Where Were The Allis Chalmers Factories Located?
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- Опубликовано: 26 фев 2023
- A company as big as Allis Chalmers needed a lot of factories to build their many products. Since we covered their West Allis headquarters in a previous video its only fair that the other factories get their moment in the spotlight. This is a brief summary each of the main Allis Chalmers factories.
Special Thanks to Austin M. Frederick for the article about the Lexington South Carolina Plant.
Check out his Allis Chalmers History Site at: theweekendhistorian.com/
#allischalmers 
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Thank you so very much for this!! I graduated high school back in '92 about 45mi east of the KC area (Independence). As I type this, I'm so angry with myself for being such a dipsh*t. But all through high school, during FFA week, we'd go to the National Convention held in KC. We'd also tour the Gleaner plant! I didn't appreciate it or care one bit about the tour. Looking back? I wish I'd have paid more attention or appreciate the fact that the F's, N's and R- series were right there. Thank you so much for this video!
Great to see Essendine getting a mention. Before that plant was up and running there was an assembly plant at Totton near Southampton, I own a 1947 B it has a "B" serial number in the US range but with a crudely stamped "E" in front of it, from 1948 Knocked down kits from the US were assembled at Totton so it must be one of the early ones put together there.
If you get bored and want to find a piece of AC history, the Electro Motive Division "SW-1" locomotive that switched the West Allis plant (the yellow locomotive you see in this and your West Allis tour video), was later sold to Northern Rail Car in Cudahy WI, later to a grain elevator, and now is located at the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad in Trego, WI. It was operational, but is currently not used. It's still painted as Northern Rail Car, in maroon paint.
I thought one of those was at an elevator in Minneapolis?
NOICE!
Good 👍 Video 👍👍👍
Thank you Philip!
Cool fun facts for us nerds
I was actually pondering where all the factories were a few months ago. Thanks for making this!
I worked at the Allis Chalmers factory in Newcastle Australia between 1966-1970. Road graders, screens and crushers where built there
Company I worked for built a couple new plants in the mid 80's. All were equipped with Allis electric forklifts. We ran them 24/7 for twenty years. Never had any major issues with them.
The Japanese forklifts we replaced them with are ready to be replaced with less than half the hours on them.
Thank you for the great video. My dad worked for little while at the LaPorte plant.
Allis Chalmers also had a nuclear division that built a power plant in Sioux Falls, SD in 1959. It was called the pathfinder. Interesting history.
Excellent video. A few added items. After Simplicity moved out of the Lexington SC plant, the Matteson IL AC lift truck plant moved electric lift truck mfg and assembly into the 100,000 Sq ft plant. Mfg continued in Lexington until 1980 when it was moved back to Matteson. It was a really nice plant and a great place to work. (I was tasked to shut it down). AC Built front end loaders in the Lachine Que plant for some time and moved production back to Matteson in about 1979. AC had a Power Breaker Division plant in Jackson Mississippi, it was at least 150,000 Sq ft, I attended a Mfg Engineering Conference there in 1977.
Good to hear they used it a little longer than 1973, seems wasteful to built a new plant and then leave it 5 years later
I think the Allis Chalmers Laporte plant also had a EMD switcher till they shutdown. I got laid off in July of 82. My best job in my life.
Do you remember how many people worked at the LP plant?
A lot. Moving to Texas really affected local economy in the 80s. 😿
Great collection of AC plant history!
The Alis Chalmers plant in Cedar Rapids Iowa was purchased in the 1960s by Harnischfeger where they produced P&H cranes.
Always great when post a video. Thank you J and L
It’s amazing as large as they were they didn’t live on like Deer or New Holland
The video is making my miss my youth and the mechanics who were a generation older
When I was a boy my neighbor retired from the Norwood, Ohio Allis Chalmers plant. I've got a small badge (sign ) from one of the pumps.
Excellent video my Allis Chamlers tractor rough terrain forklift was built in Topeka Kansas the tag says
Yes. Your forklift was built by Henry Manufacturing in Topeka, Kansas. Henry Mfg. also built backhoes and loaders for A-C.
The Topeka Kansas plant built a variety of industrial equipment. The West Allis plant built a number of "skid" power trains, painted them yellow and shipped them to Topeka as the base for front end loaders, bucket trucks, backhoes, etc. I recall one of these videos has a trailer load of yellow power trains coming out of the main gate.
Did Topeka close when fiatallis took over?
@@JandLVideos My recollection is Fiat concentrated on the Springfield plant
The Topeka, Kansas plant accurately mentioned by @clydeschwartz and by @tompreiss3947 was Henry Manufacturing Company. Henry backhoes and loaders were built for Allis-Chalmers and initially were mounted on A-C farm tractors (D-15 and D-17). Eventually, but too late to gain a competitive edge, A-C produced an "industrial" tractor which was suitably strong enough for the Henry backhoes and loaders. Even a 12 foot backhoe would tear an Allis-Chalmers D-17 to pieces in no time. Fork lifts were also built by Henry Mfg. for use on D-15s, D17s and the late-to-market Allis-Chalmers industrial tractors. (The fork lifts were mounted on tractors that had their transmissions reversed so that the front drive wheels became rear drive wheels. The fork lifts were then mounted on the rear of the tractors which became the front of the fork lifts.) It was Allis-Chalmers' failure to fully commit to using an appropriately sized tractor for mounting backhoes, loaders and forklifts that led to John Deere's rapid dominance in the backhoe/loader market. Caterpillar then followed John Deere's lead and jumped into the backhoe/loader/tractor forklift game. That marked the end of the line for Henry Mfg. and for the Allis-Chalmers earth moving and material moving venture. Henry pushed hard on Allis-Chalmers to produce a competitive backhoe/loader compatible tractor, but reason fell on resoundly deaf ears at A-C until John Deere and of course Caterpillar could not be competed against. That was the end for Allis-Chalmers venturing into the incredibly huge and massively lucrative backhoe/loader market. Truly, A-C missed a marvelous opportunity. Albert Henry, founder, owner and innovative inventor of all things related to early development of backhoe's and loaders in the late 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's was my father. Allis-Chalmers broke him. Both financially and physically. And they contributed to their own demise in the process.
Robert Henry, M.D., FACEP (Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians)
Excellent video...👍
IH and John Deere also had factories in California to build heavy duty tillage equipment for the Southwest there was quite a bit of heavy duty alis Chalmers discs and plows and rippers around that could only be pulled by bulldozers there was quite a bit of AC dozers around too
As an add on to the Harvey IL plant, as noted was originally the Buda company that mfg a full line of Buda lift trucks. AC purchased and converted (repainted) the Buda line into the AC line with the art deco "water fall" design of the counterweight. The engine mfg was a real bonus for AC. The lift truck engines were indestructible, and ag tractor engines followed on with that reliability.
My Father Worked at that Location when he First started working for the Company. & Before They Moved to Mattson IL. Surprisingly. The Building, Although Vacant for Many Years. Is Still Standing Today..Looks Good from what I can see.
Super Video and super what you making for that.
I have a overhead electric chainhoist that came out of the Matteson, ILL factory...it has an allis chalmers data tag ...l have never found anything similar at all on the internet...but l do know AC had their hands in a lot of pots.
Interesting.... I never knew much about Allis Chalmers. My grandpa used to sell the forklifts in the St. Louis area.
It's crazy to me that Allis wasn't able to make it with how diversified they were.
Good info.
Very interesting! But there might be a mistake. I was surprised that there was an European Allis Chalmers farm machinery plant in Essendine England since AC machinery never made it to continental Europe. After just a little research I‘ve found out that this plant was already closed in 1968.
It's possible I got it wrong I could only find one article that mentioned a date, interesting factoid Allis Bought that plant from Minneapolis Moline
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Very interesting
Interesting, 4sure!
There is still a pipe yard in Victoria Texas with the old A-C sign on their gate
I live in Victoria!
I have 3 Allis Chamers HD 11 with saved parts from to other. I brought five. 1955, 1956, two 1958, and 1962, as my mechanics died I stopped running my dozers. They were hard to replace. Mine have Buda diesels. My dad owned dozens of Hd20 and Hd21, I learned on cable machines, mine are hydraulic. As life changes I became a Bobcat skid steer 873 owner , I own 3 , work one, two parts machine, I would buy more running machines or part machines. The new machines are not as good.
My Dad worked at the Boston plant were they built transformers in the 60's when I was a boy, they ended up moving to Tennessee but my parents didn't want to move the family, my accent would've been different.
I bought an 8000 lb. Allis Chalmers forklift in 1976, used it for 30 years, no problems, now I know where it came from, it was weird seeing that famous brand name disappearing back in the '70s and '80s...
There is one of their hydro turbines here in southern Nebraska.
i work at a store that has a walk behind forklift built by Allis Chalmers Springfield Ill tool works, and remember the plant in Springfield, the site now has an FBI field office, and other offices
Ironic
Any info on a Topeka Kansas plant? I think it built backhoes.
Please see my comment by @roberthenry9379. You are right, @michaels1033. And it is an interesting story.
What about the location in Duluth Georgia where AGCO have their headquarters? I think there was never something produced, but the the origins of this site might be connected whit AC.
I think that was strictly agco. When Deutz Allis started, the American part was still headquartered in Milwaukee and later moved down to Georgia
Hi, any info on the old Allis branch houses?
I know where they were, but I dont have many pics or information on them.
I loved this do more George Dietlein
There was an Allis-Chalmers plant in Stratford Ontario Canada it produced Roller Mills and Hammer Mills I believe, the building was taken over by standard products and now is a medical centre I got that information from my father who is now long gone,
Can you suggest a good comprehensive book about the history of Allis Chalmers?
For a good look at the history of the company itself, I'd recommend An Industrial Heritage by Walter F Peterson
Thanks for the quick reply. Just ordered it on eBay! Thanks again.
Remember the Land Handler magazine?
Yes I do! Great magazine. I've got quite a few of them in the collection
My dad worked at semens at one point I didn’t know that Allis used to part own it
"Big Allis "steam turbine runs most of NYC con Edison electric power.
Allis Chalmers still around? This video every factory was closed
They declared bankruptcy in 1987, and the remnants became Archer Well Company later
I did a science report in school about the fuel cells from some info they sent to me upon request.
They should have stayed in the tractor and combine business and not partnered out. Our Allis tractors were work horses, sun up til past sundown..
I have information about the Appleton Works…I’ll have to look and send it to you.
I like those pictures on your site where you can still see where the lettering was
Quite a few years ago I remember seeing the logo on building there
Jimmy Carter had this country in such bad financial shape no wonder so many closings in the early 80’s….
Reagan's recession in the early '80's was a bigger contributing factor. Unemployment at 10.8%, the worst since the GOP caused great depression. Since 1953 there have been 11 recessions, 10 of which happened under GOP administrations.
Globalism killed allis chalmers