Earliest Autorack?

[Specter3]

Found this picture on the wall of a Ford dealership in GA.

[lock4244]

Wow, 1910? The 'carriages' look Euro to me being two axles and such, but they sure seem purpose built.

[Specter3]

I thought the rolling stock looked euro as well but IIRC Ford had it's own railroad so it could be that they bought euro stock at some point?

[cv_acr]

Is it me or do the autos appear to have the driver's position on the right hand side?

This looks rather like a British photo. Those definitely don't look like North American rolling stock.

[cv_acr]

This is a few decades later (car originally built in the 1940s), but American railroads definitely had end-door cars of the same concept.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn740310&o=cn

[Bob Bufkin]

Yes, and I believe it's Atlas that has one in N.  I've got a couple just don't remember who made them.

[peteski]

Is it me or do the autos appear to have the driver's position on the right hand side?

This looks rather like a British photo. Those definitely don't look like North American rolling stock.

Early American horseless carriages had right-hand steering.  They do look like Fords to me. But I have no clue as to feasibility of 2-axle boxcars being US-prototype.

[nkalanaga]

Those cars look too narrow for North American standard gauge, even in the early 1900s.  Also, note that there seems to be no roofwalk, which any NA boxcar would have had at that time.  I'd agree with Chris that it's probably a British picture.

[Hyperion]

The picture is clearly captioned right on the negative as "Highland Park Plant - 1910", which was a production facility for the Model T in the United States.

[delamaize]

The picture is clearly captioned right on the negative as "Highland Park Plant - 1910", which was a production facility for the Model T in the United States.

the watermark looks like it is more modern than the picture. I wonder if this is in England, Maybe Fords built here, shipped to england, and shipped out on train from there.

[Chris333]

better pic:
http://photos.speedtv.com/gallery/100th_Anniversary_of_the_Ford_Model_T/slideshow/Model_T_Loading_Rail_1910/08IP3oicB6eJ0

[cv_acr]

the watermark looks like it is more modern than the picture. I wonder if this is in England, Maybe Fords built here, shipped to england, and shipped out on train from there.

I agree, this is probably at a port in Europe, not the assembly plant.

[nkalanaga]

Or, it could be an in-plant industrial line, and the cars were reloaded into standard freight cars elsewhere.  A short 4-wheel car could probably take sharper curves than the standard cars.  These certainly aren't anything that would have run on the "steam roads" in that era.

[termite]

I don't know about the ones built in 1910, but, as someone who spent his youth helping my grandfather restore many model T's, I know that from 1915 on, the steering wheel was on the left side. Also, a little known fact: prior to 1920 or so, there was no door for the driver, just a raised outline in the shape of a door. The front seat passenger had to wait for the driver to get in before they could.

Alan

[delamaize]

I don't know about the ones built in 1910, but, as someone who spent his youth helping my grandfather restore many model T's, I know that from 1915 on, the steering wheel was on the left side. Also, a little known fact: prior to 1920 or so, there was no door for the driver, just a raised outline in the shape of a door. The front seat passenger had to wait for the driver to get in before they could.

Alan

it appears that the drivers are on the right in this shot, I wonder if the picture is mirrored.