Brookville celebrates 100th anniversary

As part of the festivities, addresses were given by CEO and chairman Dalph McNeil, who discussed the major role long-tenured employees played in the company’s success, and Brookville equipment president Rick Graham, who focused on how the company is continuing to transform and evolve in the modern age.

Brookville Equipment volunteers provided in-depth tours of the manufacturing facility, which covered the company’s history and current product line. Visitors were able to see streetcars, locomotives, and mining equipment in various phases of manufacturing.

The company also displayed some of its rail equipment, including heritage streetcars bound for San Francisco and El Paso, modern streetcars destined for Milwaukee and Oklahoma City, mining equipment for customers in West Virginia, and a locomotive for Metro-North Railroad in New York City. Guests were able to board the Oklahoma City Streetcar.

Additionally, Brookville Equipment showcased a 1945 model BFA-5 gasoline-powered locomotive. The small locomotive, purchased and refurbished by the company, includes a Ford Flathead V8 engine and runs on 21 1/2-inch rail gauge. American Industrial Mining Company Museum, a 501(c)(3) non-profit preservation society from Buckeye Lake, Ohio, also brought a 1930s-era 3- ton Ford-powered locomotive which was decaled to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the company.

Originally founded as Brookville Truck and Tractor Co. in 1918 when local Ford-dealer L.A. Leathers installed flanged rail wheels on standard Ford Model-T, the company would soon be known as Brookville Locomotive Works and become a full-scale manufacturer of small-scale rail switchers for railroad and industrial applications. In the 1970s, the company was purchased by the McNeil family, who has now held the company for more than four decades. Under the vision of McNeil, the company would be renamed Brookville Mining Equipment Corporation in the 1980s, emerging as a market leader in mining rail haulage and transport equipment, including locomotives and personnel carriers.

Today, now known as Brookville Equipment Corporation, the company continues to be a market leader in rail-mounted mining equipment, and has diversified into the production of full-scale surface locomotives for freight and passenger applications, and the streetcars, having delivered new and rebuilt fleets to cities across the United States, including Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, El Paso, Dallas, Detroit, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, and soon to include, Tempe, Arizona, Tacoma, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.