Laconia Car Company manufactured

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

cars in

Laconia, New Hampshire Laconia is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. La ...

from 1848 to 1928. 152 Elevated

The Ranlet Manufacturing Company began building horse-drawn

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

s, carriages and

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

es in 1844. The company was identified as Ranlet Car Company to emphasize focus on manufacturing railway cars after railways reached Laconia in 1848. By 1869, the company employed one hundred men and was producing three hundred freight cars per year. In 1870 the company began producing railway

passenger cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

at the rate of about one per month.

History

The company was reorganized as the Laconia Car Company in 1882, occupying seven acres of downtown Laconia including a four-story brick

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

for casting and

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...

metal parts. Some parts were used for wooden cars assembled in nearby shops, while other parts were sold to railways and other car manufacturers building or repairing wooden cars. Laconia was producing 125 railway passenger cars per year by 1893 primarily for

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

railways,

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

lines, and

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

electric lines. The foundry produced wheels, axles and

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

including a distinctive

electric traction A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...

truck. In 1889, Laconia finished a prototype steel railway car started in 1884 by a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

shipbuilding firm under contract to the Steel Car Company. Wood remained Laconia's preferred building material, but steel underframes were used beginning in 1908. Laconia employed nearly five hundred men completing electric railway cars at the rate of one a day; and their products could be found operating as far away as the

Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...

. Employment increased to a thousand workers by 1912; but focus on electric railway cars made the company uncompetitive for conventional railway vehicles as electric railway riders began using automobiles, and 1914 was the last year of profitable operation for the company. Production shifted to conventional

baggage Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and

express Express or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid Music * ''Express'' ...

cars; and a final order for ten cars was completed for the

Boston Elevated Railway The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railwa ...

in 1923. Production shifted to plywood

motorboat A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...

s before the company closed in 1928.

References

{{reflist

External links

History from Mid-Continent Railway Museum
Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of the United States Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1882 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1928 1882 establishments in New Hampshire 1928 disestablishments in New Hampshire Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Hampshire Tram manufacturers