Seeing the new thread about ALCo in Chicago Heights, Illinois got me to wondering about another company located there. Thrall Car was a major freight car builder for a number of years. Back when I was still a working stiff as the inside Service Rep for a steel company, I visited Thrall there in Chicago Heights. The first thing that surprised me when I walked in the lobby of their office was a locomotive bell. The sign on the bell stated that it was off of an Erie Berkshire. Quite a rarity I would think! Also at that time, I found out that they had a Thrall-built caboose that they occassionally used to take visitors around the plant. Unfortunately, the caboose was not available for viewing that day (we were there in an official capacity to discuss steel deliveries).

Thrall of course, eventually exited the rail car business. A few years ago, I was in the area and decided to see if the Erie steam locomotive bell and the Thrall caboose might still be there. The guard at the gate called and cleared it to allow me to drive up to the office building where I was greeted by a representative of the company currently occupying the facility. The knew about the caboose, but I couldn't see it (I think they were worried about insurance) and the bell was no longer in the buildings lobby.

So two questions:

1. Does anyone know what happened to the bell? Thrall was a family owned business. Did the family (or someone else) take the bell?

2. Does anyone know the history of the caboose that was at Thrall? Built for and sold to a railroad and then repurchased later? Or built and kept by Thrall strictly for the aforementioned plant tour use?

Thanks for any info that can be provided.

Les

What is the site used for now?

Steve

Thrall Car was owned by the Duchossois family. The company was sold to Trinity Industries, which moved production to lower cost plants in the south. Craig Duchossois is still in the midwest. He is active in both family owned businesses and several non-profit activities. You should give him a call and ask him about the bell.

I spent a lot of time in several of the Thrall plants. The East Chicago Heights plant had an interesting feature. The AAR has various requirements for testing new types of cars on sharp curves coupled to other cars. To do this testing Thrall built a sprial curve. Cars to be tested were just pushed aroud the curve until they got to the curve radius needed for the test. This test sprial track made about 1 1/2 circles. Must have been something to see from the air.

TrinityRail acquired Thrall in 2001. See second to last paragraph on this page.