MADE
IN HAMILTON
20TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL
SITE
15
NATIONAL
STEEL CAR COMPANY LTD., 1912
Located
at the foot of Kenilworth Avenue, National Steel Car (NSC) is Canada's largest
manufacturer of railway cars. In 1912, a number of local businessmen formed
the Imperial Car Company and announced plans to build a massive factory at Coote's
Paradise (now an outstanding nature sanctuary) in the west end of the city.
Luckily, a last minute land deal relocated the proposed plant to this site.
The company began production late that year under the name National Steel Car
Company Ltd.
Railway car manufacture has always been the primary business of this company. At first, workers at NSC produced wooden boxcars, branching out into passenger cars soon after. During both world wars the plant's highly skilled workforce switched to the production of shells, artillery wagons, gun mounts, army truck bodies, field kitchens and other military items. Its peacetime product line has included motor trucks, buses and bus bodies, streetcars, automobile chassis and motorboats. National Steel Car was purchased by Dofasco in 1962.
A Hard Plant to Organize
"National Steel Car employed a lot of transient workers. They would hire them
when they had orders for cars and shut down afterward. The Steelworkers spent
months organizing this plant. We were down at the gates at five in the morning
in the winter handing out leaflets. It was hard, but much to my surprise we
got in. "
Ken O'Neill, retired steelworker
Workers in this plant are organized as United Steelworkers of America Local 4752.
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