HVRR gondolas in the Ralston Steel Car Company facility

Three Hocking Valley Railroad (HVRR) gondolas are in the Ralston Steel Car Company facility for repairs. Men in the foreground of this photograph seem to be putting in track. For forty-eight years the Ralston Steel Car Co. was a fixture on the eastside of Columbus, Ohio. It purchased its facilities from the Rarig Engineering Co. in 1905, and was bounded on the west by Cassady Ave, the south by the Pennsylvania Railroad/Baltimore and Ohio Railroad shared trackage and on the north by Fourth Street. The original purchase was 10 acres which would grow to about 24 acres over the years. Joseph S. Ralston and Anton Becker, both of Chicago, were entering the freight car business at a prime time. One of Ralston's very first commercial activities involved installing steel underframes in older wooden cars. The Ralston Co. was a big success expanding rapidly in its first eight years, however, the railroads eventually fell onto hard times and by 1953 the Ralston Co. couldn't continue as a freight car manufacturer or make a go of it repairing freight cars. The company declared bankruptcy and the facility evolved into a warehouse service.