The Ralston Steel Car Company operated in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, from 1905 to 1953. The company began by modifying wood

freight car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

s to add steel

underframe An underframe is a framework of wood or metal carrying the main body structure of a railway vehicle, such as a locomotive, carriage or wagon. See also * Chassis * Headstock * Locomotive bed * Locomotive frame A locomotive frame is the struct ...

s. Later it manufactured its own line of all-

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

rail cars.

Founding

Joseph S. Ralston and Anton Becker founded the Ralston Steel Car Company in 1905 by purchasing the plant of the Rarig Engineering Company on the east side of Columbus. Becker had just patented a drop-bottom gondola car which would allow the automatic unloading of coal and ballast cars (

hopper car A hopper car (US) or hopper wagon ( UIC) is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. Two main types of hopper car exist: covered hopper cars, which are equipped with a ...

s). Prior to this invention, cars were unloaded by hand shoveling. An example of a Ralston-buil
drop gondola
can be seen here.

Expansion

With the increase in power of

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s, the old wood freight cars could not take the strain, and demand for Ralston's all-steel cars exploded. By 1907, expansion of the Rarig facility began with the construction of a long Punch, Shear Fitting and Erection Shop. By 1910,
wide variety of cars
were being produced.

Depression, War Surge, and Decline

During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, orders fell off precipitously. However, the build-up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the late 1930s revived the concern, and workers were called back to work. Employment reached 700 by the summer of 1940, and was producing 25 to 30 cars per day, and as many as 40 per day was possible."Ralston Steel Car Co gives employment to 700 Columbus Workers." ''Columbus Evening Dispatch.'' August 18, 1940. After the war, however, demand for new freight cars plunged, since so many had been built during the war. Ralston was unable to ride out the slowdown, and shut its doors in 1953.

References

External links

{{ccat * ColumbusRailroads.com
The Ralston Steel Car Company
(extensive history and photos) Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of the United States Rail transportation in Ohio Defunct companies based in Columbus, Ohio Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1905 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1953 1905 establishments in Ohio