Stadler's history

Ernst Stadler opens up an engineering office in Zurich in October 1942. Initially his workshop focuses on converting lorries for battery operation. After three years the company moves to Wädenswil. Stadler starts producing battery and diesel powered locomotives. 1948 Ernst Stadler builds a new factory in Freienbach with a railway link.

Ernst Stadler sells the company 1950 including the factory in Freienbach to the Lucerne steel construction company Josef Meyer and remains initially employed there. He soon moves back to Zurich and resumes production of rail tractors in a rented workshop.

The lack of railway link at the Zurich site requires complex road transport, which is why a decision is made to look for a new location. This new location is where Ernst Stadler builds his first assembly hall in 1962 on a green meadow in Bussnang.

In 1967, Ernst Stadler exhibits a metro-gauge tractor for the Bremgarten-Dietikon Railway at the Basel Mustermesse (sample fair), making him famous beyond insider circles. In 1968 Ernst Stadler builds a large residential building in Bussnang, which for many years will serve as the company headquarters, after the registered office is officially moved to Bussnang.