Rhodes, Curry & Co.

The Rhodes Curry plant in Amherst, behind a Rhodes Curry snowplow built for the DAR

Equipment built by Rhodes, Curry & Co. in Amherst, NS.

This company was founded by Nelson Rhodes and Nathaniel Curry in the 1880s and a woodworking and construction company. It incorporated in 1891 as Rhodes Curry. Beginning by repairing railway cars, the firm moved into manufacturing railway cars of all types. In 1893, Rhodes Curry bought out the James Harris Company in Saint John and moved their works to Amherst. For a time, Rhodes Curry became the largest railway car maker in Canada, supplying all the major Canadian railways. At its peak in 1903, Rhodes Curry was making 4,000 freight cars and 60 passenger cars a year. Seeking additional resources to move into steel car construction, Rhodes Curry merged in 1909 to become the Canadian Car & Foundry Co. by joining with the Dominion Car & Foundry Co. and the Canada Car Co.. The new firm was based in Montreal and the Amherst plant was gradually downsized in the 1920s to a repair facility with few employees as production steadily shifted to western plants.^[1]

Rhodes Curry supplied the DAR with considerable rolling stock including large numbers of freight cars as well as snow plows, caboose and passenger cars.

Gallery

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  An advertisement from the December 1905 issue of The Railway and Shipping World.

References