Jump to content

Canadian Car and Foundry: Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
mNo edit summary
 
(124 intermediate revisions by 77 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Transportation vehicle manufacturer in Canada, 1909-1980s}}
[[File:Edmonton CCF-Brill trolleybus 202.jpg|thumb|right|220px|A preserved 1954 CCF-Brill [[trolleybus|trolley bus]] on the [[Trolleybuses in Edmonton|Edmonton trolley bus system]].]]
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
'''Canadian Car and Foundry''' (CC&F) also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry," or more familiarly as "Can Car," manufactured [[bus]]es, [[railroad]] [[rolling stock]] and later aircraft for the [[Canada|Canadian]] market. CC&F history goes back to 1897, but the main company was established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later became part of [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]] through the purchase by [[A.V. Roe Canada]] in 1957.
{{Infobox company
| name = Canadian Car And Foundry
| logo = Canadian Car and Foundry logo.png
| image =
| type = Subsidiary
| industry = Rail transport
| fate =
| successor = [[Bombardier Transportation]] (before 2021) <br> [[Alstom]] (after 2021)
| founded = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1826}}
| defunct =
| location = [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| locations =
| area_served = Worldwide
| key_people =
| products = [[Locomotive]]s<br>[[High-speed rail|High-speed trains]]<br>[[Inter-city rail|Intercity and commuter trains]]<br>[[Tram]]s<br>[[People mover]]s<br>[[Signalling systems]]
| services =
| revenue =
| num_employees =
| owner =
| parent =
| divisions =
| subsid =
| homepage =
}}

The '''Canadian Car & Foundry Company, Limited''' was a manufacturer of [[bus]]es, [[railway]] [[rolling stock]], forestry equipment, and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history goes back to 1897, but the main company was established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later became part of [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]] through the purchase by [[Avro Canada|A.V. Roe Canada]] in 1957. Today the remaining factories are part of [[Alstom]] after its acquisition of [[Bombardier Transportation]] completed in 2021.<ref name=alstom>{{cite web| url=https://www.alstom.com/press-releases-news/2021/1/transformational-step-alstom-completion-acquisition-bombardier/ | title=A transformational step for Alstom: completion of the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation | via=Alstom| date=2021| access-date=7 April 2022}} Press release from Alstom on the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation</ref>


==History==
==History==
[[Image:PortablePowerPlantSRM.jpg|thumb|left|Portable power plant built by Canadian Car and Foundry<ref name="SRM">[http://www.saskrailmuseum.org/ "Welcome to Saskrailmuseum.org."] Sask Power Car, September 11, 2008. Retrieved: 3 October 2008.</ref>]]
[[Image:PortablePowerPlantSRM.jpg|thumb|left|Portable power plant built by Canadian Car and Foundry<ref name="SRM">{{cite web| url=http://www.saskrailmuseum.org/| website=Saskrailmuseum.org| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015051856/http://www.saskrailmuseum.org/| archive-date=October 15, 2008| title=Sask Power Car| date=11 September 2008| access-date=3 October 2008}}</ref>]]
Canadian Car & Foundry (CC&F) was established in 1909 in Montreal as the result of an amalgamation of three companies:
Canadian Car & Foundry (CC&F) was established in 1909 in Montreal as the result of an amalgamation of three companies:
* [[Rhodes Curry Company]] of [[Amherst, Nova Scotia|Amherst, NS]] - founded 1891
* [[Rhodes Curry Company]] of [[Amherst, Nova Scotia|Amherst, NS]] - founded 1891
* [[Canada Car Company]] of [[Turcot, Quebec|Turcot, QC]] - founded 1905
* [[Canada Car Company]] of [[Turcot, Quebec|Turcot, QC]] - founded 1905
* [[Dominion Car and Foundry]] of [[Montreal|Montreal, QC]]
* [[Dominion Car and Foundry]] of [[Montreal|Montreal, QC]]
In 1911 the CC&F [[Board of directors|Board of Directors]] recognized that the company could improve its efficiency if they were able to produce their own steel castings, a component that was becoming common to all their products. They purchased [[Montreal Steel Works|Montreal Steel Works Limited]] at [[Longue-Pointe]], the largest producer of steel castings in Canada, and the [[Ontario Iron and Steel|Ontario Iron & Steel Company, Ltd.]] at [[Welland|Welland, ON]], which included both a steel foundry and a rolling mill.


Buses and Forestry Equipment were produced at [[Fort William, Ontario]] and railcars in Montreal and Amherst. Streetcars were manufactured between 1897 and 1913, however the company focused exclusively on rebuilding existing streetcars after 1913.
In 1911 the CC&F Board of Directors recognized that the company could improve its efficiency if they were able to produce their own steel castings, a component that was becoming common to all their products. They purchased [[Montreal Steel Works|Montreal Steel Works Limited]] at [[Longue Pointe, Quebec|Longue Pointe, QC]], the largest producer of steel castings in Canada, and the [[Ontario Iron and Steel|Ontario Iron & Steel Company, Ltd.]] at [[Welland|Welland, ON]], which included both a steel foundry and a rolling mill.


A few years later, CC&F acquired the assets of [[Pratt and Letchworth|Pratt & Letchworth]], a [[Brantford|Brantford, ON]], rail car manufacturer. In the latter part of [[World War I]], the expanding company opened a new plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to manufacture rail cars and ships which included the [[French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles|French minesweepers ''Inkerman'' and ''Cerisoles'']] which were both lost in Lake Superior; the Amherst plant started by Rhodes & Curry in Amherst was closed in 1931. In an attempt to enter the aviation market, CC&F produced a small series of [[Grumman FF|Grumman G.23 Goblin]] aircraft under licence and developed an unsuccessful, indigenous-designed fighter biplane, the [[Gregor FDB-1]].
Buses were produced at [[Fort William, Ontario]] and railcars in Montreal and Amherst. Streetcars were manufactured between 1897 to 1913, however the company focused exclusively on rebuilding existing streetcars after 1913.


===Canada Car Company===
A few years later, CC&F acquired the assets of [[Pratt and Letchworth|Pratt & Letchworth]], a [[Brantford|Brantford, ON]], rail car manufacturer. In the latter part of [[World War I]], the expanding company opened a new plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to manufacture rail cars and ships which included the [[French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles|French minesweepers ''Inkerman'' and ''Cerisoles'']] that were both lost in Lake Superior; the Amherst plant started by Rhodes & Curry in Amherst was closed in 1931. In an attempt to enter the aviation market, CC&F produced a small series of [[Grumman]] fighter aircraft under licence and developed an unsuccessful, indigenous-designed fighter aircraft, the [[Gregor FDB-1]].
'''Canada Car Company''' was a railcar manufacturer based in [[Turcot, Quebec]] (a suburb of [[Montreal]]), which later merged with several other companies to form Canadian Car and Foundry in 1909.<ref>{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070520231155/http://www.nakina.net/builders1.html#CCC| archive-date=20 May 2007| url=http://www.nakina.net/builders1.html#CCC| title=Canada Car Company}}</ref> Canada Car Company was incorporated January 1905 with W.P. Coleman as president and Sir [[Hugh Allan]] as vice-president. The company's plant began operations in 1905 and manufactured freight and passenger cars.


Clients included:
==The Second World War==
* [[Grand Trunk Railway]] and [[Grand Trunk Pacific Railway]] - 12,000 freight cars and 250 passenger cars (wood)
[[Image:CC&F Hurricane.jpg|right|thumb|CC&F Hawker Hurricane X on a test flight over Fort William, Ontario]]
* Quebec, Montreal & Southern - 1,500 steel underframe box cars with [[Dominion Car and Foundry]]
[[Image:N.A. CCF T-6J 20310 G-BSBG WFD 23.06.96R edited-3.jpg|thumb|right|CC&F-built T-6J Harvard]]
* [[Montreal Street Railway]] - 10 streetcars
By 1939, with war on the horizon, Canadian Car & Foundry and its Chief Engineer, [[Elsie MacGill]], were contracted by the RAF to produce the [[Hawker Hurricane]].<ref>Hurricane Mark X, XI and XII</ref> Refinements introduced by MacGill on the Hurricane included skis and de-icing gear. When the production of the Hurricane was complete in 1943, CC&Fs workforce of 4,500 (half of them women), had built over 1,400 aircraft; about 10% of the Hurricanes built.<ref>Saxberg, Kelly (director). [http://www.nfb.ca/film/rosies_of_the_north/ ''Rosies of the North'' (Documentary film on the wartime role of women workers at Fort William)] [[National Film Board of Canada]], 1999. Retrieved: 23 July 2012.</ref>
* Hart-Otis Car Company - Hart convertible ballast cars
* [[Grand Trunk Railway]] - 30 steel underframe flat cars
* [[Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway]] - three parlour-cafe cars
* [[Canadian Northern Railway]] - four wooden dining cars


Their products were:
Following the success of the Hurricane contract, CC&F sought out and received a production order for the troublesome [[Curtiss SB2C Helldiver]]. Eventually, 834 Helldivers were produced by CC&F in various versions from SBW-1, SBW-1B, SBW-3,SBW-4E and SBW-5. Some of the Curtiss divebombers were sent directly to the [[Royal Navy]] under [[Lend-Lease]] arrangements. CC&F also built the [[North American AT-6]] Texan/Harvard under licence, many of the aircraft being supplied to European air forces to train post war military pilots.
* wood freight and passenger cars
* box cars
* streetcars
* flat cars
* parlor cafe cars
* dining cars

===First World War===
{{contradicts other|Kingsland explosion|date=September 2023}}
[[File:Canadian Car & Foundry, in Fort William, Ontario, built minesweepers for France, in WW1 -a.jpg|thumb|right|[[Navarin-class minesweeper|''Navarin''-class minesweeper]]s]]
{{Main|Kingsland explosion}}
During World War I, CC&F had signed large contracts with Russia and Britain for delivery of ammunition. An enormous factory was constructed in the [[New Jersey Meadowlands|Kingsland]] to assemble, package, and prepare artillery shells for shipment to foreign ports. No shells were manufactured there. On 11 January 1917, a fire started in one of the buildings. In four hours, the fire spread to the approximately 500,000 pieces of {{convert|3|in|mm|adj=on}} explosive [[Shell (projectile)|shell]]s stored there, causing several explosions, destroying the entire plant. The explosion launched artillery shells and building debris across the area, destroying several homes and businesses in the nearby town of [[Lyndhurst, New Jersey]], and was visible from New York City. The total loss, including the ordnance, was estimated at $16,750,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|17|1917|r=0}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}).<ref name="Kingsland">{{cite news| title=Kingsland N.J. Fire Loss is $16,750,000| url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1917-01-13/ed-1/seq-4/| access-date=12 January 2017| work=The Sun| date=13 January 1917| location=New York City| page=4| via=Library of Congress}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lyndhursthistoricalsociety.org/KingslandExplosion.html |url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616054302/http://lyndhursthistoricalsociety.org/KingslandExplosion.html| archive-date=16 June 2018 |title=The Kingsland Explosion |website=Lyndhurst Historical Society |access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title= Kingsland and Haskell Disasters |journal=Safety Engineering |volume=33 |issue=1 |date=January 1917 |pages=28–32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2o5DAQAAMAAJ| via=Google Books}}</ref>

Canadian Car and Foundry had a contract to build 12 [[Navarin-class minesweeper|''Navarin''-class minesweeper]]s for the [[French Navy]].<ref name=DuluthNewsTribune/><ref name=ChronicleJournal/> The vessels were completed in the fall of 1918—before the war ended, but too late to see operational service. Two of the vessels, the [[French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles|''Inkerman'' and ''Cerisoles'']], were lost in a November gale, on [[Lake Superior]], on their maiden voyage. Other vessels were sold into civilian service.

The government of the [[Russian Soviet Republic]] ordered 500 bogie [[Tank car|tank cars]]. They were shipped from Montreal to [[Novorossiysk]] on [[Canadian Merchant Navy]] steamships at the end of 1921.<ref>{{cite book |title=Railway Rolling Stock Orders and Deliveries |url=https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1921/page/1499 |date=December 1921 |publisher=Canadian Railway and Marine World |page=635}}</ref>

===Second World War===
[[Image:CC&F Hurricane.jpg|thumb|CC&F [[Hawker Hurricane]] X on a test flight over Fort William, Ontario]]
[[Image:N.A. CCF Harvard Mk.4 20310 G-BSBG WFD 23.06.96R edited-3.jpg|thumb|CC&F-built Harvard Mk.4]]
By 1939, with war on the horizon, Canadian Car & Foundry and its Chief Engineer, [[Elsie MacGill]], were contracted by the [[Royal Air Force]] to produce the [[Hawker Hurricane]] (Marks X, XI and XII). Refinements introduced by MacGill on the Hurricane included skis and de-icing gear. When the production of the Hurricane was complete in 1943, CC&F's workforce of 4,500 (half of them women) had built over 1,400 aircraft, about 10% of all Hurricanes built.<ref name=nfb>{{cite AV media| people=Saxberg, Kelly (director)| url=http://www.nfb.ca/film/rosies_of_the_north/| title=Rosies of the North| via=National Film Board of Canada| date=1999| accessdate=23 July 2012}} Documentary film on the wartime role of women workers at Fort William.</ref><ref name="Pigott">{{cite book| last1=Pigott| first1=Peter| title=Wings across Canada an illustrated history of Canadian aviation| url=https://archive.org/details/wingsacrosscanad00pigo_0|url-access=registration| via=Archive.org| date=2002| publisher=Dundurn Press| location=Toronto, Ontario| isbn=9781554883790| page=[https://archive.org/details/wingsacrosscanad00pigo_0/page/81 81]}}</ref>

Following the success of the Hurricane contract, CC&F sought out and received a production order for the [[Curtiss SB2C Helldiver]]. Eventually, 834 Helldivers were produced by CC&F in various versions from SBW-1, SBW-1B, SBW-3,SBW-4E and SBW-5. Some of the Curtiss divebombers were sent directly to the [[Royal Navy]] under [[Lend-Lease]] arrangements. CC&F also built the [[North American T-6 Texan|North American Harvard]] under licence, many of the aircraft being supplied to European air forces to train post war military pilots.


In 1944, the Canadian Car & Foundry built a revolutionary new aircraft in its Montreal shops - the [[Burnelli CBY-3]], also called the ''Loadmaster''. There were two examples built of an aerofoil-fuselage design originally developed by [[Vincent J. Burnelli]]. The CBY-3 was never to enter full-scale production and was cancelled less than one year later.
In 1944, the Canadian Car & Foundry built a revolutionary new aircraft in its Montreal shops - the [[Burnelli CBY-3]], also called the ''Loadmaster''. There were two examples built of an aerofoil-fuselage design originally developed by [[Vincent J. Burnelli]]. The CBY-3 was never to enter full-scale production and was cancelled less than one year later.


The work of Canadian women building fighter and bomber aircraft at the plant during the Second World War is documented in the 1999 [[National Film Board of Canada]] documentary film ''[[Rosies of the North]]''.<ref name="nfb" />
==Postwar developments==
After the Second World War, the CC&F returned to its roots as a rail car manufacturer. They also made a successful leap into the streetcar business, supplying Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with various types of streetcars. The company concluded a licencing agreement with ACF-Brill (the successor to [[J. G. Brill and Company|J. G. Brill]]) in 1944 to manufacture and sell throughout Canada buses and trolley coaches of ACF-Brill design as '''Canadian Car-Brill''', in later years often written "CCF-Brill", for short. CC&F built 1,114 trolley buses<ref name="porter">Porter, Harry and Stanley F.X. Worris. ''Trolleybus Bulletin No. 109: Databook II'', 1979, pp. 63–64. Louisville, Kentucky: North American Trackless Trolley Association (defunct).</ref> and a few thousand buses under the name. Trolleybus production ended in 1954; [[Edmonton Transit System]]'s No. 202, a 1954 CCF-Brill T48A, was the very last Brill trolleybus built for any city.<ref>''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 283, January–February 2009, p. 11. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.</ref>


===Postwar developments===
In 1957, wishing to diversify, the British [[Hawker Siddeley Group]] acquired CC&F through its Canadian subsidiary, [[Avro Canada|A.V. Roe Canada Ltd.]]. In 1962, A.V. Roe Canada was dissolved and its assets became part of [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]]. CCF re-emerged as '''Can-Car Rail''' in 1983 as a joint division between Hawker Siddeley Canada and [[Urban Transportation Development Corporation|UTDC]]. The Can-Car Rail operations were based in Thunder Bay. Sold to [[SNC-Lavalin]] in 1986, re-sold to the [[Government of Ontario]], CCF assets was finally acquired by [[Bombardier Transportation]]. Through a series of further acquisitions and inevitable mergers and rationalisations, CC&F faded from the annals of significant Canadian manufacturers, although the company still exists today as Bombardier Transportation Canada Incorporated Railcar facility in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
After the Second World War, the CC&F returned to its roots as a rail car manufacturer. They also made a successful leap into the streetcar business, supplying Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with various types of streetcars. The company concluded a licensing agreement with ACF-Brill (the successor to [[J. G. Brill and Company|J. G. Brill]]) in 1944 to manufacture and sell throughout Canada buses and trolley coaches of ACF-Brill design as '''Canadian Car-Brill''', in later years often written "CCF-Brill", for short. CC&F built 1,114 trolley buses<ref name="porter">{{cite book| last1=Porter| first1=Harry| first2=Stanley F.X.| last2=Worris| title=Trolleybus Bulletin No. 109: Databook II| year=1979| pages=63–64| location=Louisville, Kentucky| publisher=North American Trackless Trolley Association (defunct)}}</ref> and a few thousand buses under the name. Trolleybus production ended in 1954; [[Edmonton Transit System]]'s No. 202, a 1954 CCF-Brill T48A, was the last Brill trolleybus built for any city.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Isgar|first=Carl F.|title=Preservation Update |magazine=Trolleybus Magazine|issue=283|date=January–February 2009|page=11|publisher=National Trolleybus Association (UK)|issn=0266-7452}}</ref>

Production of the Brill diesel bus continued through the 1950s. In 1960, CC&F launched an entirely new TD bus design under the Canadian Car name to compete with the General Motors New Look model, but it was not successful and production was discontinued in 1962.

In 1957, wishing to diversify, the British [[Hawker Siddeley Group]] acquired CC&F through its Canadian subsidiary, [[Avro Canada|A.V. Roe Canada Ltd.]] In 1962, A.V. Roe Canada was dissolved when the [[Avro Arrow]] program was suddenly terminated, and its assets became part of [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]]. During the 1970s they introduced the [[Bombardier BiLevel Coach|BiLevel Coach]] heavy railway passenger car, which would go on to great success.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the plant built 190 [[Canadian Light Rail Vehicles]], for the [[Toronto Transit Commission]], to replace its aging [[PCC streetcars]].<ref name=RailwayAge/>

CCF re-emerged as '''Can-Car Rail''' in 1983 as a joint division between Hawker Siddeley Canada and [[Urban Transportation Development Corporation|UTDC]]. The Can-Car Rail operations were based in Thunder Bay. Sold to [[SNC-Lavalin]] in 1986, a financial shakeup led to the firm being returned to the [[Government of Ontario]], and then quickly re-sold to [[Bombardier Transportation]]. Through a series of further acquisitions, mergers and rationalisations, CC&F faded from the annals of significant Canadian manufacturers, although the company still exists today as the '''Alstom''' railcar facility in Thunder Bay, Ontario.


==Products==
==Products==
===Railway carriages===
''Transit''
* railway carriages for the [[Intercolonial Railway]]
* CCF-[[J. G. Brill and Company|Brill]] 44S motor bus (under license)
* railway carriages for the [[Grand Trunk Railway]]
* CCF-Brill T44/T44A [[Trolleybus|trolley bus]] (under license), 1946–54<ref name="porter"/>
* railway carriages for the [[Grand Trunk Pacific]]
* CCF-Brill T48/T48A/T48SP trolley bus (under license), 1949-54<ref name="porter"/>
* railway carriages for the [[Canadian Northern Railways]]
* [[PCC streetcar|President Conference Committee Car A6]] SE DT
* railway carriages for the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]
* [[PCC streetcar|President Conference Committee Car A7]] SE DT
* railway carriages for the [[Canadian National Railways]] (some later operated by [[Via Rail]] or [[Rocky Mountaineer]])
* [[PCC streetcar|President Conference Committee Car A8]] SE DT
* bi-level carriages for [[GO Transit]] - with [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]] and [[SNC Lavalin]]

===Buses, trolleys and streetcars===
* CCF-[[J. G. Brill and Company|Brill]] 44S motor bus (under license in Fort William)
* CCF-Brill T44/T44A [[Trolleybus|trolley bus]] (under license in Fort William), 1946–54<ref name="porter"/>
* CCF-Brill T48/T48A/T48SP trolley bus (under license in Fort William), 1949-54<ref name="porter"/>
* CCF-Brill TD43 motor bus (under license in Fort William)
* CCF-Brill TD51 motor bus (under license in Fort William)
* [[CN electric multiple unit]]s for use in Montreal
* [[PCC streetcar|Presidents' Conference Committee Car A6]] SE DT
* [[PCC streetcar|Presidents' Conference Committee Car A7]] SE DT
* [[PCC streetcar|Presidents' Conference Committee Car A8]] SE DT
* [[Peter Witt streetcar|Small Peter Witt]] cars with [[Ottawa Car Company]]
* [[Peter Witt streetcar|Small Peter Witt]] cars with [[Ottawa Car Company]]
* [[Peter Witt streetcar|Large Peter Witt]] car and trailers with [[J. G. Brill and Company]]
* [[Peter Witt streetcar|Large Peter Witt]] car and trailers with [[J. G. Brill and Company]]


===Aircraft===
''Other''
* [[Avro Anson|Avro Anson Mk.II]] (341 built under licence plus 800 wings and 300 fuselages.)
* Tanks for World War II
* Avro Anson Mk.V (300 built)
* cars for the [[Intercolonial Railway]]
* [[Beechcraft T-34 Mentor|Beechcraft T-34A Mentor]] (125 built under license, 25 for RCAF and 100 for the [[United States Air Force]])
* cars for the [[Grand Trunk Railway]]
* [[Burnelli CBY-3|Canadian Car and Foundry CBY-3 Loadmaster]] (one built)
* cars for the [[Grand Trunk Pacific]]
* [[North American T-6 Texan|Canadian Car and Foundry Harvard Mk.4/T-6J]] (555 built by CC&F post-war for RCAF and USAF for Military Defense Aid Pact)
* cars for the [[Canadian Northern Railways]]
* [[Wallace Trainer|Canadian Car and Foundry Maple Leaf Trainer I]] (Wallace project, one built)
* cars for the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]
* [[Canadian Car and Foundry Maple Leaf Trainer II]] (one built and jigs and parts sold to Mexico where it became the Ares #2)
* cars for the [[Canadian National Railways]] (some later operated by [[Via Rail]] or [[Rocky Mountaineer]])
* [[Curtiss SB2C Helldiver|Canadian Car and Foundry (Curtiss) SBW Helldiver]] (835 built under license)
* bi-level cars for [[GO Transit]] - with [[Hawker Siddeley Canada]] and [[SNC Lavalin]]
* [[Canadian Car and Foundry FDB-1|Gregor FDB-1]] (one built)
''Aircraft''
* [[Grumman FF|Grumman G23 Goblin/SF]] built under license)
* [[Grumman FF|Grumman G.23 Goblin I/''Delfín'']] (52 built under license, examples sold to [[Spanish Republican Air Force]] and [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (RCAF))
* [[Hawker Hurricane|Hawker Hurricane Mk.X, XI & XII]] (1,451 built under license)
* [[Canadian Car and Foundry FDB-1|Gregor FDB-1]]
* [[North American Harvard]] Mk.IIB/AT-16 (1,798 built under license)
* [[Canadian Car and Foundry Maple Leaf Trainer II]]
* [[Noorduyn Norseman|Noorduyn Norseman Mk.V]] (51 built after buying [[Noorduyn]] out)
* [[Hawker Hurricane]] (under license)
* [[Noorduyn Norseman|Noorduyn Norseman Mk.VII]] (1 built after extensive Can Car redesign)
* [[Curtiss SB2C Helldiver|SBW Helldiver]] (under license)

* [[Burnelli CBY-3|CC&F CBY-3 Loadmaster]]
===Other vehicles and equipment===
* [[North American T-6 Texan|Canadian Car and Foundry Harvard Mk 4]] (production rights to the North American T-6 family were sold to CC&F post war)
* Tanks for World War II{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
* [[Beechcraft T-34 Mentor]] (under license)
* [[Bobcat (armoured personnel carrier)]] - 1 prototype built and project terminated; originally developed by Leyland (Canada) which was bought out by Canadian Car and Foundry (itself acquired by Avro Canada) and terminated under Hawker Siddeley Canada
* '''TreeFarmer''' Forestry Heavy Equipment (under license from Garrett Enumclaw Co.)
*Canada Diesel and Canada Diesel WT highway tractors.<ref>A.V. Roe Corporate Annual Report for the year ended July 31, 1957, page 15. Copy held by Rare Books and Special Collections Unit, McGill University Library</ref>


== Customers ==
== Customers ==
Line 64: Line 142:
* [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]
* [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]
* [[Canadian National Railways]]
* [[Canadian National Railways]]
* [[Chambly Transport]]
* [[Edmonton Transit System]]
* [[Edmonton Transit System]]
* [[Grand Trunk Railway]]
* [[Grand Trunk Railway]]
* [[Hamilton Street Railway]]
* [[Hamilton Street Railway]]
* [[Intercolonial Railway]]
* [[Intercolonial Railway]]
* [[Nova Scotia Light and Power|Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, Limited]]
* [[Ottawa Transportation Commission]]
* [[Ottawa Transportation Commission]]
* [[Quebec Railway, Light and Power Company]] (later Québec Autobus, post–1959)
* [[Quebec Railway, Light and Power Company]] (later Québec Autobus, post–1959)
* [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (RCAF)
* [[Société de transport de Montréal]]
* [[Société de transport de Montréal]]
* [[Toronto Transportation Commission]]
* [[Toronto Transportation Commission]]
* [[United States Air Force]] (USAF)


==Preservation==
==Preservation==
{{Expand section|date=April 2010}}
{{Expand section|date=April 2010}}
Many CC&F-built buses have been preserved as historic vehicles, some in operating condition. For example, the [[Transit Museum Society]], in [[Vancouver]], has at least seven CC&F buses in its collection, including two CC&F-Brill [[trolleybus]]es.<ref>[http://www.trams.bc.ca/buses.html "The Historic Bus Fleet."] ''[[Transit Museum Society]]'', 2009. Retrieved: 7 April 2010.</ref>
Many CC&F-built buses have been preserved as historic vehicles, some in operating condition. For example, the [[Transit Museum Society]], in [[Vancouver]], has at least seven CC&F buses in its collection, including two CC&F-Brill [[trolleybus]]es.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.trams.bc.ca/buses.html| title=The Historic Bus Fleet| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308224949/http://www.trams.bc.ca/buses.html| archive-date=8 March 2010| website=[[Transit Museum Society]]| date=2009| access-date=7 April 2010}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
{{Portalbox|Companies|Trains|Buses|Aviation|Canada}}
{{Portal|Companies|Trains|Buses|Aviation|Canada}}
* [[J. G. Brill and Company]]
* [[J. G. Brill and Company]]
* [[Preston Car Company]]
* [[Preston Car Company]]
* [[Ottawa Car Company]]
* [[Ottawa Car Company]]
* [[Niles Car and Manufacturing Company]]
* [[Niles Car and Manufacturing Company]]
* [[Noorduyn|Noorduyn Aviation]] - CC&F later built their [[Noorduyn Norseman#Postwar|Norseman]] utility aircraft (1946)
* [[American Car and Foundry]]
* [[American Car and Foundry]]
{{clear}}
{{clear}}
==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}
;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
* [http://www.avroland.ca/al-ccf.html Avroland - Canadian Car and Foundry]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/ca/TORONTO/builders/ccflist.html Canadian Car and Foundry]
* Martin, J.E. "On A Streak of Lightning". ''Electric Railways Cars in Canada'', p.&nbsp;99.
{{refend}}


==Notes==
== External links ==
{{Reflist|2|refs=
* [http://www3.telus.net/trolleybus/Brillpage.html Brill Trolley]
<ref name=DuluthNewsTribune>{{cite news|last=Krueger|first=Andrew|url=http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4315037-99-years-after-two-french-minesweepers-vanished-lake-superior-storm-new-search-aims|title=99 years after two French minesweepers vanished in a Lake Superior storm, a new search aims to solve the mystery|work=[[Duluth News Tribune]]|date=20 August 2017|access-date=9 July 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref>
<ref name=ChronicleJournal>{{cite news|last=Trunrud|first=Tory|url=http://www.chroniclejournal.com/opinion/blueberry-boat-made-here/article_fef56cce-9926-11e6-83dc-c3d19a9b7031.html|title=Blueberry Boat made here|work=Chronicle Journal|date=16 October 2016|access-date=9 July 2018}}</ref>
<ref name=RailwayAge>{{cite news|last=Thompson|first=John|url=https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/light-rail/the-car-that-saved-torontos-streetcars/|title=The car that saved Toronto's streetcars|work=[[Railway Age]]|date=5 January 2018}}</ref>
}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite web|url=http://www.avroland.ca/al-ccf.html| website=Avroland| title=Canadian Car and Foundry}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.angelfire.com/ca/TORONTO/builders/ccflist.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030305085543/http://www.angelfire.com/ca/TORONTO/builders/ccflist.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 March 2003| title=Canadian Car and Foundry| via=Angelfire| date=September 24, 2001| website=my Canadian Transit information web site}}
*{{cite magazine|last1=Green|first1=William|last2=Swanborough|first2=Gordon|title=A Grumman by Any Other Name...|magazine=Air Enthusiast| date=February–May 1979|issue=9|pages=26–39|issn=0143-5450}}
*{{cite magazine|last=Kemp|first=David|title=Can-Car — Canada's Largest|magazine=[[Air Enthusiast]]|date=1991|issue=44|pages=10–16|issn=0143-5450}}
*{{cite book|last=Martin|first=J.E.|chapter=On A Streak of Lightning|title=Electric Railways Cars in Canada|page=99}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2021}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050304164710/http://www3.telus.net/trolleybus/Brillpage.html Brill Trolley]
* [http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4505.shtml Transit Toronto All Canadian PCC]
* [http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4505.shtml Transit Toronto All Canadian PCC]
* [http://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/canadian-car-foundry-co-limited-fonds Canadian Car and Foundry Co. Collection] McGill University Library & Archives.
* [http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/hrcorpreports/search/detail.php?ID=147 Canadian Car & Foundry Co. Ltd. Corporate Reports] – McGill University Library & Archives

{{North American bus builders}}
{{Aircraft manufactured in Canada}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Car And Foundry}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Car And Foundry}}
[[Category:Bus manufacturers]]
[[Category:Canadian Car and Foundry| ]]
[[Category:Trolleybus manufacturers]]
[[Category:Foundries in Canada]]
[[Category:Rail vehicle manufacturers of Canada]]
[[Category:Former defence companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Companies based in Montreal]]
[[Category:Motor vehicle assembly plants in Canada]]
[[Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Canada]]
[[Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Canada]]
[[Category:Defunct bus manufacturers]]
[[Category:Motor vehicle assembly plants in Canada]]
[[Category:Tram manufacturers]]
[[Category:Trolleybus manufacturers]]
[[Category:Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of Canada]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Montreal]]
[[Category:Hawker Siddeley]]
[[Category:Hawker Siddeley]]
[[Category:Defence companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1909]]
[[Category:Companies established in 1909]]
[[Category:1909 establishments in Canada]]
[[Category:World War II military equipment of Canada]]
[[Category:World War II military equipment of Canada]]
[[Category:Aviation history of Canada]]
[[Category:Aviation history of Canada]]
[[Category:Tram manufacturers]]

Latest revision as of 13:56, 4 September 2024

Canadian Car And Foundry
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRail transport
Founded1826; 198 years ago (1826)
SuccessorBombardier Transportation (before 2021)
Alstom (after 2021)
HeadquartersMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsLocomotives
High-speed trains
Intercity and commuter trains
Trams
People movers
Signalling systems

The Canadian Car & Foundry Company, Limited was a manufacturer of buses, railway rolling stock, forestry equipment, and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history goes back to 1897, but the main company was established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later became part of Hawker Siddeley Canada through the purchase by A.V. Roe Canada in 1957. Today the remaining factories are part of Alstom after its acquisition of Bombardier Transportation completed in 2021.[1]

History

[edit]
Portable power plant built by Canadian Car and Foundry[2]

Canadian Car & Foundry (CC&F) was established in 1909 in Montreal as the result of an amalgamation of three companies:

In 1911 the CC&F Board of Directors recognized that the company could improve its efficiency if they were able to produce their own steel castings, a component that was becoming common to all their products. They purchased Montreal Steel Works Limited at Longue-Pointe, the largest producer of steel castings in Canada, and the Ontario Iron & Steel Company, Ltd. at Welland, ON, which included both a steel foundry and a rolling mill.

Buses and Forestry Equipment were produced at Fort William, Ontario and railcars in Montreal and Amherst. Streetcars were manufactured between 1897 and 1913, however the company focused exclusively on rebuilding existing streetcars after 1913.

A few years later, CC&F acquired the assets of Pratt & Letchworth, a Brantford, ON, rail car manufacturer. In the latter part of World War I, the expanding company opened a new plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to manufacture rail cars and ships which included the French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles which were both lost in Lake Superior; the Amherst plant started by Rhodes & Curry in Amherst was closed in 1931. In an attempt to enter the aviation market, CC&F produced a small series of Grumman G.23 Goblin aircraft under licence and developed an unsuccessful, indigenous-designed fighter biplane, the Gregor FDB-1.

Canada Car Company

[edit]

Canada Car Company was a railcar manufacturer based in Turcot, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal), which later merged with several other companies to form Canadian Car and Foundry in 1909.[3] Canada Car Company was incorporated January 1905 with W.P. Coleman as president and Sir Hugh Allan as vice-president. The company's plant began operations in 1905 and manufactured freight and passenger cars.

Clients included:

Their products were:

  • wood freight and passenger cars
  • box cars
  • streetcars
  • flat cars
  • parlor cafe cars
  • dining cars

First World War

[edit]
Navarin-class minesweepers
Main article: Kingsland explosion

During World War I, CC&F had signed large contracts with Russia and Britain for delivery of ammunition. An enormous factory was constructed in the Kingsland to assemble, package, and prepare artillery shells for shipment to foreign ports. No shells were manufactured there. On 11 January 1917, a fire started in one of the buildings. In four hours, the fire spread to the approximately 500,000 pieces of 3-inch (76 mm) explosive shells stored there, causing several explosions, destroying the entire plant. The explosion launched artillery shells and building debris across the area, destroying several homes and businesses in the nearby town of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and was visible from New York City. The total loss, including the ordnance, was estimated at $16,750,000 (equivalent to $404 million in 2023).[4][5][6]

Canadian Car and Foundry had a contract to build 12 Navarin-class minesweepers for the French Navy.[7][8] The vessels were completed in the fall of 1918—before the war ended, but too late to see operational service. Two of the vessels, the Inkerman and Cerisoles, were lost in a November gale, on Lake Superior, on their maiden voyage. Other vessels were sold into civilian service.

The government of the Russian Soviet Republic ordered 500 bogie tank cars. They were shipped from Montreal to Novorossiysk on Canadian Merchant Navy steamships at the end of 1921.[9]

Second World War

[edit]
CC&F Hawker Hurricane X on a test flight over Fort William, Ontario
CC&F-built Harvard Mk.4

By 1939, with war on the horizon, Canadian Car & Foundry and its Chief Engineer, Elsie MacGill, were contracted by the Royal Air Force to produce the Hawker Hurricane (Marks X, XI and XII). Refinements introduced by MacGill on the Hurricane included skis and de-icing gear. When the production of the Hurricane was complete in 1943, CC&F's workforce of 4,500 (half of them women) had built over 1,400 aircraft, about 10% of all Hurricanes built.[10][11]

Following the success of the Hurricane contract, CC&F sought out and received a production order for the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. Eventually, 834 Helldivers were produced by CC&F in various versions from SBW-1, SBW-1B, SBW-3,SBW-4E and SBW-5. Some of the Curtiss divebombers were sent directly to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease arrangements. CC&F also built the North American Harvard under licence, many of the aircraft being supplied to European air forces to train post war military pilots.

In 1944, the Canadian Car & Foundry built a revolutionary new aircraft in its Montreal shops - the Burnelli CBY-3, also called the Loadmaster. There were two examples built of an aerofoil-fuselage design originally developed by Vincent J. Burnelli. The CBY-3 was never to enter full-scale production and was cancelled less than one year later.

The work of Canadian women building fighter and bomber aircraft at the plant during the Second World War is documented in the 1999 National Film Board of Canada documentary film Rosies of the North.[10]

Postwar developments

[edit]

After the Second World War, the CC&F returned to its roots as a rail car manufacturer. They also made a successful leap into the streetcar business, supplying Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with various types of streetcars. The company concluded a licensing agreement with ACF-Brill (the successor to J. G. Brill) in 1944 to manufacture and sell throughout Canada buses and trolley coaches of ACF-Brill design as Canadian Car-Brill, in later years often written "CCF-Brill", for short. CC&F built 1,114 trolley buses[12] and a few thousand buses under the name. Trolleybus production ended in 1954; Edmonton Transit System's No. 202, a 1954 CCF-Brill T48A, was the last Brill trolleybus built for any city.[13]

Production of the Brill diesel bus continued through the 1950s. In 1960, CC&F launched an entirely new TD bus design under the Canadian Car name to compete with the General Motors New Look model, but it was not successful and production was discontinued in 1962.

In 1957, wishing to diversify, the British Hawker Siddeley Group acquired CC&F through its Canadian subsidiary, A.V. Roe Canada Ltd. In 1962, A.V. Roe Canada was dissolved when the Avro Arrow program was suddenly terminated, and its assets became part of Hawker Siddeley Canada. During the 1970s they introduced the BiLevel Coach heavy railway passenger car, which would go on to great success.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the plant built 190 Canadian Light Rail Vehicles, for the Toronto Transit Commission, to replace its aging PCC streetcars.[14]

CCF re-emerged as Can-Car Rail in 1983 as a joint division between Hawker Siddeley Canada and UTDC. The Can-Car Rail operations were based in Thunder Bay. Sold to SNC-Lavalin in 1986, a financial shakeup led to the firm being returned to the Government of Ontario, and then quickly re-sold to Bombardier Transportation. Through a series of further acquisitions, mergers and rationalisations, CC&F faded from the annals of significant Canadian manufacturers, although the company still exists today as the Alstom railcar facility in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Products

[edit]

Railway carriages

[edit]

Buses, trolleys and streetcars

[edit]

Aircraft

[edit]

Other vehicles and equipment

[edit]
  • Tanks for World War II[citation needed]
  • Bobcat (armoured personnel carrier) - 1 prototype built and project terminated; originally developed by Leyland (Canada) which was bought out by Canadian Car and Foundry (itself acquired by Avro Canada) and terminated under Hawker Siddeley Canada
  • TreeFarmer Forestry Heavy Equipment (under license from Garrett Enumclaw Co.)
  • Canada Diesel and Canada Diesel WT highway tractors.[15]

Customers

[edit]

Preservation

[edit]

Many CC&F-built buses have been preserved as historic vehicles, some in operating condition. For example, the Transit Museum Society, in Vancouver, has at least seven CC&F buses in its collection, including two CC&F-Brill trolleybuses.[16]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ "A transformational step for Alstom: completion of the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation". 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2022 – via Alstom. Press release from Alstom on the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation
  2. ^ "Sask Power Car". Saskrailmuseum.org. 11 September 2008. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
  3. ^ "Canada Car Company". Archived from the original on 20 May 2007.
  4. ^ "Kingsland N.J. Fire Loss is $16,750,000". The Sun. New York City. 13 January 1917. p. 4. Retrieved 12 January 2017 – via Library of Congress.
  5. ^ "The Kingsland Explosion". Lyndhurst Historical Society. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  6. ^ "Kingsland and Haskell Disasters". Safety Engineering. 33 (1): 28–32. January 1917 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Krueger, Andrew (20 August 2017). "99 years after two French minesweepers vanished in a Lake Superior storm, a new search aims to solve the mystery". Duluth News Tribune. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  8. ^ Trunrud, Tory (16 October 2016). "Blueberry Boat made here". Chronicle Journal. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  9. ^ Railway Rolling Stock Orders and Deliveries. Canadian Railway and Marine World. December 1921. p. 635.
  10. ^ a b Saxberg, Kelly (director) (1999). Rosies of the North. Retrieved 23 July 2012 – via National Film Board of Canada. Documentary film on the wartime role of women workers at Fort William.
  11. ^ Pigott, Peter (2002). Wings across Canada an illustrated history of Canadian aviation. Toronto, Ontario: Dundurn Press. p. 81. ISBN 9781554883790 – via Archive.org.
  12. ^ a b c Porter, Harry; Worris, Stanley F.X. (1979). Trolleybus Bulletin No. 109: Databook II. Louisville, Kentucky: North American Trackless Trolley Association (defunct). pp. 63–64.
  13. ^ Isgar, Carl F. (January–February 2009). "Preservation Update". Trolleybus Magazine. No. 283. National Trolleybus Association (UK). p. 11. ISSN 0266-7452.
  14. ^ Thompson, John (5 January 2018). "The car that saved Toronto's streetcars". Railway Age.
  15. ^ A.V. Roe Corporate Annual Report for the year ended July 31, 1957, page 15. Copy held by Rare Books and Special Collections Unit, McGill University Library
  16. ^ "The Historic Bus Fleet". Transit Museum Society. 2009. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.

Bibliography

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Canadian_Car_and_Foundry&oldid=1243994067"