Canada Car and Foundry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) also variously known as "Canadian Car and Foundry," or more familiarly as "Can Car," manufactured buses, railroad rolling stock 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 of Avro Canada in the late 1950s.
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[edit] History
Canada Car & Foundry (CC&F) was established in 1909 in Montreal as the result of an amalgamation of three other companies: Rhodes Curry Company of Amherst, N.S., Canada Car Company of Turcot, Quebec and Dominion Car & Foundry Company, of Montreal.
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, Quebec, the largest producer of steel castings in Canada and the Ontario Iron & Steel Company, Ltd. at Welland, Ontario, both a steel foundry and a rolling mill.
A few years later, CC&F acquired the assets of Pratt and Letchworth, a Brantford, Ontario, rail car manufacturer. In the latter timeframe of the First World War, the expanding company opened a new plant in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to manufacture rail cars and ships.
[edit] The Second World War
By 1939, with war on the horizon, Canada Car & Foundry and its Chief Engineer, Elsie MacGill, were contracted by the RAF to produce the Hawker Hurricane. Refinements introduced by MacGill on the Hurricane included skis and de-icing controls for operating in the winter. MacGill's success with the Hurricane earned her the nickname: "Queen of the Hurricanes." She was even featured in a comic book in the US under that name. When the production of the Hurricane was complete in 1943, CC&Fs workforce of 4500 (half of them women), had built over 1400 aircraft.
Following the success of the Hurricane contract, CC&F sought out and received a production order for the troublesome SB2C Curtiss Helldiver. A continuous stream of specification changes from the Curtiss aircraft designers jeopardized the mass production of the aircraft. 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.
In 1944, the Canada Car & Foundry built a revolutionary new aircraft in its Montreal shops designated the CBY-3, also called the Loadmaster. There were two examples built of a "flying-wing" design originally developed by Vincent J. Burnelli. The CBY-3 was in some ways, far superior to the planes of its day (its primary competition was the DC-3 Dakota) in terms of cargo lifting capacity and overall performance, but the CBY-3 was fated never to enter full-scale production and was cancelled less than one year later.
[edit] 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 and the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with various types of streetcars.The company's products were mostly from J.G. Brill and Company's roster. Buses were produced at Fort William, Ontario and railcars in Montreal. Streetcars were manufactured between 1897 to 1913, but it focused on rebuild only after 1913.
In 1957, wishing to diversify, the British aircraft company - A.V. Roe Canada Company, acquired CC&F. Through a series of further acquisitions and inevitable mergers and rationalisations, the CC&F faded from the annals of significant Canadian manufacturers, although the company still exists today.
[edit] Products
Transit
- Brill T44 trolley
- Brill 44S trolley bus
- Brill T48A trolley bus
- President Conference Committee Car A6 SE DT
- President Conference Committee Car A7 SE DT
- President Conference Committee Car A8 SE DT
- Small Peter Witt
- Large Peter Witt with trailers
Other
- Tanks for World War II
- cars for the Intercolonial Railway
- cars for the Grand Trunk Railway
- cars for the Grand Trunk Pacific
- cars for the Canadian Northern Railways
- cars for the Canadian Pacific Railway
- cars for the Canadian National Railways
Aircraft
- Maple Leaf Trainer II
- Hawker Hurricane (under license)
- Curtiss SBW Helldiver (under license)
- CC&F CBY-3 Loadmaster
- Beechcraft T-34 Mentor (under license)
[edit] See also
[edit] Clients
- Toronto Transportation Commission
- Intercolonial Railways
- Grand Trunk Railway
- Canadian Northern Railways
- Canadian Pacific Railway
- Canadian National Railways
- Hamilton Street Railway
- Société de transport de Montréal
- Edmonton Transit System
[edit] External links
- Brill Trolley
- Avroland - Canadian Car and Foundry
- Transit Toronto All Canadian PCC
- On A Streak of Lightning Electric Railways Cars in Canada, J.E. Martin, p99.
