JG Brill Company
| 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 trams/streetcars (also, US: trolleys, trolley cars), interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for almost ninety years; it was the longest lasting trolley and interurban manufacturer. At its height, Brill was the largest manufacturer of streetcars and interurban cars in the US and produced more streetcars, interurbans and gas-electric cars than any other manufacturer, building more than 45,000 streetcars alone.
The company was founded by John George Brill in 1868 as a horsecar manufacturing firm in Philadelphia. Over the years it absorbed numerous other manufacturers of trolleys and interurbans such as Kuhlman in Cleveland and Jewett in Indiana. In 1944, with business diminishing, it merged with the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF) to become ACF-Brill. Although the company ceased production in 1954, some of its interurbans served the Philadelphia area till the 1980s.
In 1868 the Brill company was founded as J.G. Brill and Sons. After James Rawle joined the firm in 1872 it was renamed J.G. Brill & Company.
In 1902 Brill bought out the American Car Company; in 1904 G. C. Kuhlman Car Company and John Stephenson Company; and in 1907 Wason Manufacturing Company. Brill acquired a controlling share of the Danville Car Company in 1908, dissolving it in 1911, and Canadian railway car builder Preston Car Company in 1921, which ceased operating in 1923. In 1926 American Car and Foundry Company acquired a controlling interest in what had become the Brill Corporation. The new structure consisted of:
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