ALCO: Railroad Company That Built Cars
This 1912 ALCO 9–60 was a 7-passenger touring sedan built by American Locomotive Co. in Providence, R.I. ALCO also was the coachbuilder.
The T-head, six-cylinder, 579.5-cubic-inch engine boasted 70 horsepower. When new, it cost a substantial amount for the era: $6,000.
“ALCO was built to very high standards by the famous steam locomotive company,” according to The Nethercutt Collection, where this photo was taken in 2010. “Only two or three ALCOs are known to be in existence today.”
According to “The Nethercutt Collection: The Cars of San Sylmar” — a book I highly recommend buying if you love cars, ALCO actually boasted about the steep price for its cars because the company felt the quality deserved a high price. It was a price touted by ALCO as the highest in the United States, but that wasn’t entirely true.
The book notes that the price eliminated about 95 percent of potential car buyers in the United States. Popular cars at the time were Cadillac, Packard and Oldsmobile.
ALCO found a niche market and manufactured cars from 1905 to 1913; however, because the cars were basically hand-built, manufacturing them was painstakingly slow.
The cars were anything but slow, with ALCO cars winning the what the book called “the prestigious Vanderbilt Cup in 1909 and 1910.
While that was helpful for the make’s reputation, it didn’t help sales. The high price was also compromised by the length of time it took to build one of these masterpieces: 19 months. Making matter worse, “The Nethercutt Collection” said ALCO noted that it lost $460 on each car built.
It is interesting to note that ALCO resulted from the merger of eight railroad builders. With expertise regarding metals, ALCO chose to “build atop a chassis of vanadium, described as the ‘anti-fatigue metal,’ and fitted with a live rear axle forged in one piece by the drop-hammer in the world,” according to “The Nethercutt Collection.
In 1913, the book notes that ALCO decided to stop its foray into the automotive market and “focused its efforts on building steam and diesel locomotives.”
