I admire Saratoga Springs and their people. They have embraced their history and know how to promote it. Last year, tourism accounted for more than $80 million dollars. That means those tourists were driving through or around Troy to get there.

Last Saturday, I took my 12-year-old son Chris to the Automobile Museum that opened about two years ago in the old bottling plant along Avenue of the Pines. The new museum has hosted a number of great exhibits and this one featured "muscle" cars. On the second floor are autos that were made in New York State, and includes one by Schenectady's Charles Steinmetz, who designed and drove one of the first electric cars.

However, I noticed something missing from the NYS theme - nothing about ALCO. ALCO, or the American Locomotive Company, was one of Schenectady's largest employers during the 19th and 20th centuries. They were famous worldwide for making more than 75,000 steam locomotives, and later diesel and diesel-electrics, but did you know they also made cars?

With the growing excitement and popularity of autos at the turn of the last century, many companies decided to add autos to their manufacturing list. ALCO was no different. In 1906, they licensed the French company Berliet to make their first car in Providence, Rhode Island, at an initial investment of $6 million. This deal lasted until 1908 when ALCO decided to make the cars itself (both touring & racing varieties). In 1906, a 6-foot, 200-pound test driver named Harry Fortune Grant was ALCO's chief test driver. Pleading with the company to let him race, but with no luck, he quit, and began to work for one of their dealers out of Boston, C.F. Whitney. Whitney purchased a 40hp car from ALCO and gave Grant and his riding mechanic Frank H. Lee a chance to race. They entered a series of races in Massachusetts, and won the 5- and 25-mile events and just missed the 50 mile race when a tire blew.

At a Sept. 8th, 1909 Lowell (MA.) race, Grant placed 7th. On October 9th, in a Philadelphia race, he didn't finish due to a steering problem. However, on Oct. 30th, 1909, Grant and his ALCO, the "Bete Noire" (black beast), placed first in the 5th annual Vanderbilt Cup race in Long Island driving with an average speed of 62.81 MPH. He followed it up with another First Place finish in the 1910 Vanderbilt and with an average speed of 65.18 MPH. It was the same year that ALCO shipped their 50,000th steam locomotive.

Grant used his ALCO at other races including Indianapolis on July 4th, 1910 (finished 4th); Elgin (IL.) on Aug 27, 1910 (finished 12th due to a twisted clutch); the first Indy 500, held on May 30, 1911 (finished 33rd); and came in 2nd at the Elgin race on Aug 25, 1911, the last time he drove his ALCO. While Grant continued to race until 1915, ALCO decided to stop making their cars in 1913, because it was unprofitable.

The ALCO was a well-built car. It took 19 months to build each one and customers could choose from a variety of 54 body styles, as well as chassis. The engines in the Alco were large: a four-cylinder engine displacing 453 cubic inches, and a six cylinder displacing 579 cubic inches. They weren't cheap either, ranging in price from $6,000-7,000 a piece.

Even though the company had gross earnings of $34 million, they made no money from their cars. One writer says the company lost an average of $460 on each of the 5,000 cars it built. It wasn't because of manufacturing costs. They used the cars as inducements to buy locomotives. That's right. If you were a customer looking to buy steam locomotives, they would simply give you a car to win your purchase.

Today, only nine out of 5,000 ALCOs are still in existence, and only one is in show condition and was recently displayed at an exhibit at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Yet, there is more to this story. In 1911, a man named Walter P. Chrysler willingly took a cut in pay to go to work for ALCO as foreman for their Allegheny (Pa.) plant, where they made their cars (and trucks). However, realizing that ALCO was abandoning car manufacturing, he then left for Detroit to work for the Buick Motor Company. On June 6, 1924, the former ALCO foreman started The Chrysler Corporation. You know the rest of the story!

I am hoping the Auto Museum in Saratoga will put together an exhibit on the ALCO cars. In the meantime, the museum is open seven days a week.