Milton Car Works / ACF Industries

Milton Car Works, also, ACF Industries. Industries of Milton. , Milton Car Works, now ACF, is Milton's oldest industry. Samuel Wilson Murray, William Dougal, John McCleery, and Charles McCormick founded Murray, Dougal and Co., in 1864. , Within a year, production began with an order for ten gondola cars manufactured for the Pennsylvania Railroad. With the discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, demand arose for a more economical and efficient means of shipping barrels of oil. As a result, Milton Car Works began producing its famous vertical "wooden tubs on wheels." While this type of car, considered the world's first tank car, was manufactured for several more years, the horizontal steel tank car was soon patented, revolutionizing the industry. , By 1874, over 500 were employed at the Car Works building flat cars, gondolas, hopper gondolas, and box cars as well as non-railcar products including iron bridges and steam boilers. The plant used a good deal of lumber, and logs were floated down from Muncy Dam by way of the West Branch Canal. Including the large lumber pools, the Car Works occupied over six acres. , The fire of 1880 destroyed a good part of the plant, however, many of the buildings were rebuilt in stone as well as brick. , The American Car and Foundry Company was incorporated in 1899 in New Jersey and acquired twelve companies, including Milton Car Works. A year later, the Milton ACF facility was designated as a tank car plant. By 1907, the company filled in the old lumber pools and constructed a steel-framed preparation and erection shop as well as a new powerhouse to employ new "state-of-the-art" fabrication methods. Other large modern buildings were erected over the years. The tank seam riveting methods were replaced in the 1950's by more modern welding methods. Production levels varied at ACF over the years and other types of railcars were also produced from time to time, including covered hopper cars.