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You are right! I found this quote "A section of the museum is devoted to military vehicles, including Studebaker's WWII Weasel, a small, tracked amphibious troop and cargo carrier." referring to a new museum in South Bend. It looks like they were manufacturing these for the navy in this plant.

Let me see if this works.
http://www.thecarconne...aker.S215.A9917.html

I think I figured out the balconies a few pics ago thanks to the before and after shot- to recap a large gantry crane appears to be no longer there is visible in the vintage pic. It could probaly travell the lenght of the room an tracks above the ceiling as well as move right and left. This means that it could pick up loads of raw materils from the incomeing train cars and deposit them directly onto the appropriate balcony for storage or use in production. Also could do the reverse op for assembled components.
Notice there are no two balconies stacked above each other. This allows all balconies to be serviced by the crane.
Any other ideas??

Absolutely beautiful ! Feels like I am standing right in the trench.

hmmm...thats a random fact!

On third floor above the main building entrance was a small operation room. It had one of those mirrored globes with all the refractories that would enable an doctor to be able to see in detail what they were doing surgically. In my humble opine, they did minor surgery and perhaps lobotomies in that little room. I saw in once and could never get it out of my psyche.

That would be my guess too, csw. Was this place an air raid shelter? Every grade school I attended in PA in the '60s had bunches of these. They must have been cheap and someone thought it was a good idea for the schools to have them, probably because they doubled as air raid shelters.

Now I understand what the balconies are for. It looks like the Gantry crane would pick up loads directly off the train cars and deposit them onto the appropriate balcones for quick movement into storage or production. Notice there are no two balconies stacked above one another.

I have seen the buckling happen in wood stage floors as well. The floors are built so tightly that when the wood gets wet it swells (like a dry sponge getting wet) and has no room to expand. Each block only swells up a little bit, but with so many blocks it adds up and they are foced to heave up.

P.S. YES PATIENTS DIED AND WERE ACTUALLY BURIED ON THE PROPERTY

this is very sad and disturbing at the same time. tho it draws me too it the way abandoned amusement parks always have. love to see more shots of things like this someday.

S A STUDENT NURSE AT DIXMONT IN 1972,I HAVE SO MANY MEMORIES OF THE PLACE. ITS ASHAMED IT WASN'T TAKEN OVER BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY EARLY. SO SAD TO SEE SUCH A PART OF HISTORY FALL TO SUCH RUIN.

They would make terrific off-road vehicle engines.

I'm sure someone could make a lot of money selling those for restorations, engine swaps, etc.. rediculous.

Cor! that looks delicious! those lucky lucky maggots!

All i can think of looking at this is...Knock em dead......