Check out the DeSoto woody train

[keiser31]

Found this on the H.A.M.B. forum. Lots of photos of DeSoto woodys being loaded into trains for shipping. Listed under "Vintage photos". I believe that the site became the Chrysler Wyoming Avenue plant where my father was an executive supervisor for the export-import division.

[Dosmo]

Found this on the H.A.M.B. forum. Lots of photos of DeSoto woodys being loaded into trains for shipping. Listed under "Vintage photos". I believe that the site became the Chrysler Wyoming Avenue plant where my father was an executive supervisor for the export-import division.

Here is a link to The H.A.M.B. forum. Caution - for those of you who might not want to be exposed to the evils of a street rodder's forum, do not - repeat - DO NOT - click on this link. However, for those who think exposure to such wiley trappings may not adversely affect their lives, click away. The Desoto woodies are on Page 1704 of the "Vintage Shots From Days Gone By!" thread.

Vintage shots from days gone by! - Page 1704 - THE H.A.M.B.

Edited November 24, 2011 by 54nuyorkrwagon (see edit history)

[Bleach]

Actually I've seen many threads that would be appropriate here from the HAMB. I used to hang out there a lot before coming here. I actually found out about this site from the HAMB.

[keiser31]

The DeSoto is a 1949. Thanks for posting the picture. I can't imagine getting a car that big into a railroad car. You believe that thewoodies were built at the Wyoming St. Plant?

I think that all DeSotos were built at the Wyoming Street plant.

[Frank Wilkie]

Here is a picture of my dad with his 1949 DeSoto station wagon 9 passenger. This car was damaged when the dealership got it so they put it up in their storage area on the second story. If I recall correctly my dad said the wood was damaged on one side of the car. He bought it and repaired it himself. He was proud of this car.

[Steve9]

Here is a picture of my dad with his 1949 DeSoto station wagon 9 passenger. This car was damaged when the dealership got it so they put it up in their storage area on the second story. If I recall correctly my dad said the wood was damaged on one side of the car. He bought it and repaired it himself. He was proud of this car.

Great story. The only thing cooler would be if you still had the wagon!

[Chrycoman]

In 1949, DeSotos were built at Wyoming Avenue, Los Angeles and Windsor. But I believe the woodies were only at Wyoming. The Windsor plant built only Custom club coupes and 4dr sedans from 1942 through 1951.

The Wyoming plant built DeSotos from model year 1937 through to the end of the 1958 model year. The plant was purchase from GM in 1934 and was originally built in 1917 for war work. Buick used it for export business in the early 1920's. From 1960 through to the early 1980's it was used for Chrysler export production. It was torn down in 1992 and a year or two later the McGraw Avenue plant (built in 1937 just east of the Wyoming plant) was expanded taking up most of the land where the Wyoming Ave plant stood. I believe the McGraw plant was torn down last year.

The 1949-50 DeSoto woodie was actually a steel body with wood trim. Not sure who built it, but the body was also used by Dodge and Chrysler.

They could get up to six cars in those box cars, although probably only four DeSotos. They used dollies to wheel the cars around the corners and line them up in the car. The American Motors Family Album had a photo taken in 1946 of workers loading up cars. One of the workers had a dolly and was getting it lined up under the rear of the next Hudson to be loaded.

[keiser31]

I do not believe that the woodies were built at either plant, but rather at a speciality factory that built woodies. There is a picture of a huge shipping yard in the 1940's filled with only woodies ( and nothing but woodies), of different makes and models, many Mopars, which would support that theory. Of course if you have a picture of a Mopar woody coming down an assembly line with steel cars....

From what my Dad told me, the DeSoto woodies were built at the Wyoming plant. He worked there for 37 years and I believe he knew the true history. He did, however exaggerate occasionally. A copy of that LIFE magazine may tell us.

[Chrycoman]

The BODIES were not built at Wyoming Avenue or LosAngeles. Wyoming Avenue was an assesmbly plant and never built bodies. Before the era of unibodies, bodies were built in plants dedicated to building bodies, either by Chrysler or outside suppliers, such as Murray, Briggs, Hayes, U.S. Body & Forging, etc. And all these body companies did was build and trim bodies. In the case of DeSoto, the coupe and sedan bodies were built at the Kercheval body plant across from the East Jefferson Avenue assembly plant and trucked over to Wyoming Avenue. In 1950 the West Warren plant began building bodies for Wyoming Avenue.

The Kercheval body plant was the building that had that huge "Fluid Drive" sign in the 1940's and early 1950's. It was purchased by Chrysler in 1925 and until the mid-1950's trucked finished bodies across the street to the assembly plant. At that time Chrysler built an enclosed overhead to transfer bodies to the East Jefferson assembly plant, getting ready for the switch to unibody construction. The Kercheval plant dated back to the era prior to the introduction of lacquer paints when vehicles to be done in colours were painted with coloured varnishes. And it took three or four weeks to paint and dry three layers of varnish, which is why the building was so huge.

U.S. Body & Forging built the bodies for Plymouth woodie wagons and shipped them to Detroit, where they were installed on Plymouth chassis in the Plymouth assembly plant. The Dodge-DeSoto-Chrysler woodie wagons of 1949-50 were not true woodies as they had a steel structure with wood bolted on. As I said earlier, I do not know where they built or by whom, but the DeSoto bodies were shipped from the body plant to the Wyoming assembly plant where they installed on DeSoto chassis. Dodge woodie wagons were shipped to Hamtramck and Chrysler bodies to East Jefferson.

Around 1949-50, Dodge built most of their own bodies in a plant within the Dodge complex and then sent over to the assembly plant. Briggs built bodies for Plymouth in Detroit for the Lynch Road and Evansville plants. The Detroit plant augmented the Briggs Evansville plant as it was not large enough to build the volume of bodies needed. The Plymouth Evansville assembly plant was built by Graham Brothers Trucks and was acquired by Chrysler when they bought Dodge Brothers. The Briggs Evansville body plant was built by Graham-Paige in 1928 and purchased by Briggs in 1935. Chrysler acquired the plant when they purchased Briggs in 1953.

The switch to unibody construction also spelled the end for the Evansville operation as the two plants were too small and too far apart to be viable. Also, there was no vacant land surrounding either plant. Thus the brand new plant on the outskirts of St.Louis.

So, no matter who supplied the bodies, all bodies were shipped to an assembly plant where the body was mated to the chassis. As to a woodie wagon coming down the line with sedans, that was the way it was. Do not know what the location of the picture you were viewing, but it sounds more like a shipping company somewhere and not a body or assembly plant. GM, Chrysler and Ford all used different suppliers for their woodies.

And the shot of a woodie being loaded onto a rail car at the Wyoming plant should be proof that they were assembled there. The group of photos presented show at least three woodies amongst dozens of DeSoto cars waiting to be shipped.