J. G. Brill
| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Genre | Public transport |
| Founded | 1868 |
| Founder | John George Brill |
| Defunct | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Products | Streetcars (trams), interurban railcars, motor buses, and trolleybuses |
The J. G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars, interurban coaches, and buses in the United States for almost ninety years. The company was founded by John George Brill in 1868 as a horsecar manufacturing firm in Philadelphia. Over the years, it absorbed numerous other trolley-interurban manufacturers such as Kuhlman in Cleveland and Jewett in Indiana. With business diminishing, in 1944 it merged with the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF) to become ACF-Brill. It ceased trolley and bus production in 1954, though some of their interurbans served the Philadelphia area till the 1980s. Brill was the longest lasting of the nation's trolley and interurban manufacturers. It manufactured over 45,000 streetcars, trams (also known as trolleys or trolley cars in the U.S.),motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars. At its height, it was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurbans in the U.S. and produced more streetcars and interurbans and gas electrics than any other manufacturer.
In 1868, the Brill company was founded as J.G. Brill and Sons. After James Rawle joins the firm in 1872, it is renamed J.G. Brill & Company.
In 1926, ACF Motors Company obtained a controlling interest in Brill, and in 1944 the two companies merged, forming the ACF-Brill Motors Company. ACF-Brill announced in 1944 that Canadian Car and Foundry of Montreal, Quebec were licensed to manufacture and sell throughout Canada motor buses and trolley coaches of their design as Canadian Car-Brill. The firm built about 1,100 trolley buses and a few thousand buses under the name.
On January 31, 1946, a controlling interest in ACF-Brill was acquired by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation for $7.5 million. Consolidated Vultee was sold on November 6, 1947, to the Nashville Corporation, which sold its share to investment firm Allen & Co., headed by Charles Allen, Jr., on June 11, 1951. In early 1954, the Brill name disappeared when ACF-Brill ceased production and subcontracted remaining orders.
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