Railway Car Builders of North America

Company	Plant Location	Date	Successor, Comments or Cross-reference
Napanee Industries, Ltd.	ON	1965-1967
Nashville Mfg. Co.	Nashville, TN	1851-1859	Produced marine engines, boilers, and other machinery in addition to freight cars. Also produced perhaps a dozen locos. To M. Jacker Company
National Anti-Friction Car Box Co.	IL	c1881	A paper corporation organized in New York by James Henry Langley as a tool to swindle investors. Never built anything. "Car box" is an archaic name for the journal box, a cast iron box or case that houses the axle bearings of a railway car. (Related Langley corporations were the Chaplin Anti-Friction Car Box Co. (IL), Anti-Friction Journal Bearing Company (NY), and United States Construction & Investment Company.)
National Car Co.	St. Albans, VT	1870s-1914	Never operated a car shop of its own.
National Car Repair Shops, Inc.		????-1954?
National Despatch Line		1869-1914	Private car line established by Grand Trunk, Vermont Central, Rutland and Boston & Lowell railroads. Corporation dissolved 1914 but one branch continued on as Chicago, New York & Boston Refrigerator Company. [W/F-131] Bought numerous refrigerator cars from Tiffany Refrigerator Car Co.; doubtful but not certain it built any cars.
National Dump Car Co.	Maine	c1907-c1912
National Iron Works National Locomotive Works (?)	Connellsville, PA	1871-1878	(More generally known as "Dawson & Baily." ) Early partners in this business were William H. Baily, George F. Dawson, and John Y. Smith (the latter a former associate of H.K. Porter), Smith withdrew 1872. Produced some 260 locomotives, primarily industrial and narrow gauge. Produced no known cars..
National Iron Works	San Francisco		Marschutz & Cantrell
National Locomotive Works			Dawson & Baily
National Railway Equipment		1911	Now the name of a diesel locomotive rebuilder. Unknown whether this is a predecessor company.
National Railway Utilization Company	Pickens, SC	1976-??	A railroad car leasing and managing corporation born out of the ICC decision to allow Incentive Per Diem rates to go into effect. This spurred investment in car fleets by many seeking tax shelters and that required firms such as NRUC to manage them. NRUC went through Chapter 11 reorganization in 1986 after ICC repealed these rules. As of August 23, 1991, name was changed to Emergent Group, Inc. As of 2003, name was HomeGold Financial, Inc., and it has no rail-related operations.
National Safety Car & Equipment Co.	St. Louis, MO	c1920/22	PE known to have ordered 200 gondola dump cars in 1922.
National Steel Car Co. Ltd. [This is an off-site link.]	Hamilton, ON	1912-1919	From Imperial Car Company To National Steel Car Corp., Ltd.
National Steel Car Corp. Ltd. [This is an off-site link.]	Hamilton, ON Had offices in NYC ca. 1930	1919-2004+	From National Steel Car Company Listed under "Car Builders" in White-Orr's 1930 Classified Business Directory NYC section. (Acquired by Dominion Foundries & Steel, Ltd. in 1962 but continued under NSCC name.)
National Tank Co.	Tulsa, OK	1966-??	Originally a Delaware Corp.
National Tube Works	Boston, MA McKeesport, PA	c1875-1879+	Built B.J. La Mothe's iron gas-pipe cars.
Nettleton & Bartlett	Springfield, MA	c1849/50	Advertised they had a Railroad Car Manufactory capable of building “Passenger, Post Office, Baggage, Freight and Hand Cars” and particularly their new dumping cars; also testimonial from Western Railroad for cars built for them. {4}
Newburyport Car Mfg. Co.	Newburyport, MA	1887-1905	From Evans & Patriquin
New Castle Car Mfg. Co.	New Castle, PA	1890s
New Castle Mfg. Co.	New Castle, DE	1833-1858	Built some 75 locomotives, no known cars. (See R&LHS Bulletin 18, June 1928.)
New City Car Co.	Chicago. IL	1923-1925
New England Car Co.	Boston, MA	c1850-c1875?	Marketed Screw Lever Dump Cars built according to patents of Matthew Van Wormer. Wason built their first cars, and may have built all of them. To United States Car Company.
New England Car Co., Inc.	Vermont		Organized by men associated with the Burlington & Rutland, the Rutland & Washington, and other railroads serving the southwest corner of Vermont. Envisioned as a fast freight line. Unknown how successful it was. Charter provided for car building, but doubtful it ever did build cars.
New England Car Co.		c1918-c1968
New England Steam Car Co.	Boston, MA?	c1866/76	Built steam-powered self-propelled cars according to patents held by Joseph P. Woodbury of Boston.
New Haven Car Co. Newhall, George T. (George T. Newhall)	New Haven, CT	c1866-c1879	Newhall was a carriage builder who decided to use steam power to drive his machinery, with stunning results. He also decided to
New Jersey Loco. & Machine Works	Paterson, NJ	1851-1867	Reorganization of Swinburne, Smith & Company Principle partners were James Jackson and Samuel Smith. Known as a locomotive builder; doubtful it ever built cars. To Grant Locomotive Works
New Orleans City RR Co.	New Orleans, LA	1870-1890
New Orleans Public Svc., Inc.	New Orleans, LA
Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.	Newport News, VA	1922-1925	C&O known to have ordered 1,500 hopper cars in 1922.
N.Y. Central Sleeping Car Co.	New York, NY	1858-1869	(Unknown whether it actually built any cars or simply had them built for them.) To Wagner Palace Car Company
New York Equipment Co.			Dealers, not builders.
New York Iron Car Company		c1872-1882	(LaMothe's iron gas-pipe cars.) To United States Tube Rolling Stock Company
New York Locomotive Works	Rome, NY	1881-1893	Locomotive builder. Reorganized as Rome Locomotive & Machine Works, specializing in repair and rebuilding.
New York Locomotive Works	Jersey City, NJ	c1855	Built La Mothe’s first iron passenger car.
Niagara Car Wheel Company	Depew, NY	-1899	One of the original companies consolidated into American Car & Foundry.
Niles Boiler Works		1902
Niles Car & Manufacturing Co.	Niles, OH	1901-1917
Niles & Company	Cincinnati, OH	1842(1851)-(1857)1858	Producer of sugar mills and related machinery, begun by J.S. and J.M. Niles, built about 100 locomotives, no known cars. (See J.H. White, Cincinnati Locomotive Builders, 1965.)
Noble Brothers	Rome, GA	1870s
Noble Bros. & Co.	Rome, GA	1880s
James Noble & Son	Rome, GA	1855-1864	Est. by James and Samuel Noble, foundrymen from Reading, PA. Built a few locos between 1855 and 1860. Predecessor to Noble Brothers (?) No known cars.
Norris Locomotive Works	Philadelphia, PA	1831-(1865)1873	Founded by William Norris and Stephen H. Long as the American Steam Carriage Company. After several years, Long was replaced by Joseph Harrison. After business failure in 1841, Richard Norris and his son Henry L. Norris took over. Firm went into decline ca. 1865 due to disinterest on the part of Richard, who had grown quite wealthy. Doubtful they ever built cars of any sort. (See R&LHS Bulletin 79, March 1950; Railroadians of America Book 2, 1940; Railroad History 150, Spring 1984; White, History of the American Locomotive.)
North American Car Company	Chicago, IL Coffeyville, KS	1919-1975	NATX
North American Car Co.	Chicago Ridge, IL and Texarkana, TX	1955-1978+	ca. 1926 was primarily a rebuilder
North American Car Corp.	Offices: Chicago, IL	c1939
North Carolina Car Co.	Raleigh, NC	1882-1887+	PDRO87
Northern Car Co.	Chicago/Minneapolis Robbinsdale, MN?	1889-1895	From Robinson & Moan
North Pacific Iron Works	Seattle, WA	1881-??	Built at least one industrial locomotive, no known cars.
Northumberland Car & Mfg. Co.	Northumberland, PA	1870s
North-Western Manufacturing Car Co.	Stillwater, MN	1880s	North-Western Manufacturing Car Co. is listed under “Car Builders” in 1877 edition, Poor’s Directory of Railway Officials.
Norwich Car Co.	Norwich, CT	1847-1853
Nova Scotia Car Company	Halifax, NS	1910-1911	To Nova Scotia Car Works, Ltd.
Nova Scotia Car Works, Ltd.	Halifax, NS	1911-1914	Combination of Nova Scotia Car Company and Silliker Car Company.
Nova Scotia Car Works			Nova Scotia Car Company
Nova Scotia Railway		c1860
Company	Plant Location	Date	Successor, Comments or Cross-reference

Railway Car Builders of North America

An ever-growing list of all independent builders.

19 April 2006