page_title: Crown Metal Products
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Crown Metal Products / Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: Six Gun Territory No. 4 4-4-0 Locomotive on display at the Underground in Atlanta, Georgia
context_page_description: Crown Metal Products was a manufacturer of steam locomotives based in Wyano, Pennsylvania founded by Ken Williams in 1946. The company initially sold pot cleaners and then electric fence wires and other products. In 1959, the company began to transition into producing low gauge locomotives, a personal interest of Williams. The company went on to produce steam locomotives and carriages of various sizes for amusement park railroads. The firm ceased production in 1989, however, many of the engines produced continue to operate at amusement parks across the country.
context_section_description: By the 1980s, tighter Federal Railroad Administration regulations for operating steam engines, the inherent dangers of boiler failures, as well as the significant amount of work required to keep steam engines maintained on a daily basis, resulted in the Crown engines falling out of favor, with more parks opting for diesel engines or steam-outlines (locomotives powered by diesel or gasoline engines but given the outward appearance of a steam locomotive) for their railways. The most popular steam-outline engine is the 2 ft (610 mm) gauge replica of the C.P. Huntington locomotive produced by Chance Rides, which continues to be produced for park railways around the world. Crown Metal Products was shut down in 1989, with all remaining orders fulfilled by 1990.
  Ken's son, Bert Williams, continued to support the Crown locomotives, providing replacement parts and service through his company, Castle Ridge Products of Claysville, Pennsylvania, until 2004. That year, the necessary tooling, jigs, inventory and rights were purchased by Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Tweetsie Railroad currently handles parts, restoration and service of Crown locomotives.
caption: Crown Metal Products built 4-4-0 locomotive on display at the Underground in Atlanta, Georgia
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