Imlay, Richard, 1784-1867

Richard Imlay was born in 1784 in Hartford, Connecticut. At some point, he entered the carriage-building trade, and in 1828 he opened a shop in Baltimore.

In 1830 he began building passenger cars, which were simply modified coaches, for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He moved his shop to Philadelphia in 1831 and continued to manufacture railroad cars, making several important innovations in construction methods. In 1835 he built an eight-wheel car, the VICTORY, which contained a buffet and a water closet, and in 1836 he built what was probably the first sleeping car ever constructed for the Cumberland Valley Railroad.

Imlay received a patent in 1837 for his system of supporting a car body on a pair of swiveling, four-wheel trucks. However, his car-building firm failed in the subsequent depression and closed in 1840.