construction and industrial models. Once ready for shipment, outbound tractors were driven from the outdoor storage yard near the end of the as- sembly line directly on to flat cars. The flats were usually lettered for C&NW, but equipment from nearly all roads was supplied for tractor loading. A long shed covered the loading dock and the two parallel stub tracks that held four 50-foot flatcars each.
The tractors were secured to the
decks with wood blocking and steel ca- bles or banding. The exact method for securing the tractors to the flat cars was specified by the rules outlined in a book issued by the American Associa- tion of Railroads entitled “General Rules Governing the Loading of Com- modities on Open Top Cars.” The rules
RACINE HERITAGE MUSEUM: J.I. CASE PHOTO COLLECTION
In this publicity photo dating from July, 1940, Case officials and dealers pose with a new Flambeau Red tractor as it is being loaded into a Milwaukee Road rib-side box- car. Note that the boxcar is also new.
full production it was switched several times around the clock by local C&NW switching crews working three shifts out of the yard adjacent to the plant on DeKoven Avenue at Racine Junction. The foundry consumed an enormous amount of scrap steel, and two large scrap dealers in Racine were kept busy processing inbound and outbound scrap from the local tractor plants. Much of the work of the switch crew consisted of weighing and delivering loads of scrap steel. Outbound loads of tractors, parts and scrap metal were weighed on the yard’s scale track before the cars were made up into blocks to be picked up by passing freight trains.
The first tractors produced at the
South Works in 1913 were painted green and red. Gray was substituted for green in the 1922 scheme, which featured enhanced red and white strip- ing. Flambeau Red became the stan- dard color for all products in the Case line in 1939, except for the industrial and construction models, which re- mained gray. Military tractors were painted flat olive green or gray. Begin- ning in 1954 a two-tone scheme of Flambeau Red and Desert Sand with silver wheel rims became standard. By 1940 pneumatic tires were stan- dard equipment on tractors. The steel- cleated tires were still available as an option, but the bone-jarring ride they gave was usually not worth the small savings. Diesel and LP-gas engines were introduced soon after. Other vari- ations included row crop tractors with narrow front wheels, orchard tractors shrouded in sheet metal, and a line of
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
RACINE HERITAGE MUSEUM: J.I. CASE PHOTO COLLECTION
Dockside observers watch as crated export tractors are transferred from CM&StP gondo- las into the hold of a freighter by the ship’s crane, circa. 1915 (above). Cars of crated tractor parts are shoved over the apron into the GTW car ferry City of Milwaukeeat the Milwaukee harbor in 1925 (below). The car ferry will take the cars across Lake Michigan to Ludington, Michigan, where they will continue on GTW rails or be switched to a PRR connection.
C&NW HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES COLLECTION
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