  7even Member Username: 7even Post Number: 61 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 198.109.26.18 |
The tank plant stopped making tanks in 1996-7. It was turned over to Warren in 2001 to be used for some thing else. So, what are they using it for? Also, does anyone have any interesting information on this topic? Does anyone know if there is like a museum or any tanks sitting out front? Thanks | ||
7milekid Member Username: 7milekid Post Number: 129 Registered: 01-2006 Posted From: 68.61.161.193 |
i drive by there alot on my way to softball games at liberty park and as far as i can tell it isnt being used for anything at all. | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1282 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 63.157.69.201 |
There's steel company in the large buildings, MCCC has a building there, and few others that I don't remember. There are some photos a few pages ago in the OCF thread, and probably a thread about it in the archives. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 109 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
It has been turned into the equivalent of an industrial park. The original office building on Van Dyke had a pair of old tanks out front, but these were all demolished. The original tank assembly plant still stands and it houses manufacturing lines for several auto suppliers. The Macomb Community College has built a new technical training facility just south of the original tank assembly building fronting on Van Dyke and additional buildings have been built south of the College's building. On what used to be the parking lot to the north of the original tank assembly building is a new company headquarters and parking deck to the west of it. All but the new company headquarters building are shown on this aerial from Google maps:  There is no museum, but there is a Michigan Historical Marker on the site. This is a link to the Sept. 2004 thread about the Tank Arsenal and here is a link to the Jan. 2006 Old Car Factories thread that included some information about the Tank Arsenal (scroll down to Jan. 29 entries). Note that the Army still owns and operates TACOM on the tank arsenal property that was west of the railroad tracks. The entry is from Mound Road. (Message edited by Mikeg on July 04, 2006) | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2765 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.167.59.60 |
Another Detroit Post Industrial relic - a modern Packard Plant. Remember when it churned out those 70 ton Abrams tanks? Detroit Heavy metal, gone but not forgotten. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 1154 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 69.136.142.0 |
USM manufacturing resides there. | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 189 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.65.11.152 |
My father worked at TACOM at the arsenal from the early 60's until he retired from there in 1986. We used to go there for "Open House" ( company picnic ) every year as kids for fun, food and games. They used to have demonstrations of tanks, driving them through a pool-type water tank and running over cars, smashing them flat!  Thnk2mch, second from the left in 1967 | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2257 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
I can't speak for any "open houses", but I have seen M-1's toolong around the grounds of the General Dynamics facility on the corner of 17 Mile & Mound every once in a while. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 111 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) was formed in 1982 when General Dynamics acquired Chrysler Corporation's defense operations. The GDLS facility in Sterling Heights performs the engineering for the technology upgrade programs being performed on older M-1s at the Lima Tank Arsenal, which is also operated by GDLS. As a very young child in either the late 50s or early 60s, I remember once going to an open house on the grounds of the Tank Arsenal and watching in awe as they put those tanks through their paces. I wish I had a cool picture as a memento like Thnk2mch. | ||
Treelock Member Username: Treelock Post Number: 141 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 68.77.166.98 |
The arsenal was responsible for a number of federal Superfund toxic waste sites that were the sight of millions of dollars worth of environmental remediation over the years. | ||
Migirl Member Username: Migirl Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2006 Posted From: 136.181.195.29 |
I need your help! My grandmother worked in the plant in 1945 and I am looking for any records of the list of employees during that time....do you know where I can find this info? Also, there was a very promonate business man of Greek descent with the first name of "Frank". I am not sure if he was a "big wig" at the plant or in the community. I am trying to track down "Frank"...can anyone help me find the needle in the haystack? | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 68 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 63.102.87.27 |
I grew up in Warren, at 12 and Van Dyke. Everytime I'd pass by the tank plant there as a kid or adult, I'd always crane my neck to see if there were any tanks out for a test run around the track there. As a kid in the 70's we'd see the tanks zipping around, (they were quite fast to the eye) but then the plant built walls around the track and all we could see was the dust rising in the summer when the tanks were out. During the nuclear scare, we were told that the plant would be struck first by soviets 'cause of the production capabilities. That was a real reassuring notion. *sigh* I also had the opportunity to go inside thew plant when it was operational. Very cool. All kinds of train track lines leading into huge warehouse facilities (like where the tanks would be loaded onto trains). Now it's just a technological park. | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1294 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 12.64.54.181 |
 | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3500 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 65.222.10.3 |
Sm, which HS ya go to? | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 70 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 63.102.87.27 |
Patrick: I would have gone to Hartsig for middle school (went to Rinke for grade school) and would have gone to Cousino for High School, but alas, I was shipped off to private Catholic schools (St. Dennis for grade school. Bishop Foley for High School) as my mom was the president of the Warren Consolodated PTA circa 1975 and saw what was going on (I'm not even Catholic. She just knew it was time for us kids to get out of the system. Too many gangs. Too much violence in the schools and lack of concern on learning. Warren was pretty darned dark back in those days. Tons of long haired kids looking for trouble. Heh. Like myself. You? Where'd you go to school? | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 191 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.65.11.152 |
Thats the place, thanks Hornwrecker! (Message edited by thnk2mch on July 07, 2006) | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1032 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42 |
Those stories about where the Soviets would nuke first (aka Ground Zero) were everywhere there was military manufacturing during the Cold War. A major industrial region in Milwaukee was the five-mile-long 30th Street Industrial Corridor. One corridor tenant--Master Lock's HQ and plant--was pretty tame. Another plant--Harley-Davidson --was located just off this corridor at Chesnut, now Juneau Street. [An uncle, George Zimmermann, on my Milwaukee, Austrian side was its chief tool-and-die maker and foreman of its stamping plant for decades of his 50+ years' employment at HD.] None of these factories were big military threats back during the Cold War days, even though the Jeeps replaced the military, driveshaft-equipped motorcycles in 1942. However, the 135 acre A. O. Smith Company was the major player in this industrial sector. It occupied a trapezoidal-shaped area from 27th Street to 35th Street and from Townsend to Capitol Drive (my street)--a distance of five long Milwaukee blocks. My parochial school--St. John de Nepomuc--was between 37th and 38th Streets, two blocks due west. A. O. Smith today builds water heaters and electric motors (1/800 to 800 HP) after it purchased electric motor divisions from Westinghouse, General Electric, and others. AOS relocated a while back and sold its corridor's plants and assets to the now-bankrupt Tower Automotive in Troy. The A. O. Smith company should probably be included in the Old Car Factory's thread on account of its supplying the frames for Detroit's auto and truck factories from 1906 to 1958. One of its automated frame plants in 1920 began auto-assembling its frames. [Another uncle worked there as a welder for his work career, dating back before WWII.] Milwaukee's Arthur Oliver Smith developed the first steel automobile frame, a significant contribution to the development of the automobile in the United States. The pressed steel frame was considerably lighter and less costly than the structural steel frames then available. At the time, the small Milwaukee manufacturer did not even have a customer for this product. Soon the company sold frames to a number of auto makers, including Peerless and Cadillac, but the big breakthrough came in 1906 when Henry Ford came to Milwaukee. Ford was laying the groundwork for his Model N and needed a supplier for 11,000 frames. This launched the company A.O. Smith. The company developed a way to economically produce large quantities of car frames and by 1910 was supplying 60 percent of the automobile frames for U.S. car makers. Because of its mastery of welding processes, the military during WWI and WWII chose the A. O. Smith Co. as its principal supplier of bomb casings. This made A O. Smith the #1 military target in Wisconsin during the Cold War, and my school, being the closest, was clearly at Ground Zero. We knew back then that Duck and Cover! was no option for us at school. An edited, much shorter A. O. Smith bio: Key Dates: 1874: Charles Jeremiah Smith opens a machine shop in Milwaukee to make baby carriage parts. 1895: C.J. Smith and Sons is the largest maker of steel bicycle parts in the United States. 1899: Company is sold to Federal Bicycle Corporation and operates as the Smith Parts branch. 1902: Arthur O. Smith, son of C.J., sells his first automotive frame. 1904: A.O. Smith buys Smith Parts and incorporates it as A.O. Smith Company. 1910: Company has grown to become the largest auto frame maker in North America. 1921: Company's frame production process is automated through the construction of the Mechanical Marvel. 1936: A.O. Smith develops an affordable, durable, glass-lined water heater. 1940: Company diversifies into electric motors through the purchase of Sawyer Electrical Manufacturing Company. 1949: Harvestore glass-lined silos are introduced. 1959: A.O. Smith establishes glass fiber division, which begins making fiberglass pipe and fittings. 1997: UPPCO, Incorporated, maker of electric motors, is acquired; automotive products business is sold to Tower Automotive Inc. 1998: A.O. Smith acquires the domestic compressor motor business of General Electric Company. 1999: The fractional horsepower motors business of MagneTek, Inc. is acquired. 2001: Company sells its storage tank unit to CST Industries, Inc. A.O. Smith now concentrates solely on electric motors and water heaters. Company History: A.O. Smith Corporation is a manufacturer specializing in electric motors, water heaters, and boilers. The company's Electrical Products unit accounts for more than two-thirds of revenues and makes motors for air conditioners, refrigerators, furnaces, garage door openers, and pumps used in home water systems, swimming pools, and hot tubs. The remaining sales are generated by the Water Products unit, which makes both residential and commercial water heaters, as well as large-volume copper-tube boilers. Over its long history, A.O. Smith has evolved from a small bicycle parts factory to a specialized manufacturer of motors and water heating products. For a long period the company was a much more diversified manufacturer, with such additional product lines as automotive structural components, fiberglass piping systems, livestock feed storage systems, and storage tanks. Most of these businesses were divested in the late 20th century. Early Decades: From Baby Carriage Parts to Auto Frames Although A.O. Smith was founded in 1904, the company traces its history back to the mid-19th century, when Charles Jeremiah (C. J.) Smith emigrated from England to the United States. The journeyman metal tradesman ventured all the way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and, after being self-employed for a decade, went to work for the Milwaukee Railroad Shop. As a highly skilled workman, he made a good living, but went back into business for himself in 1874, when he opened a machine shop and began manufacturing baby carriage parts. Two of Smith's four sons, Charles S. and George H., joined the family firm in the mid-1880s. As bicycles became popular in the last decade of the century, C.J. Smith and Sons branched out. By 1895, it was the largest manufacturer of steel bicycle parts in the United States. The patriarch called in his eldest son, Arthur O. (A. O.), an architectural engineer specializing in large buildings, to help build a five-story factory for the growing family business. After two years of close work with his father, A.O. decided to join the company permanently as treasurer. By then, C.J. Smith and Sons had declared itself the largest manufacturer of component bicycle parts in the world. Increasing overcapacity in that industry and the advent of the automobile brought another change to C.J. Smith and Sons. In 1899 the family sold its business to the Federal Bicycle Corporation of America, a then-legal monopoly known as the 'Bicycle Trust.' A.O. retained management of the Milwaukee (or 'Smith Parts') Branch of the Trust. Arthur Smith indulged his personal interest in the composition and manufacture of automobile frames with two years of 'tinkering' that culminated in the sale of his first automotive frame to the Peerless Motor Car Co. in 1902. Word of his frame, which was lighter, stronger, more flexible, and cheaper than conventional ones, spread quickly: by the following year, Smith had contracts with six major automobile manufacturers. A.O. Smith quit Federal in 1903, bought the Smith Parts Co. from his former employer, and incorporated it as A.O. Smith Company in 1904. The company's sales totaled $375,733 and profits topped $100,000 that first year. Unfortunately, patriarch C.J. Smith also passed away in 1904. In April 1906, Henry Ford contracted with A.O. Smith for frames. At the time, the company was producing only ten pressed steel frames a day. Ford needed 10,000 frames in four months, a tenfold increase in the prevailing production rate. Realizing that adding workers and space would only consume valuable time in training and construction, Smith looked for ways to increase efficiency through technological improvements. He and his team of engineers retooled existing presses to produce two corresponding halves of an auto frame simultaneously and arranged the presses to form a continuous assembly line. The delivery of 10,000 A.O. Smith frames that August helped Ford introduce his popularly priced Model N late in 1906 and attracted more automobile manufacturers to the supplier. Because A.O. Smith soon found itself turning away business, it built a new, larger headquarters on 135 acres on the outskirts of Milwaukee to accommodate demand. By the end of the decade, A.O. Smith was manufacturing 110,000 frames per year, over 60 percent of the auto industry's requirements. The 23-year-old former company secretary had previously proposed manufacturing improvements that multiplied A.O. Smith's production rate seven times: by 1916, the company was manufacturing 800,000 frames per year--half the auto industry's needs. Called 'decisive, restless and a profound thinker' by corporate historians, Ray Smith also propelled the family company into new ventures. Smith bought a license to manufacture 'The Motor Wheel,' a small gas engine that could be attached to a bicycle's rear wheel to make a 'motorbike.' The company sold 25,000 of the vehicles nationwide from 1914 to 1919, and even applied the technology to a small wooden 'sports car' called the Smith Flyer. L.R. Smith's reluctance to pay for the marketing support necessary to maintain such products' popularity, combined with the fact that the United States was thoroughly embroiled in World War I, brought diversification to a halt in 1919. A.O. Smith manufactured hollow-steel artillery vehicle poles and bomb casings for the war effort. By war's end, the company was producing 6,500 bomb casings per day, thanks to a welding breakthrough that produced stronger bonds in less time. 1920s: The Mechanical Marvel Throughout the war years, a team of Smith's best engineers formulated a revolutionary plan to automate the company's frame production process. Although expensive--construction consumed $6 million by 1920--the 'Mechanical Marvel' they created produced 7,200 frames on two 180-man shifts per day. The machines performed 552 separate functions, including forming, trimming, and riveting. It took A.O. Smith 15 years to recoup its investment in the Mechanical Marvel (which was designated a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1979), but the plant ran practically without stop until 1958. A.O. Smith was thus well positioned when the stock market crash of October 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. It had a two-year backlog of pipe orders and a dominant position in its other markets. As auto sales fell from 4.4 million in 1929 to less than two million in 1931, however, the company was forced to cut employment by 10 percent at its main plant. Corporate historians noted that 'Demand for frames was so low, supervisors painted them by hand to save the expense of starting the automatic equipment.' Mid-Century Diversification By the time the United States entered World War II in 1941, A.O. Smith had already submitted proposals for aerial bombs made of welded pipe, won the government contracts, and built a factory to produce them. The company's engineers developed better, cheaper propeller blades and manufactured landing gear for B-17 'Flying Fortress' and B-29 'Super Fortress' fighter bombers. The company was such a vital wartime supplier that Adolf Hitler targeted it in an unexecuted invasion of the United States. The investment of over $50 million in new plants and equipment before 1950 propelled A.O. Smith to unprecedented success in the booming postwar American economy. As new housing starts jumped to 4,000 per day and auto production soared to one million a month, the company was poised to prosper. Volume at the centrally located Kankakee water heater plant built in 1947 doubled twice before 1950, with the help of retail giant Sears, Roebuck & Co., which sold A.O. Smith water heaters under a private label. Monthly production approached 50,000 units by the mid-1950s. A.O. Smith had also entered the commercial water heater market in 1948 through the acquisition of Toledo, Ohio-based Burkay Company. In addition, A.O. Smith supplied all of Chevrolet's automotive frames during the 1950s, when that make was the most popular in the United States. The contract helped establish A.O. Smith as the largest independent supplier of chassis frames to the auto industry in the postwar era. Petroleum pipeline sales also recovered quickly and Smith formed a joint venture with steelmaker ARMCO to create a pipe factory in Texas close to customers. A.O. Smith's automotive division endured several upheavals throughout the 1960s and 1970s that threatened its existence. The proliferation of car models in the 1960s challenged Smith's adaptive ability and compelled it to retool from riveted frames to more adaptable welded frames. At the same time, 45 percent of U.S. auto production converted to unitized frame construction, effectively eliminating the need for a conventional frame. General Motors' decision to stick with the tried-and-true isolated frame construction kept the automotive division afloat for the time being. However, General Motors' 1980 announcement that it would convert all of its production to front-wheel drive, unitized body autos threatened the survival of the $270 million automotive segment of A.O. Smith's $836 million business. Luckily, the massive automaker took more than eight years to phase out full-framed vehicles (A.O. Smith delivered its last Cadillac frame in 1990), and A.O. Smith used that time to transform its automotive division. Automotive, which had made truck frames since 1905, shifted its primary focus to the expanding market for trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles, winning contracts with Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors in 1980 alone. By 1985, light truck frames were the corporation's single largest product line. Smith also won a contract to produce components for the critically acclaimed and top-selling Ford Taurus in the early 1980s. The company would meet other challenges under the leadership of Tom Dolan, who became president in 1982 and advanced to chairman and chief executive officer upon the retirement of L.B. Smith. Pressures from auto manufacturers, who were themselves influenced by intense foreign competition, spurred A.O. Smith to simultaneously reduce costs and increase quality. It was no simple task for the automotive division, which was then characterized by hostility between labor and management and 20 percent defect rates. Management embarked on a three-stage strategy to increase employee involvement through quality circles, labor-management task forces, and cooperative work teams. Although the plan initially met resistance from union leaders, six years of gradual change yielded impressive results: the productivity growth rate doubled in 1988 and defects were reduced to 3 percent. The work teams also enabled A.O. Smith to save money by drastically reducing the ratio of foremen to workers from 1-to-10 in 1987 to 1-to-34 in 1988. During this period of cultural revolution, A.O. Smith was hit hard by recessions in 1980 and 1982. Hundreds of workers were laid off as auto sales fell to their lowest levels in 20 years. The company slashed capital spending and expenses, cut officer salaries by 10 percent, and let one-fourth of the corporate staff go. Even more layoffs were necessary later in the decade, as the company trimmed net employment from a high of 12,300 in 1986 to 9,400 in 1990. The farming crisis that occurred at this same time reduced the Harvestore subsidiary's sales from $140 million in 1979 to $21 million by 1984. The division shuttered two plants and consolidated all operations at the main DeKalb, Illinois, plant. A.O. Smith eventually shifted the subsidiary's focus to municipal water storage tanks and sold Harvestore's U.K. subsidiary. Although its revenues remained small, Harvestore did eventually return to profitability. A.O. Smith's problems compounded in the early 1980s, as competition in the water heater industry exposed internal problems. Inefficient plants cost the Water Products Division $10 million in 1981 alone. The subsidiary closed one factory and opened a more efficient one, and other cost-cutting measures helped it achieve profitability in 1983 after four successive years of losses. Continuing efforts helped the division become one of A.O. Smith's most consistently profitable divisions, setting profit records in 1986, 1988, and 1990. A.O. Smith's electric motors division was one of the corporation's few consistently bright spots in the 1980s. Despite fairly intense competition, the subsidiary was able to establish operations in Mexico and Texas and even acquire a primary competitor's small motor business (that of Westinghouse, purchased in 1986). The unit set a profit record of $45 million in 1985. Smith's fiberglass business had also recovered from the shocks of the previous decade to set four successive years of record profits beginning in 1987. 1990s and Beyond: Concentrating on Motors and Water Heaters Despite an inconsistent earnings record in the 1980s--the company achieved only two successive profitable years during the decade--A. O. Smith had managed to pay cash dividends on its common stock every year since 1940. Having endured a grueling six years at the company's helm and achieving several of his goals, Tom Dolan retired from the chief executive office in 1988. Robert J. O'Toole assumed that office, adding the chairmanship in 1991. He directed the company's implementation of 'just-in-time' delivery of automotive products through the construction of five regional assembly plants in close proximity to customers. Although the firm recorded a net loss in 1992, its return to profitability the following year coincided with a general economic recovery in the United States. Despite the sales gains and steady profitability enjoyed by A.O. Smith in the mid-1990s, the company's automotive unit was under pressure to further ratchet up investments to maintain a competitive position. The difficulty was that every time an automaker began work on a new car or truck model, manufacturers of the frames had to spend $30 million to $50 million to retool their plants. A.O. Smith also did not have the financial resources to grow its automotive unit through acquisitions. After reviewing its strategic options, the company decided to make the dramatic move of selling off the automotive unit, which had the additional disadvantage of operating in a low-growth, cyclical industry. In April 1997 the unit was sold to Tower Automotive Inc. of Minneapolis for $710 million. | ||
Detroitej72 Member Username: Detroitej72 Post Number: 23 Registered: 05-2006 Posted From: 66.184.3.44 |
My Grandfather worked for Chrysler at the Lynch Road Plant and then at the Tank Arsennal until he retierd in 1980. He moved my mom's family from Harper and Van Dyke to 11 Mile and Van Dyke in 1971. He spoke of the bond the men had, both black and white on the shop floor. Most of the friends he brought home for lunch were Polish and Black. | ||
Inquisitor Member Username: Inquisitor Post Number: 8 Registered: 01-2006 Posted From: 205.56.129.195 |
My father had just retired, about a month ago, after thirty years or so at TACOM. I can remember going up there on hot summer "family days" maybe about 10 or so years ago. The whole compound is just huge. I can remember a track of some sort that ran almost the length of the installation used for testing the tanks, some sort of test track. I can also remember seeing an arsenal of tanks and various other armored vehicles. I have no clue about what goes on there now as far as tanks. I do know that the office buildings and whatnot aren't going anywhere, anytime soon. In fact they're supposedly going to do a lot of hiring in the near future, which is where I plan to work upon my return to Detroit. I wish i had more to share. I know my old man could share plenty of stories/info. | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 192 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.65.11.152 |
protecting the country  no seatbelt required... |
