Clark Car Company

[Charles Brown]

Greetings!

In going thru the PR workcar roster, I found 6 cars that were built by
the Clark Car Company in 1914.  They are dump cars M500-M505.  M502 was
later converted into workcar M541.  This is the car that has the
unusally large diameter wheels which was mentioned several weeks ago (in
case any of you actually read postings about workcars).  Thru the
generousity of Bill Vigrass and Bob Schmidt, I now have a photo of the
car which clearly shows the large wheels (many thanks Bill and Bob).

My question is:  Did the Clark Car Company primarily build dump cars for
mainline railroad service rather than trolley companies?  That might
explain why the wheels are so large.  And does anyone have any history
of this company?  I checked the Railway Car Builders of the US and
Canada book and found their listing which simply stated "Active during
'20's, Hoppers, Dumps, etc. of standard railroad types."  I seem to
recall that they went on to build some weird looking trucks for some
fancy-schmancy streamlined cars.

Charlie

Charlesebrown at webtv.net