Eastern Railroad Discussion > GM Lordstown Assembly

With the last Chevy Cruz rolled off the floor yesterday, all one can hope is another vehicle may be built there, but I doubt it.  NE Ohio has lost the Ford Walton Hills plant, the Chrysler Twinsburg plant, a Ford plant over in Lorain/Avon and now this blow to the Greater Warren/Youngstown area.  I recall seeing it after it was built, so big (6.2 million square feet on over 900 acres), I was told the builder had to compensate for the curvature of the Earth.  A union hall on the other side of the Ohio Turnpike, not to mention the turnpike exit built explicitly for the assembly plant.  
I do have a question regarding the adverse effect this may have on CSX, as they pulled most of the finished vehicles out of there.  I'm not sure if NS does.  Of course there are dozens of spin off industries effected as well, not just the 1700 workers and the railroad. Any insight on how many trains will be effected.  Brings back too many bad memories of so many shuttered industrial sites up here in northern Ohio. ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE, Ford is adding a vehicle ine I think in Avon OH. By the way, Lordstown Assemble was responible for over 30% of the tax base in that community. 
Rich S    
 

This will provide CSX with a way to abolish more M&W jobs.

Posted from iPhone

Originally built to produce the Chevy Vega compact, IIRC.

TJY

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> Originally built to produce the Chevy Vega
> compact, IIRC.
>
> TJY

According to this news story, the first vehicle off the line at Lordstown was a 1966 Chevy Impala in April of that year.

https://www.wkbn.com/local-news/50-years-at-gm-lordstown-a-look-at-the-plants-history_20180416110616735/1124845961

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> Originally built to produce the Chevy Vega
> compact, IIRC.
>
...and notable for a strike in 1972 for working conditions rrather than pay. GM was running the line so fast that cars were blowing by workers before they could perform their task. The car missing the part(s) would just keep on going down the line to come off at the end a "completed" new car.

TAW

Yes, and the quality reflected just that. About half the Vegas that my hometown Chevy dealer got needed to be finished
by the dealer.

Out

Right - Lordstown opened in '66, but didn't start producing Vegas until 1970 (for the '71 model year).  Still, I always think of Lordstown as "the Vega plant".
As for rail traffic - at least since the '99 CR split, CSX has handled nearly all of the vehicle traffic out of Lordstown. NS was never a player in that plant's finished vehicle traffic.  Lordstown Assembly is nearly adjacent to the CSX/B&O main line, so the loaded ML's got a very quick ride out of town on CSX.  Any ML traffic via NS would have had to take a slow 65 mile branch and secondary main line ride just to get to Conway, then get switched out and blocked to catch a ride on a multilevel train. So NS was never able to be time-competitive with CSX from Lordstown; aside from occasional trial moves, everything in the last 20 years moved on CSX.

And inbound auto parts aren't a factor at Lordstown; I don't think there have been any parts railed into Lordstown since Moses was in diapers.

Despite the lack of NS traffic, NS folks will still take a hit - as per the '99 split agreement, NS switches the plant complex and operates Goodman Yard. So a number of NS crews will be affected.

callum_out Wrote:
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> Yes, and the quality reflected just that. About
> half the Vegas that my hometown Chevy dealer got
> needed to be finished
> by the dealer.
>
> Out

Indeed, I was doing collision/body work then.  All domestic cars were junk then but I must say the Vega was at or very near the apex of the garbage.  I found sandwiches and pop/soda cans half full inside the door shells.  They rotted out very quickly, as did all the domestic cars.  The Vegas rotted out in the most annoying areas. I remember welding in new cowl vent panels (below the windshield where the wipers were) on 2 and 3 year old Vegas. (Confession: I owned a '73)  A few modifications and it ran well at Dragway 42.  
Rich S 

I owned a Vega with an aluminum engine under the hood, that turned out to be a huge mistake, because the dammed thing warped after it could not handle the heat from running. Mine died a bad death and the most that GM offered me was a small discount of a new engine, after my lawyer called GM, I got a new one at no cost. They fixed it and I immediately dumped it for a Ford pickup. I took a small loss but it was better then keeping that POS...

For as long as I can remember, CSX has had the vast majority, if not all, of the outbound finished vehicle business from GM Lordstown.  Conrail handled a few lanes from time to time.  I can't ever recall seeing outbound multi-levels moving via Norfolk Southern after the Conrail split.  NS did handle most of the outbound scrap business from the stamping plants at Lordstown, sometimes up to eight cars a day when the assembly lines were running three shifts.  

Per a joint agreement that dated to the plant opening, PRR/PC/Conrail/NS did all the switching at the GM plant and adjacent Goodman Yard.  Cars were exchanged with B&O/CSX through a connection west of the yard office.  Up to the end, NS crews were doing the switching, even though all the vehicle traffic went out on CSX.  NS was making 2-3 trips a week between Youngstown and Goodman Yard, mostly handling gondolas for the scrap business, plus a bit of traffic for other customers.  There also was seasonal business of inbound unit trains of stone to Shelly Materials at the east end of Goodman Yard.  

Conrail once handled a substantial volume of inbound auto parts to Lordstown.  Although there was some stamping capacity on-site, Conrail sometimes delivered up to 30 loads of auto parts a day to Lordstown.  Conrail even had a pair of daily trains between Columbus (Buckeye Yard) and Lordstown, COLT and LTCO, that used the Lordstown Secondary between Lordstown and Alliance (Sebring).  Per the Conrail Freight Schedule of March 1994, COLT departed Buckeye Yard with blocks for set-off at Mansfield and Lordstown.  At Mansfield, COLT picked up a block of auto parts from the GM Mansfield Stamping plant, which were delivered to Lordstown within eight hours.  It worked the same way in reverse for train LTCO.  I'm not sure of the timing, believe it was in the mid 90's that GM vastly increased the stamping capacity at Lordstown, which killed the inbound auto parts business.  I don't think that NS ever handled any inbound auto parts to Lordstown.  It was about the time of the Conrail split that the Lordstown Secondary was taken out of service west of Lordstown to the connection with the Fort Wayne Line at Sebring, just east of Alliance.  The rails are still there.  

CSX will suffer more of a financial impact, but NS crews will lose jobs at Goodman Yard.  The yardmasters at Goodman were also NS employees, and they handled a number of other locations (Youngstown and Sharon / Ferrona Yard) in addition to Lordstown.  I haven't heard if the yardmasters are still there, or if so, what will happen to them.  




 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/19 08:05 by cr7998.

I'm intrigued that the Lordstown plant didn't get inbound parts by rail.  Did it all come by truck?

Parts are often a good part of the business, with shipments of frames, windshields, seats, dash assemblies, etc showing up every day.

While I have no official knowledge, rail service may continue for a while. The ramp at Lordstown handles both outbound Cruze's for rail destinations and serves as a distribution point for GM. As such, the ramp saw both inbound and outbound loads. Some outbound Cruze's never saw an autorack as they were trucked to destination.

Posted from Android

The only good thing to come about from Chevy's Vega was the development of the Vert-a-Pac Car. Really great concept.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> I'm intrigued that the Lordstown plant didn't get
> inbound parts by rail.  Did it all come by
> truck?
>
> Parts are often a good part of the business, with
> shipments of frames, windshields, seats, dash
> assemblies, etc showing up every day.

The supply base was either local/on site or it didn't make sense to use rail. No frames as the Cruze was a unibody. Much of the stamping was on-site. Gas engines were trucked from Flint, MI, diesels were trucked in from the port (built in Hungary). Dashes and seats assembled locally.

No real need for rail.

Posted from Android

gandydancer4 Wrote:
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> The only good thing to come about from Chevy's
> Vega was the development of the Vert-a-Pac Car.
> Really great concept.

Well it died with the Vega...

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/19 16:05 by NYSWSD70M.

Back in the 70S and  80S I hauled alot of vegas and vans out of the plant for Anchor motor Frieght,I wish i had a picture of how the were hauled on trains,They stood them straight up in the rail cars,Wow what a Site...Scoob

NYSWSD70M Wrote:
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(SNIP)
>
> No real need for rail.
>
> Posted from Android

Thanks

JimRussell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> icancmp193 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Originally built to produce the Chevy Vega
> > compact, IIRC.
> >
> > TJY
>
> According to this news story, the first vehicle
> off the line at Lordstown was a 1966 Chevy Impala
> in April of that year.
>
> https://www.wkbn.com/local-news/50-years-at-gm-lor
> dstown-a-look-at-the-plants-history_20180416110616
> 735/1124845961

My bad! I too owned a Vega ('74) and I ordered the optional oversize radiator, which cost all of $12-$13 extra, so it did not suffer from warping problems, but instead had considerable sloppy quality control issues with paint, trim and the squeaky speedometer. It left my garage in 1976 for a Toyota Celica.

TJY

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> My bad! I too owned a Vega ('74)... but instead had considerable sloppy
> quality control issues with paint, trim and the
> squeaky speedometer. It left my garage in 1976 for
> a Toyota Celica.
>

It lasted a year longer than my Renault Encore (French Rambler) bought for gas mileage (important on the operators extra board), but started breaking and/or shedding various parts after a year. It got ok mileage - if you could keep it running. It was replaced by a Honda.

TAW

Chevy NoVa = Chevy No Go

Not the best Hispanic marketing effort

Posted from Android