Trains and tractors:
The J.I. Case plant in Racine, Wisconsin A look at how railroads served a large tractor manufacturing plant/Keith M. Kohlmann
RACINE HERITAGE MUSEUM: J.I. CASE PHOTO COLLECTION
Case cross-mount tractors are loaded on to flat cars by an over- head crane at the South Works circa. 1915 (above). Another view, also from 1915, shows a Case model 25-45 gasoline tractor with a factory cab and steel rims loaded on a flat car (top right). Note the A.A.R. standard wood blocking around the wheels. Four loaded flat cars bound for Wilson, Arkansas, are about to be pulled from the loading shed at the South Works on December
T 72
he large-scale conversion from an- imal to mechanical power on the farm began just before World War
I, when improvements in gasoline en- gines and automotive technology com- bined to create efficient gasoline farm tractors. When the demand for gasoline tractors began, steam traction engines were still used for plowing and breaking sod, and portable steam engines were used on farms for powering threshing equipment. The J.I. Case Threshing Ma- chine Company was the largest world-
27, 1955 (center right). Note the Flambeau Red tractors mixed with the new two-tone tractors on the same car during this transi- tion year. A C&NW switch crew was working at the J. I. Case South Works when this aerial view was taken in March, 1965 (bot- tom right). Left to right, we see the power plant on the bluff of Lake Michigan, the foundry and crane way, assembly buildings, shipping shed and C&NW mainline in the far upper right.
wide manufacturer of steam engines, producing 36,000 steam engines be- tween 1869 and 1924 at an enormous factory complex that was started in 1844 near downtown Racine, Wisconsin. Case added gas tractors as an exten- sion of their product line in 1895. Each new advance in automotive technology made the gasoline tractors more pow- erful and efficient. Mass production techniques made them widely afford- able. Self-starters, automatic hitches, gear shifts,
torque converters, hy-
draulics and power-take-off devices en- abled farmers to work in the fields and to reap and haul the harvest with amazing efficiency.
Despite the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, years of adverse growing conditions, and low commodity prices, tractor sales continued as farmers took advantage of the lower operating costs and increased productivity of the gaso- line tractors over draft animals. Large steam traction engines were also re- placed, as they required a separate
FEBRUARY 2012
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