Barney and Smith Car Company

The Barney and Smith Car Company is a former railroad car manufacturer, located in Dayton, Ohio.

History

Founded in 1849 by Eliam Eliakim Barney and Ebenezer Thresher as Thresher, Packard & Company, it changed names as partners came and went:

• 1850: E. Thresher & Company
• 1854: Barney, Parker & Company - after Caleb Parker joined the firm
• 1867: Barney & Smith Manufacturing Company - joined by E.E. Barney, Preserved Smith, J.D. Platt, E.J. Barney and A.E.E. Stevens
• 1892: The Barney & Smith Car Company

Barney & Smith faced challenges from bigger railcar makers in the late 1890s and early 1900s and went into receivership in 1913, when the Great Dayton Flood damaged its facilities; the company finally disappeared in 1921.

Products

• railway passenger cars
• electric street railways (trams or trolley cars)
• interurban railcars
• wooden cars for Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad in Chicago
• railroad chapel cars

Further reading

• Mid-Continent Railway Museum, Barney & Smith Car Company
• Wikipedia, Barney and Smith Car Company