Towns and Nature: Dearborn, MI: Ford Rouge Plant

Ford posted
Steve Lucas I'm more interested in the American Locomotive Company S-3 locomotive pulling the multi-level auto rack railroad cars. Nice!Detroit - Area Railroad History shared
Clifford Nickerson Publicity shot. The suits never came out to the railhead.
Frank Traum Note that Ford Motor Company was using Alco locomotives at the Rouge plant, which replaced the General Electric switchers of Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad fame. Ford didn't use General Motors locomotives until the mid 1970's. (I've posted this comment with other groups about this photo, so this may be familiar.)

Luke Honkala posted
James Fogg Ford was making 1100 Mustangs/day in this year. I think it was across 3 factories, so assuming equal production (it probably wasn't equal) that's 400 cars/day. That's 27 rail cars at 15 automobiles/rail car. It had to take a long time to load each car, and they look like they're end-loaded so you had to switch one car at a time to a loading ramp. The labor and logistics had to be huge.
Dan Holbrook 1965 probably. The guys in suits weren't the car jockeys! Bar across the grill. '66s only had logo in the center. No bar.
Ray Bottles Lots of Damage on these Automobile carries CARS !! BTTX KTTX switched a lot of these BI and TRI levels !!! When they first appeared on the Railroad 1960's lots lots of Damage!! The Truckers in Detroit totally 😡!! Would dump paint off bridges in Detroit!! Lots of Damage!! My Father NYC Police Lieutenant would investigate!!
Ken Jamin I remember when the RRs began enclosing auto racks at the request of the auto mfgrs. to protect autos from theft and vandalism. However, when the RRs wanted to charge to auto mfgrs. a surcharge to cover the cost of enclosing them, the auto industry declined to pay for it.

TheHenryFord-History

Jason Pond commented on a post
Overhead view from the west side of the Rouge. 2012.

Peter Dudley shared
This c. 1945 aerial view shows Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad (DT&I) tracks paralleling the newly-completed Detroit Industrial Expressway (originally U.S. 12, re-designated I-94 c. 1956), the old Ford headquarters building (designed by Albert Kahn, later Lincoln-Mercury Division headquarters) on Schaefer Highway, and the original (open-air) version of the Ford Rotunda (1933-1962), before its new roof made it a year-round facility (enabling eight consecutive Christmas Displays).
An application of hot tar to the Rotunda's roof in November 1962 started a fire, resulting in the landmark's complete destruction. Fire doors leading to the north and south wings preserved the Ford Archives (now available online).
Ronald L Sutton School Class took a tour of Ford Rouge right after WWII. ore coming into Docks, made into Steel, Stamped into shapes. Final Assembly, Cars driven off the end of the Production Line.
Chris Edwards wow- the Rotunda and Rouge- Albert Kahn Modernism in foreground and at one time the biggest factory in the world in BG- also built by Kahn-an absolutely remarkable photo.
Chris Yuergens I remember going to the Christmas show at the Rotunda, and when it burned down.
Larry Sobczak Look at all that smoke coming out of the factory! [The smoke caught my eye as well.]

Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted

An image of the Ford Motor Co. freighter Chester with a deck load of new automobiles circa 1931-1940 (Image Source: Wayne State University – Walter P. Reuther Library – Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs). The photograph may have been taken at the Ford Rouge River complex in Dearborn, Mich.

Additional Historical Information

Launched in 1931, the Chester was built at River Rouge, Mich. by the Great Lakes Engineering Works for the Ford Motor Co. The 300-foot vessel was designed to transit Lake Erie, the New York State Barge Canal and the Hudson River.

[The description continues with more history about Chester.]
Michael Meredith: Yes, Rouge River factory, taken from south side of Dix Street bridge.
Judy Barnes-DePeal shared

Eddie Abbott posted
View of the Ford automobile plant in Dearborn
Late 40s

Scott Gracie: They made it all there including glass, except for tires and some other rubber components.

It's been said, raw iron ore, coal, limestone for steel and sand for glass would arrive at the docks in raw form .......within 26 hours a new, finished Ford would roll off the assembly line, headed for transport to a Ford dealer. I've heard different peak employment levels but it may have been around 70,000 in the '50s and '60s, directly under the FoMoCo umbrella.

Nick Breznai shared

A share of this image that has some more interesting comments
Imbued with Hues posted
1927 - A fender stamping press at the Ford Motor Company River Rouge plant, Dearborn, Michigan
Gary Maddox: That's probably a maint guy with no gloves. That is probably a 500 to 750 ton or so press and now fenders are made with 5,000 ton transfer presses that makes this look tiny. I was a maint guy on these type dies for many years.
Rob Kaufman: I had 4 of these in our stainless steel sink operation. They ranged from 500 ton pressure to 850 tons. The crown ( top section with gears) weighed 128000 lbs in the largest press. At American/Standard in Salem the bathtub draw press had 1800 tons force. Speed was between 4 to 6 strokes per minute but you stopped to remove each part and then put in the next 72 x 80 inch blank. Sinks started at .048" and the tubs were .104" thick.
Rob Kaufman: My 800 tom came out of a Packard plant in Detroit. It formed the entire roof section for sedans from the 1930s until 1955 when they quit making Packard. It.was.built by Toledo press company that later became E W Bliss. They went out of business in 1980. Gulf and Western bought them in about 1970 and they suffered the same fate as all of the hundreds of other good companies that were bought by conglomerates.
John Ruppert: Massive machine!!! I’m from Cleveland and took a tour of the Ford plant in Northfield, Ohio with my school class in the 80’s. They were very proud of the robot feeding the mill, but they still needed a worker to position the blank in the robot’s arms. They were stamping body parts for the Cougar/T-bird. They also were very proud of their new CAD room.
Greg Kehoe: Worked tool and die at the Woodhaven stamping plant, some presses were over 3 stories tall.
David Fowler: Ford invested in larger presses than GM did early on. So Ford had more steel in them GM had wood inside the body shell way after Ford went to steel. Also the do you know the reason they had the vinyl insert with chicken wire in the middle of the roof on the early Fords. They did not have a press large enough to stamp a full roof it had to be 4 pieces with the vinyl center.
Today a typical lead off press will be 2,500 to 3,000 tons. This press probably 500 - 800 ton. The steel today is way more difficult to form to get the crash testing up.
David Herman: Haha, those fenders are just little baby’s compared to the front and rear fenders of cars made in the 50s and 60s formally called quarter panels , I worked with the biggest presses in the world when I was with fisher body which was part of General Motors and one thing that a lot of people don’t know is that when you look at one of those beasts you are only seeing half of the press and what I mean by that is those presses also extend on down below the ground level for another 15 or so feet! The dies that I use to work on back then that use to make the quarter panels for cars weighed almost as much as a modern military tank and some of the old timers that I worked with told me stories of when they saw guys get squished by being inside the press when it accidentally rolled over on them and there body’s came out of the press as thin as a piece of cardboard!!
Thomas Peters: During my tool and die apprenticeship we toured Fisher Body in Willow Springs Illinois 1980. Floor panels for Pontiac Sunbird. If I remember it was 4 stations. Workers were passing it from one press to the other.
Bruce Bessette: The oldest I worked on was bliss Toledo built in 1859 400 ton straight side that was in 1980 was still in operation.
Vincent Brown: Worked on a few 10,000 ton presses. That's probably a 750. My favorite press is a Minster P2H 100. I do like the older Bliss presses for their simplicity. Always wanted to tear a Minster Hummingbird down.

Brian Wallaesa

Just moved a significant one from Beth Steel recently:

https://www.google.com/.../mc-ent-national-industrial...

Jim Babcock

https://youtu.be/hpgK51w6uhk

Imbued with Hues commented on their post
original

Derrick Jasper commented on Wade's post concerning a photo showing both gasometers
It’s looking from the north of the plant. The one on the left is the one in your picture . The one on the right is on the other side of the slip.. I believe it’s volume was 2x + that of the one on the left .