Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co., Shop Order 360

19

Toledo Bowling Green, & Southern Traction Co., Shop Order 365

20

Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co., Shop Order 370

21

Cincinnati, Milford & Loveland Traction Co., Shop Order 380

22

Washington Railway & Electric Co., Shop Order 385

23

Capital Traction Company, Shop Order 390

24

Omaha & Council Bluffs Railway Co., Shop Order 395

25

Lima Electric Railway & Light Co., [Lima & Toledo Trac. Co.] Shop Order 400

 

26

Great Falls & Dominion Railway, Shop Order 410

27

Rhode Island Company, Shop Order 420

28

Muncie & Portland Traction Co., Shop Order 425

29

Toledo Bowling Green, & Southern Trac. Co., Shop Order 430

30

Great Falls & Dominion Railway, Shop Order 440

31

Rhode Island Company, Shop Order 460

32

Capital Traction Company, Shop Order 490

33

Detroit United Railways, Shop Orders 500, 505

34

Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co., Shop Orders 520, 530

35

Kokomo, Marion & Western Traction Co., Shop Order 565

36

Connecticut Railway & Light Company, Shop Order 600

37

Wasau Street Railway, Shop Order 695

38

LaFayette & Logansport Traction Co, Shop Order 705

39

Erie Electric Motor Co., Shop Order 710

40

Dunkirk Street Railway, Shop Order 715

41

Ohio Traction Company, Shop Order 725

 

42

Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railroad Co., Shop Order 735

43

Georgia Railway & Electric Co., Shop Order 745

44

Auburn & Syracuse Electric Railroad, Shop Order 770

45

Syracuse Lake Shore & Northern Railway, Shop Order 775

46

Eastern Wisconsin Railway & Light Co., Shop Order 785

47

Detroit United Railways, Shop Orders 795, 800

48

Indianapolis & Eastern Railway, Shop Order 805

49

Consolidated Railway Co., Shop Order 815

50

Camden Interstate Railway, Shop Order 820

51

Cincinnati Traction Co., Shop Order 830

52

Chicago, South Bend, and Northern Indiana Railway Company, Shop

Order 840

 

53

Sheboygan Light, Power and Railway Co., Shop Order 845

Box 2: Cincinnati Car Corporation Photographs, Shop Orders 855-1415

 

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, Shop Orders 855-870

2

Pittsburgh and Butler Street Railway Co., Shop Order 930

3

Oneonto and Mohawk Valley Railway, Shop Order 945

4

Municipal Traction Co., Shop Order 955

5

West Penn Railway Co., Shop Order 960

6

Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Co., Shop Order 975

7

Capital Traction Company, Shop Orders 990, 995

8

Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester Railway, Shop Order 1020

9

Milwaukee & Fox River Valley Railway, Shop Order 1025

10

Ogden Rapid Transit Co., Shop Order 1040

11

Union Traction Company, Shop Order 1050

12

Hagerstown Railway Co., Shop Order 1055

13

Houston Electric Co. (Ohio Electric Co. no. 8), Shop Order 1065

14

Houston Electric Co., Shop Order 1070

15

Tri-City Railway & Light Co., Shop Order 1080

16

Northern Texas Traction Company, Shop Order 1100

17

Dallas Consolidated Electric Street Railway [Beech Grove Traction Corporation], Shop Order 1105

 

18

Jackonsville Electric Company, Shop Order 1120

 

19

Buffalo & Lackawanna Traction Co., Shop Order 1135

 

20

Ogden Rapid Transit Co., Shop Order 1150

 

21

Puget Sound Electric Railway Company, Shop Order 1155

 

22

Cincinnati Traction Co., Shop Order 1200

 

23

Louisville Railway Co., Shop Order 1205

                    

24

Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Co., Shop Order 1225

25

Marion, Bluffton and Eastern Traction Co., Shop Order 1230

26

Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Co., Shop Order 1240

27

West Penn Traction Co., [West Penn Railways] Shop Order 1245

28

Interborough Rapid Transit Co., Shop Order 1250

29

Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co., Shop Orders 1255, 1260

30

Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Shop Order 1265

31

El Paso Electric Co., Shop Order 1270

32

Jacksonville Electric Company, Shop Order 1280

33

Tri-City Railway & Light Co., Shop Order 1290

34

Galveston-Houston Electric Company, Northern Texas Traction Co., Shop Orders 1295-1305

 

35

American Railways Co. of Philadelphia, Shop Order 1330

36

Dayton Construction Company, Shop Order 1335

37

The City Railway Co., Shop Order 1340

38

Ohio Electric Railway Co., Shop Order 1365

39

Cincinnati Traction Co., Shop Order 1370

40

Ohio Electric Railway Co., Shop Orders 1375-1385

41

Buffalo & Lackawanna Traction Co., Shop Order 1390

42

Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Shop Order 1395

43

Erie & Suburban Railway Company, Shop Order 1410

44

Evansville and Southern Indiana Traction Company, Shop Order 1415

Box 3: Cincinnati Car Corporation Photographs, Shop Orders 1420-1720

 

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Louisville Railway Company, Shop Order 1420

2

Dallas Consolidated Electric Street Railway, Shop Order 1445

3

Northern Texas Traction Company, Shop Order 1450

4

Charleston Consolidated Railway & Light Co., Shop Order 1455

5

Conestoga Traction Company, Shop Order 1460

6

Ohio River & Columbus Railroad, Shop Order 1475

7

Seattle, Renton & Southern Railroad Co., [and Ohio Electric Railway] Shop Order 1480

8

Interurban Railway & Terminal Co., Shop Orders 1485, 1490

9

Ohio Electric Railway Co., Shop Order 1495

10

Interurban Railway & Terminal Co., Shop Order 1525

11

Peoples Railway Company, Shop Order 1535

12

Wyandotte Construction Company, Shop Orders 1540-1555

13

Public Service Railway Corporation, Shop Order 1565

14

Louisville Railway Company, Shop Order 1585

15

Pacific Coast Railway Company, Shop Order 1595

16

Conestoga Traction Company, Shop Order 1600

17

Indiana Union Traction Co., Shop Order 1610

18

Tyler Traction Company, Shop Orders 1615, 1620

19

Chattanooga Railway & Light Company, Shop Order 1630

20

Grand Rapids Railway Company, Shop Order 1635

21

Virginia Railway & Power Co., Shop Order 1640

22

Lancaster Traction & Power Company, Shop Order 1645

23