{{short description|Former American rolling stock manufacturer}} {{Infobox company | name = Wason Manufacturing Company | logo = WasonMfg.svg | image = Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield, Mass. - railway car builders, car wheels and general railway, work - sketched & on stone by Parsons & Atwater. LCCN2006680112 (Cropped).jpg | image_caption = An 1876 engraving of the company's works in Springfield | type = Subsidiary (after 1906) | industry = | fate = Purchased by J. G. Brill and Company in 1906, dissolved in 1932 | predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = --> | successor = <!-- or: | successors = --> | founded = 1845 | founders = Thomas W. Wason<br>Charles Wason | defunct = 1932 | hq_location_city = Springfield, Massachusetts | hq_location_country = United States | area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = --> | key_people = H. S. Hyde<br>George C. Fisk | products = Trams, railcars | owner = J. G. Brill Company | num_employees = | num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) --> | parent = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> }} [[File:WasonPlowsOfManchesterNh.jpg|thumb|Wason plows from the Wason Manufacturing Company in Manchester, NH. (1909)<ref>{{Citation |last=Lane Genealogy |title=Wason snow plows of the Manchester (NH) Street Railroad - 1909 |date=2015-04-18 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/17186756605/ |access-date=2022-03-25}}</ref> Note the sign advertising Cuban cigars.<ref>{{Citation |last=Lane Genealogy |title=Wason snow plows of the Manchester (NH) Street Railroad - 1909 |date=2015-04-18 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/17186756605/ |access-date=2022-03-25}}</ref>]]{{multiple image | direction = vertical | width = 230 | align = left | footer = A surviving example of a Wason tram, at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum; the ornate state carriage built for Sa'id of Egypt in 1860 | image1 = Streetcar 10 operating at Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, September 2018.JPG | image2 = State carriage for his highness the Vice-roy of Egypt-Built by T.W. Wason & Co., Springfield, Mass., U.S. - Des. & lith. by Bingham, Dodd & Co., Hartford, Conn. LCCN92501105.jpg }} The '''Wason Manufacturing Company''' was a maker of Trolleys & Passenger railroad cars during the Progressive Era until the Great Depression. The company was founded in 1845 in Springfield, Massachusetts by Charles Wason (1816-1888) and Thomas Wason (1811-1870).<ref name="Midcontinent">Mid-Continent Railway Museum. North Freedom, WI. [http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/wason1.htm "Wason Manufacturing Company."] ''Builders of Wooden Railway Cars.'' Accessed 2011-01-18.</ref> Although the concept would later be popularized by the Pullman Company, Wason was the first to manufacture sleeping cars in America.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bianculli|first=Anthony J. |title=Trains and Technology: the American Railroad in the Nineteenth Century. Vol. 2, Cars. |year=2002 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |location=Newark, Del. [u.a.] |isbn=0-87413-730-6 |page=52}}</ref>

Wason's earliest clients included the Michigan Southern Railroad (1846–1855), Alton Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and Boston and Maine Railroad, as well as foreign operators such as the State Railway of Chile, and Egyptian National Railways, providing the latter with 161 cars as well as an ornate state carriage for Sa'id of Egypt, the viceroy at that time.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lost Springfield, Massachusetts|last=Strahan|first=Derek|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2017|page=70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpOPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA70}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=History of the J. G. Brill Company|page=100|last=Brill|first=Debra|year=2001|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqKKrMi3FIIC&pg=PA99}}</ref> By 1867 the company had about 300 employees.<ref name="Midcontinent" /> The company made the first passenger coaches used on the Transcontinental railroad. One of these became the personal rail car of Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific Railroad. By 1868 the company had consolidated with the Springfield Machine Company, keeping the name Wason Manufacturing.<ref name="card">[http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/CorpWeb/CardSearch/CardSearch.aspx &#91;Query- "Wason Manufacturing Company"&#93;], Massachusetts Corp. Card Search, Corporation Cards of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Commonwealth</ref>

Around 1900 Wason concentrated on manufacturing streetcars and electrified railway cars. Clients included the Holyoke Street Railway Company and Manhattan Railway Company. The company became a subsidiary of J. G. Brill and Company in 1906. It continued to manufacture both streetcars and conventional railroad cars until 1932, when the Great Depression forced Brill to close the plant.<ref name="Midcontinent" />

One of the only surviving examples of a Wason coach can be found at the California State Railroad Museum's Railtown facility in Jamestown, California, located in the Sierra foothills. Wason streetcars on display at museums include 13 streetcars, interurban cars, and rapid transit cars at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME; an 1896 model at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum (Mass.)<ref>Barten, Alfred (1999). [http://www.sftm.org/history.shtml "Recalling the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway."] Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum.</ref> and a 1901 model at the Connecticut Trolley Museum.<ref>Connecticut Trolley Museum. East Windsor, CT. [http://www.ct-trolley.org/museum/streetcars.php "Our Collection - Streetcars."] Accessed 2011-01-18.</ref>

Wason was a prominent manufacturer of trolley plows and street cleaning equipment. Philadelphia and Western #10, built by Wason in 1915, was the last street railway plow to operate in the United States. It is preserved at the Rock Hill Trolley Museum in Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-03-04 |title=P&W Plow #10 » Rockhill Trolley Museum |url=https://rockhilltrolley.org/pw-plow-10/ |access-date=2022-03-25 |website=Rockhill Trolley Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed"> File:The Street railway journal (1905) (14758288661).jpg|Woronoco #100 c.1880s|alt=Western Massachusetts Street Railway Company car File:The street railway review (1891) (14779848853).jpg|Wason built fire engine as street car for Springfield Fire Department </gallery>

==See also== *List of rolling stock manufacturers *Wason-Springfield Steam Power Blocks, historic site *[https://digitalmaine.com/trolley_blueprints NERHS Blueprints Collection at DigitalMaine], archive containing high-quality scans of Wason-made railcar blueprints digitized by the Seashore Trolley Museum. *See also; [https://digitalmaine.com/trolley_images/ NERHS Trolley Images Collection at DigitalMaine], the largest online archive of Wason railcar order photographs containing over 1,500 images of Wason trams and other railcars digitized in ultra high quality by the Trolley Museum from original negatives.

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Category:Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of the United States Category:Manufacturing companies based in Springfield, Massachusetts Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1845 Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1932 Category:1845 establishments in Massachusetts Category:1932 disestablishments in Massachusetts Category:1906 mergers and acquisitions Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in Massachusetts Category:J. G. Brill Company