J. G. Brill and Company

J. G. Brill and Company manufactured streetcars and buses in the United States. The company was founded by John George Brill in 1868 as a horsecar manufacturing firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was taken over by the American Car and Foundry Company in 1926. In 1944 the Brill Corporation and American Car and Foundry Motors Company were merged as ACF-Brill. ACF sold its interest in ACF-Brill on January 31, 1946 to Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation fot $7.5 million. Consolidated Vultee sold on November 6 1947 to the Nashville Corporation, which sold its share to an investment firm Allen & Co headed by Charles Allen Jr on June 11 1951. In early 1954 ACF-Brill ceased production and subcontracted remaining orders, mainly military. The properties were sold, and on December 30 1955 the company was merged with supermarket companies into ACF-Wrigley Stores, Inc. Brill manufactured over 45,000 trolleys, buses and railroad cars. At its zenith, it was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurbans in the United States. ACF-Brill announced in 1944 that Canadian Car and Foundry of Montreal, Quebec were licensed to manufacture and sell throughout Canada buses and trolley coaches of their design as Canadian Car-Brill; the firm built about 1,100 trolley buses and a few thousand buses under the name.

Products

• Fageol/Brill Twin Coach 44S
• Birney safety car - by subsidiary, the American Car Company
• Brill "Bullet" car
• Brilliner streetcar
• C-36 city bus
• IC-41 intercity bus
• Peter Witt - Large and Small; trailer

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was a client of Brill's buses and streetcars:TTC Streetcar roster

Clients

• Toronto Transportation Commission
• Hamilton Street Railway
• Erie Railroad
• South Australian Railways

Companies

The American Car & Foundry Co. controlled, as of January 26, 1926:

• The Brill Corporation, which controlled (Brill page 165):

(1) American Car & Foundry Motors Co: owned Hall-Scott Motor Car Co (owned 100%) and Fageol Motors (Ohio) (controlled 90%)

(2) The J. G Brill Company (owned 100% of) American Car Co., Kuhlman Car Co., Wason Mfg Co. & Cie J. G Brill (Gallardon, France) which was sold to Electroforge in 1935

References

• History of the J. G. Brill Company by Debra Brill (2001, Indiana University Press, Bloomington) ISBN 0-253-33949-9 (She is a great-great-great-granddaughter of company founder John George Brill).

External links

• History of J. G. Brill Company
• Brill Bullet
• Brilliner
• Photos of Red Arrow Trolleys, including Brill cars
• Iron Horse 1/29