Railroad Cars to Go

Railroad Cars to Go. . The Ohio Falls Car Works and Locomotive Company was founded in 1864 at a village known as Ohio Falls, which is now part of the Clarksville-Jeffersonville area. Two years later, the company's management was taken over by Joseph White Sprague, whose leadership brought success to the young company. Soon they were supplying boxcars, flatcars and hopper cars to railroads throughout the nation. They also manufactured streetcars., A massive fire in 1872 burned the plant to the ground, and it was rebuilt with brick. The financial panic of 1873 caused a slowdown in the purchase of railroad cars and the company was shut down for two years. It emerged, re-organized, as the Ohio Falls Car Manufacturing Company in 1876, and became one of the most profitable of the car builders., During World War I, the plant turned to producing escort wagons, wagon wheels and nose forgings for shells for the U.S. Army. The company developed the Rolling Kitchen for use on the front lines during the war, and the Phillips Packsaddle, a device for mules to carry Howitzer components and other large loads. Due to a slump in the purchase of railroad cars in the 1920s, the plant closed in 1930. It was opened again briefly during World War II to supply castings and shell forgings to other plants, but permanently closed in 1945., Many of the Victorian buildings survive today, and the complex has been adaptively re-used as Watertower Square.