South Bend, IN: Studebaker Factory

(Studebaker National Museum, note Oliver's Mansion a little to the north.   Studebaker Lofts  is more likely the remnant of an early factory.  But I think this was the 1923 assembly plant that was shuttered in 1966. [Renovation] According to a 1967 aerial, the factory complex extended all the way south to Sample Street.)

Rural American History Captured shared
[Studebaker also had factory buildings in Detroit between 1911 and 1913. But the age of these buildings and locomotives indicate that this factory was in South Bend.]

Andrew Keeney shared
1938 - Eastbound NYC 20th Century Limited steams by the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana.

Frank Griffin posted

Eastbound NYC 20th Century Limited steams by the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana.

Nathan James Those Dreyfus Hudsons are timeless!

Ned Carlson shared
John Landry Last month I went by there on 49. They are removing the windows and doing something with it. Not sure what.
Ned Carlson shared
Brian Morgan The Twentieth Century Limited never made a station stop at South Bend. The Twentieth Century made a station stop in Elkhart. The Commodore Vanderbilt, the Lakecities and the Interstate Limited made scheduled stops at the South Bend Union Station as well as Canadian National/ Grand Trunk Western passenger trains. At one time the Michigan Central Railway ran a local from Niles, Michigan to South Bend and gained access to SBUT via the South Bend Corporate Railway which was a city owned switching line. The PRR had their own station just South of the Studebaker plant.
Raymond Storey shared
Raymond Storey posted

Paul Jevert shared
Studebaker History goes back to the Civil War and the wagons, gun carriages, camp wagons and Teamsters livery of the 1850's !
Indiana Historical Bureau posted, but Facebook won't give me the URL

On June 26, 1920, the Studebaker Corporation of America celebrated the opening of its new plant in South Bend, which was constructed specifically to build Light-Six passenger cars, rather than carriages. The Lafayette Journal and Courier reported that the plant had the capacity to produce 500 automobiles per day. In order to accommodate the influx of workers, the company constructed over 800 houses.

Studebaker, founded in 1852 to produce wagons, became one of South Bend's largest manufacturers and employers with the production of its classic, art deco automobile. In 1963, the company closed its South Bend automotive manufacturing plant, causing 6,000 workers to lose their jobs. 

Production transferred to Ontario, although the Canadian plant closed three years later.

Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3lI30C2

The image below [above], showing the South Bend plant with Light-Six cars ready for delivery, is courtesy of the Studebaker National Museum.

Jim Sciba posted
South bend indiana

Street View

Brian Sopke posted
Henry Ford not only made automobiles, but also had his own railroad to switch the railcars in his plant. Apparently the Studebaker Corporation felt that if Ford could do it, so could they. This is Studebaker Corp. #2 - an ALCO S-1 Switcher built in September 1945. Photographer unknown. Brian Sopke collection.
Michael Matalis No GM power at this plant!

Kevin A Heggi commented on Brian's post
Here's #3 at one time 2&3 were the same paint job...

Kevin A Heggi commented on Brian's post
Number 1 was a General Electric

Tim Wilson posted four photos with the comment:

I searched and was unable to find any shots of the Studebaker crane-way in South Bend Indiana. This was designed by the great Albert Kahn. The innovative crane-way allowed train cars full of parts to have its contents be delivered directly to a balcony near the to department they were needed in. Spent a day there with a great man from New York. we were confronted by an aggressive scrapper wanting to know why we were there. My friend gave him a bs story about being location scouts fro films. Safety in numbers was our friend that day. A few years later when the plant was being demolished the bodies of four homeless scrappers were found in an electrical vault.

AJ Grigg shared
Dwayne Weber A guy broke into the old Cracker Jack plant to try to steal the copper bus after it was closed. He was fried.

1

2

3

4

Bob Chaparro posted

Worker Operating Greenlee Machine At Studebaker Plant

A photo from the Detroit Public Library.

Description:

View of worker operating a Greenlee machine at the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana. Label on back: "The Studebaker Corporation, South Bend, Indiana. The special Greenlee machine, a portion of which is shown above, is one of the automobile industry's contributions to the mass production of aircraft engines. It was designed and built by Greenlee at the request of Studebaker. The complete machine is more than 175 feet long and has 50 operating stations. When in full operation it handles approximately 130 cylinder heads at a time. All told it has 162 tools including 36 drills, 35 reamers, 15 mills, 30 taps and 46 special tools. A-1017-14-C." Stamped on back: "Studebaker, South Bend, Indiana." Handwritten on back: "ACWP - Machine tools."

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

James Ford: Machines such as this were called "In-Line Transfer Machines." The work piece is indexed along from station to station where each station does some of the work. The work piece exiting the machine had all the machining done for that particular operation. In line transfer machines were the way achieve high production rates beginning in the late 30's, I think. CNC machines are now very popular and are a product of the most advanced modern technology. The biggest advantage of a CNC machine is programmability and a very high degree of accuracy.

Mike Robbins: Transfer lines are still being built, especially for the diesel engine industry which still uses cast iron blocks and heads, used in hybrid machining systems where the transfer machines do the heavy lifting on features that don't change year to year (example, main bearing bolt holes) while the cnc's machine those features that can change often. Transfer machines are reliable and capable but not flexible; cnc's are quite flexible, reliable and accurate but have their limits.

 

Arvon Griffiths commented on Bob's post
Those are cylinders and heads for radial aircraft engines.

Chuck Sydlo commented on Bob's post
These are aircraft cylinders. Individual cylinders, the tops can be seen right in front of the operator. Some valve components are being worked in the foreground and farther away you can see the cylinder head has been flipped and maybe the cylinder barrel is being attached?

Miranda Diller Photography posted seven photos with the comment:

The historic Studebaker Factory. The Studebaker brothers came to South Bend and opened a blacksmith shop in 1852 where they built farm wagons. The business was in high demand during the civil war for ambulances and wagons. The company switched from wagons to automobiles after 1900. The business boomed during WWII where the demand for military trucks and other vehicles. The company began its decline during the 1950's and sadly shut its doors in 1966. Much of the factory has been demolished. What remains has been slated to undergo a $23 million renovation.

Many more photos of the plants.