Nostalgia & History > Looking for a date: RACOR Pacific Frog & Switch Co.

My son recently found at a local antique store a mint condition "Racor Pacific Frog & Switch Co." catalog. It's "Cataloque P-1", which leads me to believe that it may their first. I'd be interested to know what the age of the catalog is. There is no printing date inside, so I was wondering if anyone may have any corporate information? A Google search didn't turn up anything useful.

Thanks in advance,

Brian Wise

Ramapo Ajax Corporation, based in New York. I have a few of their catalogs. The early catalogs would likely say Ramapo Foundry Company. By the 20s or 30s they were simply R(ramapo)A(ajax)Corp or RACOR. They made frogs, Diamonds , switch points and a litany of other items for both heavy rail and transit needs. I believe they were bought out by a brake shoe firm, I believe it was American.

Lots of Racor products still in use on Short Lines in California. Sometimes I run across old Elliot Frogs and still see lots of Ramapo keyed frogs, all sizes: crotch frogs and a wild array of switch stands...PMCO, Racor and other brands. Still a lot of old rail out there, as well...Tennessee, Carnegie, CF&I...still lots of SP 80# in short line operations (rolled in 1895 and upward)...some SP 70# and AT&SF 65#, and SF&SJV 62 1/2# in places.

Good collectors items, those catalogs...they fetch a few dollars on eBay. I'd hang on to it.

T73

Railroad-related patents from a Ramapo Iron Works date back to at least 1888:

385594: http://www.google.com/patents?id=us9oAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
422573: http://www.google.com/patents?id=iA1EAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=ramapo%20iron%20works&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false
543273: http://www.google.com/patents?id=IhNxAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=ramapo%20iron%20works&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=ramapo%20iron%20works&f=false

Patents assigned to Ramapo Ajax Corp. start showing up in 1922.