The Greenbrier Companies (NYSE: GBX) stepped into the earnings spotlight this morning, with the rail-car maker reporting a fiscal third-quarter loss of $50.5 million, or $3 per share. The company chalked up its widened quarterly loss to $55.7 million in goodwill write-downs, as well as waning demand. Excluding that write-down, earnings would have arrived at three cents per share. Revenue for the period tumbled 36% to $244 million. Analysts were looking for a loss of five cents per share on $269 million in revenue.

GBX also announced that 550 additional workers will be furloughed as a result of continuing weakness in the economy and an uncertain outlook for the future. Greenbrier is pointing the finger at General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) for that cloudy forecast, claiming that the conglomerate is in breach of contract. "This limited visibility is exacerbated by GE's unilateral actions and the uncertainties surrounding our multiyear contract with them," stated CEO William Furman.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Inspired by what must have been a less than luxurious train ride from Buffalo to New York in the early 1860s, George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois in 1867. The company had a long and illustrious business cycle that spanned more than a century. Starting from humble beginnings based solely upon the vision of one man , the company rose to grandeur via the railroad boom of the early 1900s. At one point, Pullman even owned it's own "company town." The town, called Pullman, was located 14 miles south of downtown Chicago and was home to nearly 9,000 men, women, and children at its peak under the control of Pullman.

As one would expect, just when things were in high gear for Pullman, the government intervened. In the interest of antitrust laws, Pullman Inc. was ordered by the Justice Department to divest itself of either the Pullman Company (operating) or the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company (manufacturing). After three years of negotiation, the Pullman Company was sold to a railroad consortium for approximately $40 million. In much the same way, the Justice Department is making trouble on the rails again today.

The Pullman Co. didn't vanish as much as it was fractured and absorbed. It began with the 1944 sell off of passenger car operating rights and continuing through until 1987 when subway car manufacturing, performed under the name Pullman Technology, was sold to Candian conglomerate, Bombardier. The merger and acquisition history of Pullman from 1981 through today reads like a who's who of transportation, oil, engineering, and associated technologies. In fact, I believe that George Pullman would be amazed to discover that the original thread of the Pullman name was still active in manufacturing as late as 2004, when Pullman is reported to have been manufacturing "rubberized" automotive parts under the control of Tenneco Automotive.

Let us know in the comments what you miss about Pullman. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.