Elcar And Pratt Automobiles

A surprisingly little-known marque today, Elcar once ranked among the finest vehicles on American roads. Built to exacting standards in Elkhart, Indiana, an Elcar could compete head-to-head on the basis of performance, quality, or price with the products of much larger manufacturers. Ultimately done in by weak distribution and the ravages of the Depression, Elcar today stands as an example of an ambitious company that transformed itself, successfully if temporarily, from a maker of buggies and harnesses into a respected car manufacturer in the early days of the automotive age. This remarkably exhaustive history, researched over several decades from all available sources, including interviews with former Elcar employees, details all Elcar models and the Pratt vehicles that preceded them, as well as the personalities behind the cars. Extensive appendices provide a complete model history, with specifications; a full corporate chronology; an illustrated accounting of all Elcars and Pratts known to survive whole or in part today; a roster of company employees; a descriptive list of all ads and brochures ever produced by the company; and a wealth of other data that can be found nowhere else. Lavishly illustrated and surpassingly thorough, this book is a well of information on a significant but forgotten line of automobiles.

Cars today fit a fairly small number of body types—sedan, coupe, station wagon, SUV, hatchback and a few others. The meanings of these familiar terms have changed over the decades as automotive design has evolved. Along the way, a greater number of earlier body types have fallen out of use and become historical curiosities. Who today can identify a charabanc, a dos-à-dos or even a phaeton? This expanded second edition defines all distinct body types since the early days of the automobile, many of which were derived from horse-drawn vehicles. Entries, many including clear line drawings, describe popular types and variations from different countries and time periods as well as terms for body components. Subtypes and subtle distinctions are explained and common misuses of terms and designations are clarified.

Studebaker and the Railroads is a history of the Studebaker Corporation and of the railroads that served it in and around the city of South Bend, Indiana. Both Studebaker and the railroads of northern Indiana have extensive and dramatic histories and there are many connections between the two. Studebaker lovers and railfans will equally enjoy the stories and facts reported.Divided into two volumes, Studebaker and the Railroads comprises over four hundred fifty pages and contains over three hundred fifty photographs, drawings, maps and diagrams.Volume 1 covers the Studebaker and the steam railroads that once decorated South Bend. Volume 2 covers the extensive electric railroad history of the area and includes a history of Studebaker's private in-plant railroad, the Chicago & South Bend, together with additional topics linking Studebaker and railroading. Both volumes feature detailed indexes. Volume 2 includes an extensive bibliography, numerous maps, and corporate history charts.

Pioneers of the U.S. Automobile Industry uses four separate volumes to explore the essential components that helped build the American automobile industry - the people, the companies and the designs. This volume uses more than 450 photos to help weave the story of the risk-takers who helped shape the automotive industry from the very beginning. Pioneers and companies covered in this edition include: Charles and Frank Duryea Studebaker The Pratt Family and the Elcar Motor Care Company Joseph Moon Russell Gardner Louis Clarke George Pierce and Charles Clifton Packard/Joy/Macauley and the Packard Motor Car Company Edwin Thomas Ransom Olds Peerless Fred and August Duesenberg Kissel Brothers Hupp / Drake / Hastings / Young and the Hupp Motor Car Corporation Walter Flanders Chapin / Coffin / Bezner / Jackson / Hudson / McAneeny and The Hudson Motor Car Company Harry Stutz Harry Ford Graham Brothers Charles Nash

This one-of-a-kind reference work provides essential data on some 10,700 manufacturers of automobiles, beginning with the earliest vehicle that might be so termed (Frenchman Nicolas Cugnot's steam carriage, in 1770) and covering all nations in which automobiles have been built--67 in all. Not an encyclopedia or collection of histories, this is instead a very complete registry providing essential facts about the manufacturers: complete name, location, years active, type(s) of vehicles built, and other basic data. Compiled during more than 30 years of research, this reference even lists companies that produced just one car. Any builder of passenger-carrying vehicles on at least two but no more than eight wheels, of any design, either mass produced or built as one-off specials, experimental cars, prototypes, or kit cars, is included. Builders of internal combustion, steam and electric powered vehicles are all covered; companies that built only trucks, buses, racing cars, or motorcycles are not included. From A.A.A. to Zzipper and Argentina to Yugoslavia, this is an astonishingly comprehensive resource.

By the start of the twentieth century railroads crisscrossed the nation, yet there were still those who believed that the railroad network in the United States was far from complete. Residents of small towns lacking rail access lobbied hard for steam and electric roads to serve their communities, and investors eagerly started new ventures that would fill the gaps in the railway map. While some of these roads enjoyed a degree of success, most of them were financial flops even before the rise of the highway system made them obsolete.In Twilight Rails, H. Roger Grant—one of the leading railroad historians working today—documents the stories of eight Midwestern carriers that appeared at the end of the railroad building craze. When historians have reflected on these “twilight” carriers, they have suggested that they were relevant only as examples of unwise business ventures. Grant finds that even the weakest railroads were important to the communities they served; the arrival of the railroad was cause for great celebration as residents were finally connected to the outside world. A railroad’s construction pumped money into local economies, farmers and manufacturers gained access to better markets, and the excitement generated by a new line often increased land values and inspired expansion of local businesses. Even the least financially successful carriers, Grant argues, managed to significantly improve their local economies.This thorough and highly accessible history provides a fascinating look at the motivations, accomplishments, and failures of the twilight carriers, granting a new breath of life to this neglected aspect of American railway history.

Pioneers of the U.S. Automobile Industry uses four separate volumes to explore the essential components that helped build the American automobile industry - the people, the companies and the designs. This volume uses more than 450 photos to help weave the story of the risk-takers who helped shape the automotive industry from the very beginning. Pioneers and companies covered in this edition include: Charles and Frank Duryea Studebaker The Pratt Family and the Elcar Motor Care Company Joseph Moon Russell Gardner Louis Clarke George Pierce and Charles Clifton Packard/Joy/Macauley and the Packard Motor Car Company Edwin Thomas Ransom Olds Peerless Fred and August Duesenberg Kissel Brothers Hupp / Drake / Hastings / Young and the Hupp Motor Car Corporation Walter Flanders Chapin / Coffin / Bezner / Jackson / Hudson / McAneeny and The Hudson Motor Car Company Harry Stutz Harry Ford Graham Brothers Charles Nash