United States Car Company stock certificate 1894 

Great looking railroad stock cert with a classic vignette of a steam train passing through the countryside.  Green certificate was for common stock; the dark orange color was for preferred stock. Issued and not cancelled.  Dated 1894.

Incorporated in New Jersey, the company started as the New England Car Company (organized 1879) by Simeon Brownell as President and his son Frank Brownell.  With offices in Boston, they produced a number of railway cars and specialized in hopper rail cars.  Many of the railcars were produced by outside manufacturers.  A businessman and railcar tipping inventor Matthew Van Wormer had put up most of the money for the New England Car Company, and moved to the Boston area and took control of the company.

The Brownells took their agency agreement for sales outside New England and began a new company called the United States Car Company. United States Car Co. was organized with capital of $3.5 million, with plants at Hegewisch, Illinois, Anniston, Decatur, and in Cherokee County, Alabama, and at Urbana, Ohio.  In 1912, it changed its name to Western Steel Car & Foundry, which made electric steel, grey iron, and malleable iron.