(
Satellite, it is still mostly brown land. John Deere's combine plant is just to the east of here, and it is still operating.)
IH bought the 83-acre tract from the
Moline Plow Co. in 1926. It started in 1927 as a storage building for
Farmall tractors made in Rock Island. It grew into a manufacturing center and made its first combines in 1934. CNH was formed in 1999 and closed this plant in 2004 in favor of the New Holland combine plant in Grand Island, NE, which was newer and non-union. This plant was inefficient because the low ceilings had just 14' of clearance. That did not allow overhead conveyor systems to be installed. A manufacturing engineer observed that IH should have built a new assembly plant decades earlier like
John Deere's combine plant did. "At its peak, the plant employed 4,300 workers on three shifts, producing 40 to 50 combines a day. Corn pickers, grain headers, farm elevators, corn heads, corn shellers, field choppers, blowers, forage harvesters and mowers were among other products made there." [
QConline] CNH also closed the tractor plant in Racine, WI because of age and union labor. When formed, CNH planned to close at least 10 of its 46 major factories and cut the work force by 20%. [
bizjournals]
This larger topo excerpt shows that the Milwaukee Railroad serviced this plant.
|
1975 Silvis Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
|
Ann Haymaker posted Harvest Month…A friend who worked for CSX gave me this photo several years ago showing combines leaving the Harvester Works factory in East Moline. (Joe Haymaker) Michael Schwiebert: I believe those were all for export to Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics. I’d guess with the current Ukraine situation those have been halted for the time being. Probably run through power as the trains were taken via CSX (east of Chicago) to Baltimore for loading on the ships. Ann Haymaker: Michael Schwiebert You are right! Absolutely these were exported to the Soviet republics (Russia). [As the comments explain, it is CSX foreign power on a Rock Island route. Another comment says this is on the CB&Q route. These unit trains of combines stopped about 6 or 7 years ago because John Deere built a plant in Ukraine.]
|