# Gregg Manufacturing Ltd.



## Jeff Livingston (Jan 2, 2008)

I can't seem to find much about this company even though they appear to still be in operation. From what I know Gregg made a large variety of sugar cane cars, portable track and other equipment related to the sugar industry. They also made steel framed flat cars, steel framed outside braced boxcars of various sizes and both wood and steel bolster trucks. All this equipment was apparently narrow gauge. The Oahu Railway and Land Company made extensive use of Gregg products for flat cars and boxcars purchasing both complete cars and a number of steel frames to rebuild older wooden framed cars. Was Gregg equipment used much on the mainland or was this a "Hawaii" thing because of the close connection with the sugar plantations? Any ideas?

Jeff Livingsotn
Kaneohe, Hawaii


----------



## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Jeff

I don't know just how useful it will be to you but here is some information that I dug up on Gregg.

*The Louisiana Planters & Sugar Manufactrer*
*15-JUL-1913 / Gregg Article p27 & 28*


*Railway Car Builders of North America*
*(Scroll almost to the bottom of page)*

*Department of Commerce*
*Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce*
*The Cane Sugar Industry, 1917*
*Method of Cane Transportation p122*
*Plantation 'A'*

*University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
Hawaiian Collection / Special Collections
2550 McCarthy Mall
Honolulu, HI 96822*


*Gregg catalogue of American portable narrow-gauge track*

*Catskill Archive - The Porter Locomotive*
For years many sales abroad were handled through agents like S. H. Payne & Son or Wonham & Magor (later Wonham Inc.), both of New York. During the period 1900-1930 there were several American manufacturers specializing in export equipment ranging from light, functional cars to portable track. Several of the smaller locomotive builders were called upon to furnish engines-which sometimes were shipped bearing only the nameplate of the export manufacturer. One of these firms, The Gregg Co. Ltd., obtained locomotives from Porter. 

*Selected Bibliography of Sugar Cane Railway Books*
*(PDF Document)*

*Gregg Company History from Ed Kaminski
(scroll down a bit)*


----------



## Jeff Livingston (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Steve, 

I'd found a few of those but not the history book. Now it's off to find that. The local plantations used many Gregg products and the Navy bought some of their early boxcars at Pearl Harbor from Gregg also. It's a very common company name here but perhaps not so much on the mainland with the possible exception of the sugar areas. 

Jeff Livingston 
Kaneohe, Hawaii


----------



## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Jeff

The entry in the _"Railway Car Builders of North America"_ for the Gregg Company Ltd. Where it started in New York state, then somewhere in the early 1900s move its headquarters to New Jersey, then later on (re: as I remember it it was 1922) was move overseas to Belgium. Seized by the German government after the start of WWII (i.e. 1938) and is seemingly still in business as of 2003 per the company's history book that you mentioned. I did do a Google search for Gregg Company Ltd. in Hackensack, N.J. and there were listing a company of that name listed in a fair number of current business directories, also political donation records. Maybe, try and directly contact the company.


Dunn & Bradstreet listing:
Business Category: Mfg. Railroad Equipment
Gregg Company Ltd.
15 Dyatt Place
Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601-6004, USA

Here's another book that may be of interest.
Conde, J C (1975). Sugar Trains Pictorial. Felton, CA: Glenwood. Photographs of the Hawaiian plantation railroads (sugar cane and pineapple primarily) that didn't fit into the author's previous book, Sugar Trains: Narrow Gauge Railways of Hawaii. Includes a reproduction of the 1914 Gregg Company catalogue of cane cars and related equipment.


----------



## Jeff Livingston (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks again Steve, 

I've got Sugar Trains and Sugar Trains Pictorial, or at least copies as they are really costly now a days. Haven't have any hits on locating the history book but do plan on contacting the current Gregg Co. Ltd. I understand thay may also have operated out of Portgual at some time in their history. 

Jeff Livingston 
Kaneohe, Hawaii


----------



## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Jeff

The following is a link to Kaminski's bio at Signature Press

http://www.signaturepress.com/esk.html

The following is a better link at Steam Era Freight Cars web site it shows the book's cover, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page it seems that he was selling the books directly himself, there you'll also find the address. Although I've tried his personal web site link and it isn't valid any longer.

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/modeling/new%20products/kaminski/greggcomain.html

On the Jesse C. Conde book, I just tried locating a copy via BookFinder.com[/b] and came up with a listing through Amazon.co.uk in the UK for a used copy at $44.35 total cost (yes all the other ones are much higher priced) but I don't know if it's still available.

Hardcover, ISBN 0911760210
Publisher: Glenwood, 1975
Used, very good, Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


----------

