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Ralston Steel Car Co. History as found in Newspaper articles
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralston Steel Car Co. gives employment to 700 Columbus [Workers] Labor-Saving Feature of Patented freight Unit Brought $2,000,000 Industry to City Columbus Evening Dispatch, August 18, 1940 By Fred H. Posey, Dispatch Financial Editor
Frank A. Livingston, stocky silver-pated president of the Ralston Steel Car Co. needs only to take a long glance over the history the giant car manufacturing business he heads to bring himself face-to-face with a precept of business conduct which inspires good management throughout the land. That precept might be stated: “reward the man in proportion to his contribution to the business.” For, had it not been for the fact that a man, the late Joseph V. Ralston, feared he would not receive his just dues, the Ralston Steel Car Co. may never have come into existence. Ralston, at about the turn of the century, was living in Chicago, working for a large car manufacturer. In those days small wooden railroad car predominated on both freight and passenger trains, while a few men in the car industry were lending attention to he possibility of producing an all-steel vehicle. LIMITED CAPACITY Freight cars of limited capacity which had to be loaded and unloaded entirely by hand were in common use, industrialists having then only begun their intensive study of freight handling problems which brought mechanical loading and unloading machinery. Coal, then and now a major item of freight tonnage, offered the specific problem which Ralston Set out to solve. So Ralston, in collaboration with Anton Berker, young engineer, drew up plans for a new-type freight car with 16 trap-doors in the bottom, any four of which could be opened by pulling a lever at the end of the car, thus dumping one fourth of the contents. Obtaining patents to cover the invention, they had a sample car built by the Pullman Car Co. in Chicago and brought the sample down to Columbus for inspection by high railroad officials. At that time Columbus was the headquarters of the old Hocking Valley, T. & O.C. (Toledo and Ohio Central) and the Kanawha & Michigan railroads. Local railroad officials, among whom were N.S. Monsarrat, F.B. Sheldon and M.C. Connors, were enthusiastic about this patented gondola dump car. But they wouldn’t buy the car unless Ralston acquired a shop in which to build them. That posed a perplexing problem. Ralston’s cash was limited, but resourcefulness of the man made up for the difference. MAKES PROPOSITION About that time (June 1905), the bondholders of the Rarig Engineering Co. had taken over the old plant of that concern, which had gone broke during The Spanish-American war making gun carriages for the government. Ralston called the bondholders together, laid down a proposition under which he would give them certain amounts of preferred and common stock in a new corporation to be formed under the laws of Ohio – The Ralston Steel Car Co. – in exchange for their bonds in principal amount of about $125,000. The deal was accepted and Ralston went to work assembling equipment needed to manufacture his gondola car. The old Rarig machinery was practically worthless for production of railroad cars and since it took sometime to equip the plant and begin production, the cash situation of the budding company was for a time embarrassing. Again resorting to the resourcefulness which had stood him well in previous transactions, Ralston went to the railroads and got some car repair business, installing steel underframes in the old wooden cars which were then in use. And thereby hangs another good railroad yarn. The Pressed Steel Car Co., now a major competitor of the Ralston concern, had been producing steel and steel frame cars in large number and their wooden counterparts were often placed in the middle of a train of steel-framed vehicles. SMASH WOOD CARS All went well while the train was starting up in a fairly smooth manner, or when the train was running at an even speed, but when the engineer slammed on the brake the pressure of the steel cars in the rear often smashed the wood frame vehicles or otherwise rendered them unfit for further service. So the first job of the Ralston Steel Car Co. was the rebuilding of wood frame railroad cars, putting a steel skeleton into their bottoms so they could withstand the stress and strain imposed by the newer steel cars. On January 1, 1906, Mr. Livingston obtained a job as stenographer to Mr. Ralston and in the same year the plant was made ready for production of the Ralston patented gondola dump car. During the next five years the company produced about 10,000 of these units, mostly for the railroads operating through Columbus. But the cars commanded an immediate popularity elsewhere, Mr. Livingston recalls. At the at time there were few regulations to prevent one railroad from “stealing” a car from another: that is, routing the car away from its home line and keeping it in service at some distant point by paying the nominal charge of $1 per day. Hence, the Ralston car found its way to all parts of the United States - and even Asia. The company, in 1909, sold 50 cars to the South Manchurian Railway, shipped the entire order in crates to the Asiatic concern. 40 CARS PER DAY Mr. Livingston’s path led him from the position of stenographer to the accounting department, then to paymaster, then secretary-treasurer of the company, then vice president in charge of manufacture and finally, after the death of F.E. Simons in 1935, to the presidency. Mr. Simons had served as president since the death of Mr. Ralston in 1920. The Company has built as many as 40 cars per day but experience has shown that such operations are not economical and today, when the plant is turning out an order of cars, the production rate averages about 25-30 per day. The Ralston plant, representing an investment in excess of $2,000,000, employs approximately 700 men when it is working on an order. During the depression years the plant has operated only at intervals since railroads had curtailed buying of equipment and struggled to maintain their system intact with reduced freight traffic. But now, with the national defense program getting underway, business trends pointing upward and carrying with them railroad carloadings, the Ralston concern hopes once again to swing into a fairly steady year-round production. Unlike many business operations, railroad car builders cannot gauge their operations to spread an order over an entire year, as many might at first believe. When an order is obtained it must be turned out on a production basis, Just as though the company had orders for 10,000 more cars standing behind the prospective closing date. LAY GROUNDWORK Today, men are working on lathes, forges and patterns preparing some 5000 different parts for assembly in October and November into 500 box cars for the Norfolk & Western Railway Co. Then, riveting hammers will play their staccato tune on steel, carpenters and other tradesmen will come and go and East Columbus will hum for - “Ralstons are turning out cars.” And while these men are at work, Mr. Livingston and his entire staff will be plodding away, contacting railroad executives, figuring costs, making proposals, hoping to cinch another order which will mean more work for the men in the shop, more money in the pockets of East Columbus. Key men in the Ralston organization include C.L. Fox, works manager; L.C. Roy, secretary-treasurer; B.C. Hanna, vice president and manager of sales; H.E. Grashel, purchasing agent; E.L. Ardrey, secretary to the president who has served in this capacity 30 years; W.E. Osborne, production manager; F.M. Cowgill, chief engineer, and A.C. Case, auditor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralston Made First Railroad Gondolas to Order Car Plant started in 1905 Columbus Citizen, May 25, 1949
The Ralston Steel Car Co. was organized in June, 1905, for the purpose of building a 50-ton flush-floor, drop-bottom, general purpose gondola car. The company was founded by Joseph S. Ralston and Anton Becker, both of Chicago. Mr. Becker was the designer and inventor of the new type cars. A sample car for demonstration purposed was built by the Pullman Co. of Chicago. Operators of coal-hauling railroads, with offices in Columbus, were greatly pleased with the performance of the car. They were eager to place orders for great numbers of the cars which had received approval from their mechanical men. The principal reason for their interest was that this unique car could be used to haul coal from the mines to the great Lakes and make its return trip loaded with sand, brick, lumber or other commodities. Before placing actual orders for the cars, the railroads stipulated that Mr. Ralston should have a plant in which to build them. Ralston purchased the Rarig Engineering Co. plant at Rarig, Ohio, which was then idle, and it became the present site of the Ralston Steel Car Co. During the years between 1905 and 1910 over 10,000 of these patented general service cars were built. Patented steel underframes also were being built and applied to all-wood freight cars. This was during the transition period from wood freight cars to all-steel cars. In the beginning, the Ralston Steel Car Co. had a capacity of 10 complete cars daily, but the plant was enlarged until its capacity was 20-25 cars daily. On a number of occasions the company has attained records of 40 cars per day. Early officers and directors of the company included, in addition to Mr. Ralston, Col. J.D. Elliston, vice president; Willis G. Bowland, secretary-treasurer; Charles F. Johnson, Anton Becker, Stanly S. Culver, Edward N. Higgins, Edmund A. Cole, W.S. Courtright, Charles H. Boardman, C.C. Higgins, Joseph Schonthal and Alfred Brenholtz. Present officers of the company are Frank Livingston, president; Frank M. Cowgill, vice president; Leon C. Roy, secretary-treasurer. |