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Old 01-05-2016, 09:22 PM   #1
ericr
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Default When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

-and what a fascinating story of when he owned the Detroit Toledo and Ironton RR, with immaculate yards and equipment, high wages (but lots of hard work), locomotive wheels painted with white sidewalls, constant technical experimentation, etc.

Do any of the members live in western/southern Ohio or Southern Michigan and been in a position to see what's left of the trackage or physical plant, bridges, culverts, etc.?
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Old 01-05-2016, 09:47 PM   #2
Chris Haynes
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

Henry's favorite locomotive is still running at Greenfield Village.
https://foursquare.com/v/weiser-rail...23c31a02f989e5
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Old 01-05-2016, 10:15 PM   #3
DougVieyra
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

In the early 1920's, with the his vast wealth and 'top to bottom' business philosophy, there was not many icons of industrialization that Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company did not own; including his own rail lines and working locomotives and freight cars of every description. Every aspect of automobile production and delivery from raw ore, to delivery to Ford Dealerships across the entire U.S., had Henry's FORD MOTOR COMPANY hand in it.

Henry's FORD MOTOR COMPANY owned hundreds of thousands of acres of timber land for the wood needs of his factories and car production. He owned thousands of acres of iron ore production, he had a fleet of ore ships to carry his his coal and iron across the Great Lakes, and another fleet of ocean-going ships to carry his Ford cars around the world to various Ford Agencies and Dealers.

He had his own Ford Airlines, and of course his own trade schools, hospitals, air ports, etc. He produced his own coal, had hundreds for thousands of acres of rubber plantations in South American. The Ford Motor Company had it's own movie Film Dept. and had his fingers in glass companies. Of course there were many, many more other industrial, manufacturing, and production facilities that fell under the FORD MOTOR COMPANY umbrella.
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Old 01-05-2016, 10:18 PM   #4
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

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Originally Posted by ericr View Post
. . . locomotive wheels painted with white sidewalls . . .
Ah huh!! An official precedent! Vindicated at last.
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Old 01-05-2016, 10:38 PM   #5
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

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Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton was Henry's Railroad.

Model A and Model B DT&I track inspection cars shown on link.

click> Model T, A & B Rail Track Vehicles on Ford Garage
Neat stuff!!
Hi-railing is big fun.
I had my own for many years.
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Old 01-05-2016, 11:28 PM   #6
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ericr View Post
-and what a fascinating story of when he owned the Detroit Toledo and Ironton RR, with immaculate yards and equipment, high wages (but lots of hard work), locomotive wheels painted with white sidewalls, constant technical experimentation, etc.

Do any of the members live in western/southern Ohio or Southern Michigan and been in a position to see what's left of the trackage or physical plant, bridges, culverts, etc.?
Here you go,

http://detroit1701.org/Henry%20Ford's%20Electric%20Railroad.html
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Old 01-06-2016, 12:11 AM   #7
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

Charlie Sorenson has a chapter on the railroad in his book, too.
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Old 01-06-2016, 12:48 AM   #8
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

Henry Ford was like all of the worlds visionarys . They saw the need to buy the tools to make there companys needs cheaper and more efficient .if that included airlines railways boats or any other entity that would make his product better and or a cheaper cost per unit, they bought the company that supplied that service no matter what it entailed. If they tried that today big gov would be all over them. Ah how time have changed . That why there will never be a new American start up auto company like ford Chevy or Chrysler again to many rules and hoops to jump thru that would prohibit a company rising to the status of. ford ever again
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:04 AM   #9
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

I have only been to the Henry Ford museum once back in the mid 70's and there was a huge locomotive in there on display.
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Old 01-06-2016, 09:26 AM   #10
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

There are still many pieces of the railroad existing. For instance, the tracks crossing Oakwood Blvd by I-94 still have the concrete arches that held catenary wires when Ford tried electrifying the railroad. Greenfield Village has recently restored the 1897 Baldwin Steam locomotive that was Mr. Ford's favorite. This is in addition to the Thomas Edison locomotive which is the oldest locomotive in operation in the US (I'm told). http://blog.thehenryford.org/2013/08...7-is-on-track/

The huge Allegheny locomotive that is in the Museum is never fired up and it never worked on the DT&I tracks. To get it inside, they had to remove the roof and bend the cab sides in so they could clear the door.

Mr. Ford's Fairlane rail car is also on display inside the Museum.
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Old 01-06-2016, 10:06 AM   #11
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

Ford had worked on steam engines early in his career and when they bought the railroad, they rebuilt the locomotives in the Ford plant rather than buy new or have some other org bought it.

In the early days, Ford's biggest headaches were from his own shareholders, which included the Dodge Brothers. The board was not in favor of the Model T. It was a bit of a skunkworks project with just a few people working on it.
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Old 01-06-2016, 07:09 PM   #12
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

My cousin used to live in a house in Eastern Ky that was built for Henry Ford to stay in when he visited the coal mines that he owned nearby. It's said that he didn't stay there but stayed on his railcar when he visited. He supposedly kept a housekeeper there to keep the house up. My cousin found the blueprints for the house in the basement that were marked for Henry Ford. He gave them to his, at that time, father in law.
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Old 01-06-2016, 07:35 PM   #13
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

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Originally Posted by HillbillyTim View Post
My cousin used to live in a house in Eastern Ky that was built for Henry Ford to stay in when he visited the coal mines that he owned nearby. It's said that he didn't stay there but stayed on his railcar when he visited. He supposedly kept a housekeeper there to keep the house up. My cousin found the blueprints for the house in the basement that were marked for Henry Ford. He gave them to his, at that time, father in law.
pretty interesting story....I wonder what ever became of his coal mines?
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Old 01-06-2016, 07:46 PM   #14
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

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Originally Posted by old car guy View Post
Henry Ford was like all of the worlds visionarys . They saw the need to buy the tools to make there companys needs cheaper and more efficient .if that included airlines railways boats or any other entity that would make his product better and or a cheaper cost per unit, they bought the company that supplied that service no matter what it entailed. If they tried that today big gov would be all over them. Ah how time have changed . That why there will never be a new American start up auto company like ford Chevy or Chrysler again to many rules and hoops to jump thru that would prohibit a company rising to the status of. ford ever again
-sounds like an unbelievable history, as outlined by you and Doug above. The scope of just his car manufacturing factories, with huge machinery and specialized equipment, seems fantastic today.

If dealers made 20% off the sale of a car, surely the Company made just as much.

I just can't comprehend how his finances were structured to create such an empire, within a relatively short period of time.
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Old 01-06-2016, 07:56 PM   #15
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

One of Henry's locomotives is now located at the Sanfilippo Foundation in South Barrington, Illinois and can be seen by special guided tour along with a zillion other artifacts.
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:19 PM   #16
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One of Henry's locomotives is now located at the Sanfilippo Foundation in South Barrington, Illinois and can be seen by special guided tour along with a zillion other artifacts.
isn't South Barrington also where Baby Face Nelson died?
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Old 01-06-2016, 09:08 PM   #17
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Default Re: When Henry Ford Owned a Railroad

ericr, James Couzens was the finance wizard behind Henry Ford. I dare say he would not have survived and grown without Couzens. They were making it up as they went along. All expenditures had to be approved by Couzens and if there was a business case and if it helped them make more cars, better and more cheaply, he would invest. There are a number of good books on Ford that talk about all the participants in Ford's success. Henry certainly didn't do it all by himself.
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