(From the Dayton, Oh 1928 City directory)

 
 
November 3, 1972
Buffalo Courier Express
"Earl B Richardson, of Westfield, came to Old Home Week in Silver Creek in 1908, and didn't return.  The little restaurant - on - wheels he had built and hauled into town was so popular, he stayed with the business."
Introduction

  Earl B. Richardson opened up his lunch car in Silver Creek in 1912.  In 1921 he started manufacturing lunch cars.  In late 1923, he leased out a plant in order to build the lunch cars under cover.  Two months later, the plant caught on fire and burnt down.   A year and a year and a half later, Mr. Richardson died.  The article in the "Grape Belt & Chautauqua Farmer", states that 26 lunch cars were built in his new factory on Hawkins St. during that year.
  After Earl's death in June of 1925, his son Raymond Richardson took control of the company.  A year later, the company moved to Dayton, Ohio in an attempt to tap into a market that previously had little contact with the dining car; the midwest.  It should also be noted that Raymond's wife was from Dayton and Raymond's father-in-law joined the reorganized Rich Dining Car Company.  These facts may have more to do with the move to Dayton than anything else. Unfortunately, by 1929, the company was not in business.  Was it the small recession in 1927, was it the region did not embrace the lunch car like the Great Lakes did?  Was it Raymond's lack of connections to new owners?

LATEST FIND


Melborne, Florida - A facebook user found a photo of a diner called the Ever Ready Dining Car that looks like a Richardson. My initial thought is that it was built in Dayton, as Ward & Dickinson had trouble sending a diner to Florida in early 1925. And no mention was made in a Silver Creek newspaper about this diner.

 
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
   Newspaper articles and blurbs help a great deal in tell some of the story of these dining car companies.  Especially the Richardson Dining Car Co.  Previous to my research, people just thought of this company as another company that tried to follow in Ward & Dickinson's footsteps.  And how wrong that is!  Following Albert Closson, Earl Richardson is the reason we have Ward & Dickinson and Mulholland and the other smaller companies.  These newspaper articles help to show that of all the Silver Creek lunch car companies, it was Richardson that sold, by far, the most lunch cars to local citizens.
    So, if you're interested in just Richardson articles, you can check out the Richardson articles page.   Or, you can go back to the main dining car companies page  And scroll down, on the left side, to check out all three local Silver Creek newspapers.  These papers contain small blurbs, some of which refer to people purchasing Richardson built lunch cars. Also, the Ward & Dickinson page has a link to articles specific to their company. 



List of Diners
Earl Richardson started building lunch wagons around 1921.  His first lunch car was sold to a party who took it to Hamburg, New York, just south of Buffalo.  the vast majority of Richardson lunch cars were sold to people who knew Earl.  Perhaps this is why Raymond did not succeed in the business, as he was still in school during Earl's time running and selling his wagons.  In 1926, the concern moved to Dayton, Ohio but we do not know how many lunch cars were built out in Dayton. If you are interested in the lunch cars built by the Richardson concern you can check out the list here.

You can see the entire article on the articles page, but this was a list of local residents from Silver Creek who moved away with Richardson built lunch cars.