Perley A. Thomas Car Works
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Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. was an American manufacturer of
streetcars A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
based in
High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...
. Founded in 1916, the company was formed from the liquidation of Southern Car Works by its engineer,
Perley A. Thomas Perley Albert Thomas (1874–1958) was a Canadian-born American industrialist and entrepreneur. He was trained as a millsmith (specifically in woodworking), and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was employed by a streetcar manufacturer. Thomas ...
. Along with the manufacture of complete streetcars, Thomas Car Works also renovated and repaired existing cars to supplement its production. At the beginning of the Great Depression,
mass transit in the United States Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementa ...
largely transitioned in format from streetcars to automotive-based buses, leading Thomas Car Works to convert to bus production. From the mid-1930s onward, the company dedicated its production towards
school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...
es. Following World War II, the company became one of the primary manufacturers of large school bus bodies in the United States, leading Perley A. Thomas Car Works to be renamed as Thomas Built Buses, Inc. in 1972. As Thomas Built Buses, the company is still based in High Point, operating as a subsidiary of
Freightliner Trucks Freightliner Trucks is a US semi truck manufacturer. Founded in 1929 as the truck-manufacturing division of Consolidated Freightways (from which it derives its name), the company was established in 1942 as Freightliner Corporation. Owned by Dai ...
(of
Daimler AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...
) since 1998.


History


1910s

In 1910, Perley A. Thomas joined Southern Car Company in High Point, North Carolina as an engineer and designer. By 1915, the company had begun its transition from wood-bodied designs to all-steel vehicles. However, Southern Car was unable to remain competitive, leading to its closure in early 1916. Following the closure of Southern Car Company, Thomas relied on his woodworking background and the furniture industry of High Point to found his own company, producing fireplace mantles and other home furnishings. In the summer of 1916, Thomas was contracted by Southern Public Utilities Company in Charlotte, North Carolina to enclose its fleet of streetcars. As they were Southern Car Company streetcars designed by Thomas, the utility company sought him out for the renovation. Along with a small crew of former Southern Car Company builders, Thomas performed the work in a Charlotte car barn. One month after securing the contract in Charlotte, Perley A. Thomas Car Works was officially organized in High Point, with Thomas hiring 30 employees from the former Southern Car Company. With a $6,000 loan, Thomas acquired the equipment of his former employer at auction, opening an assembly facility in a former ice manufacturing plant in High Point. By the end of the year, four additional cars were renovated for Southern Public Utilities in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. During 1917, Thomas Car Works renovated 9 streetcars for the United States Navy in Mobile, Alabama and a group of streetcars for Montgomery, Alabama. In 1918, Thomas Car Works would see several company milestones, commencing production of new streetcars for the first time. The factory was capable of producing wooden or steel bodies, with the latter quickly becoming the most common (Southern Car had introduced all-steel bodies in 1911). At the end of the year, a 30-acre property was secured outside of High Point; the company constructed a larger assembly facility, allowing for simultaneous construction and repair/renovation of streetcars. In total, 25 streetcars were produced in the first year of production.


1920s

As a streetcar manufacturer, Thomas Car Works saw its greatest success during the 1920s, becoming one of the largest manufacturers of electric streetcars in the United States. In 1921, the company secured its largest-ever order of streetcars, from
NOPSI Entergy New Orleans, formerly New Orleans Public Service Incorporated (NOPSI), is an electric and natural gas utility and former mass transit provider that was based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The various streetcar lines of New Orleans were consoli ...
(New Orleans Public Service Inc.). In total, 173 streetcars were ordered from 1921 to 1924, as NOPSI sought to standardize their fleet. The steel-bodied 800-900-series streetcars were double-ended (two sets of operating controls and two
trolley pole A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. Th ...
s), double-trucked, with an arched roof. Unable to fill the massive order entirely on their own, Thomas Car Works subcontracted a portion of the order to
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
-based competitor J. G. Brill (using the Thomas design). In September 1922, after the company had delivered 25 streetcars to NOPSI, the High Point factory was destroyed by fire, causing $225,000 in damage (along with 14 streetcars under construction). In response, Perley Thomas secured $100,000 from NOPSI to secure the parts to construct an order of 55 streetcars; a second order of 25 streetcars was delivered by the end of 1923. In total, NOPSI would order 173 800-900-series streetcars, with Thomas Car Works producing 98 (not including the 14 destroyed in the factory fire). The High Point factory was rebuilt to hold three tracks inside the factory; three stations on each track allowed 9 cars to be worked on simultaneously. The factory employed a 125-employee workforce, with seven complete streetcars produced each week on average. In 1926, the Detroit United Railroad ordered 100 streetcars from Thomas Car Works; the long design was the longest streetcar ever built by the company. The sole manufacturer of the design, Thomas delivered streetcars to Detroit from 1926 to 1929.


1930s

During the 1930s, Thomas Car Works would see several changes that would alter the company forever. Following the large order from Detroit, demand for streetcars began to decline sharply. In 1930, the company received its last order for streetcars, producing 4 for Mobile, Alabama. Subsequently, all production would transition away from rail to road-based vehicles. During 1931 and 1932, no vehicles were produced, shifting to repairs, streetcar renovations, and automotive refinishing. In 1933, the company produced its first trolley coach (an electric bus with a pair of trolley poles). In mass transit, by the 1930s, rail-based streetcars were losing ground to automotive-based buses; the latter were not dependent on the power grid for their operation (and ownership), and buses offered more flexibility in routing. In 1934, Thomas built its first transit bus for Duke Power (the successor to the first Thomas customer). In 1936, Thomas Car Works entered a bid to produce school bus bodies for the state of North Carolina. While required to produce 500 bodies, the company was only able to secure the materials for 200; North Carolina would split the bid between Thomas and Hackney Brothers. After five months of production, the bid was completed at a profit. For 1937, Thomas returned to bid for North Carolina school bus production, commencing a tradition that remains to this day.


Post World War II

In 1940, Perley A. Thomas retired (at age 65), remaining as president and design consultant. During World War II, Thomas Car Works was active in war production, shifting from buses to bodies for the GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6x6 truck. As an additional means of revenue, the company renovated and repaired its former streetcars. Although streetcars had largely fallen out of favor, the suspension of domestic vehicle production was also applied towards transit vehicles as well as private automobiles; some cities had retained the networks for the operation of streetcars into the 1940s. After World War II, Thomas Car Works returned to vehicle production, concentrating nearly entirely on school buses. In 1957, Thomas Car Works introduced the "Saf-T-Liner" trade name for the first time. In 1958, Perley Thomas died at the age of 84; until his death, he would remain a design consultant in his retirement. In 1972, as a third generation of the Thomas family assumed leadership, Perley A. Thomas Car Works was reorganized as Thomas Built Buses, Inc. Adopting a brand name in use by Thomas since the 1950s, the change was explained as bringing the company closer to its core product line of buses, 42 years after producing its final streetcar.


Operators

In total, over 400 newly built streetcars were assembled by Perley A. Thomas Car Works from 1918 to 1930. During streetcar production, Thomas produced streetcars for the following cities: *
Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
*
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
*
New York, NY New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
*
Chicago, IL (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
*
New Orleans, LA New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Charlotte, NC Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populous ...
*
Greenville, NC Greenville is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States; the principal city of the Greenville metropolitan area; and the 12th-most populous city in North Carolina. Greenville is the health, e ...
*
High Point, NC High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph, Davidson, and Forsyth counties. High Point is North Carolina's only city that e ...
*
Mobile, AL Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama, ...
* Sheffield, AL *
Detroit, MI Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the ...
*
Miami, FL Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...
*
Augusta, GA Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...
*
Knoxville, TN Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
*
San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
*
Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.


Usage in New Orleans

As of 2019, the
New Orleans Regional Transit Authority The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA or NORTA) is a public transportation agency based in New Orleans. The agency was established by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1979, and has operated bus and historic streetcar service throughou ...
operates 35 Perley Thomas 900-series streetcars in active daily use, nearly a century after their construction. Dating from 1923 and 1924, the Thomas streetcars are operated on the St. Charles line (the oldest streetcar line in the world). In 2005, all 35 Thomas streetcars survived
Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
unharmed, while 30 of the 31 replica streetcars required restoration, placing them out of service through 2009. The Thomas cars are painted the traditional olive green color. Most of the replica cars are bright red, although a few have been painted olive green to provide
ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, Tur ...
-compliant service on the St. Charles line. To keep the Thomas streetcars in service, the RTA established a parts shop with the capability of building a complete replica of the Thomas streetcar design on its own to maintain a stock of replacement parts. The shop designed and produced the replica cars used on the Canal Street Line and the Riverfront Line. Along with the difference in color, the newer designs are ADA-compliant, and the Canal Street cars are air-conditioned.


Preservation

Outside of their active usage in New Orleans, four Thomas streetcars (all from New Orleans) have been preserved by
railway museums A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives (steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic equ ...
across the United States. Two additional streetcars are undergoing renovations for use as heritage streetcars in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. Two other cars, #919 and #924, retired from the Riverfront line, are owned by New Orleans RTA, but are currently inoperable. Examples include: *
Connecticut Trolley Museum The Connecticut Trolley Museum, founded in October 1940, is the oldest incorporated museum dedicated to electric railroading in the United States. The museum is located in East Windsor, Connecticut and is open to the public April through December. ...
(NOPSI Car #836) *
Seashore Trolley Museum Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, ...
(NOPSI Car #966) *
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is a museum in Washington, Pennsylvania, dedicated to operation and preservation of streetcars and trolleys. The museum primarily contains historic trolleys from Pennsylvania, but their collection includes examples ...
(NOPSI #832) *
Shore Line Trolley Museum The Shore Line Trolley Museum is a trolley museum located in East Haven, Connecticut. Incorporated in 1945, it is the oldest continuously operating trolley museum in the United States. The museum includes exhibits on trolley history in the visit ...
(NOPSI #850) NOPSI Cars #913 and #952 are under the operation of San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). Both built in 1923, 952 is leased to Muni from New Orleans RTA since 1998; 913 was purchased from
Orange Empire Railway Museum The Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM, reporting mark OERX), formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before moving ...
in 2005. As of 2019, both cars are in the process of restoration; 913 has not seen active service since 1964 and funds are being raised for its restoration.


In popular culture

A famous
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
play (and later, film) was set in
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
where Perley A. Thomas streetcars were operated on the
Desire line A desire path (often referred to as a desire line in transportation planning), also known as a game trail, social trail, fishermen trail, herd path, cow path, elephant path, goat track, pig trail, use trail and bootleg trail, is an unplanned sma ...
around the period of 1947 in which the story was set, hence the name: ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of person ...
''.


References


External links


History of Thomas Built Buses


at ironhorse129.com * {{Authority control Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of the United States Buildings and structures in High Point, North Carolina American companies established in 1917 Thomas Car Works Thomas Car Works 1917 establishments in North Carolina 1970s disestablishments in North Carolina Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in North Carolina Tram manufacturers