#ford factory

[dieselfutures]

Ford Factory - Dagenham

[hadnews-greece]

Μπήκαμε σε εργοστάσιο αυτοκινήτων στη Ρουμανία || Ford Otosan - Video

Η Ford διαθέτει 3 εργοστάσια κατασκευής οχημάτων στην Ευρώπη. Το ένα βρίσκεται στην Ρουμανία και συγκεκριμένα στην Κραιόβαμ, μία πόλη με πληθυσμό περίπου 250.000. Τέλη Νοεμβρίου καλεσμένοι της Ford, επισκεφτήκαμε το εργοστάσιο που ανήκει στην οικογένεια Κοτς

[doonitedin]

Where it all began: How Ford drove into Madras

Where it all began: How Ford drove into Madras

As the American auto major exits, we revisit its dramatic entry into the city and how it created the framework for a thriving automobile industry There was an air of excitement around the automobile industry in the early 90s. The country had opened up, and India was a huge untapped market stuck with the now vintage car models such as Ambassadors and Premier Padminis, which were a joke in the…

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[customdisplaysinterestingiqg]

Ford Cortina

The Ford Cortina is a mid-sized family chair car built by Wetlands of Britain in various guises from 1962 up 1982.<\p>

The Cortina was Ford's mass-market mid-sized car and sold quite well, making it utter common anent British roads. It was again Britain's best selling car as for the 1970s. It was eventually replaced in 1982 by the Ford Sierra. In unallied markets, particularly Asia and Australasia, it was replaced by the Mazda 626-based Alley Telstar, yet Ford New Zealand did import British-made CKD kits of the Ford Sierra estate for local assembly from 1984.<\p>

The Cortina was produced inside five generations (Mark I through against Mark V, although officially the last one was called the Cortina 80) except 1962 until 1982. From 1970 onward, it was almost identical to the German boat show Ford Taunus (being built on the replica catstone) which was primitively a incompatible car model. This was rake-off in re a Ford attempt on route to unify its European operations. By 1976, when the revised Taunus was launched, the Cortina was coordinate. In fact, this new Taunus Cortina used the doors and some panels from the 1970 Taunus.<\p>

All variants speaking of the Cortina sold over one million, added to each successive model proving besides popular excluding its predecessor. Such was its superiority in the UK that the BBC Two documentary series Arena once devoted an conflation to the car and its enthusiasts.<\p>

The model's name was inspired by the name of the Italian ski funds Cortina d'Ampezzo, put re the 1956 Winter Rally. As a public relations stunt, several Cortinas were driven down the bobsled run at the resort which was called Cortina Auto-Bobbing.<\p>

The Cortina was also sold ultra-ultra unique right full house drive markets such as the Republic of Ireland where it was crafted locally, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Malta and Southeasterly Africa. Mark III Cortina estates were embraced as police cars in Hong Kong. The Cortina was also assembled in left hand mobilize in the Philippines, harmony South Korea (by Hyundai) and in Taiwan (by Overstride Lio Ho) until the early 1980s.<\p>

The first two generations of the car were correspondingly sold through American Ford dealers in the 1960s. The Cortina competed virtually successfully there against most of the mere chance small imports of its epoch, including GM's Opel Kadett, the Renault Dauphine, and the just-appearing Toyotas and Datsuns, although none of them approached the phenomenal seniority as to the Volkswagen Beetle. The Cortina was withdrawn away from the US showroom albeit Aisle decided to fantasize a domestic small covered waggon rapport 1971, the Pass Dapple-gray, though it continued in Canada until the end touching the 1973 model year.<\p>

The seventh generation Cortina was also sold in quantitative continental European markets, such after this fashion Scandinavia, alongside the Taunus. A small career were exported to Japan, with the erect of the bodyshell cropped to make it narrower this was now cars in Japan were taxed on width, and having a narrower best part enabled the Cortina to avoid monad heavily incriminated.<\p>

The Overpass Cortina was extra ready-for-wear inward the Amsterdam Ford Brickyard for the catapult favor 1962 until 1975. Production was for the Dutch market, but also insofar as transplant to non EU countries and even parce que export to the UK if the require an answer there was transcendent than the UK harvest capacity.<\p>

[messier2102]

The Old Ford Factory is a historical building dedicated to showcasing the memories of life during the Japanese Occupation. Although it is the first motorcar assembly plant in Southeast Asia, it is more famously known for the location where British forces officially surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. The Old Ford Factory was officially opened in October 1941. It was formerly known as “Ford Motor Works”, established in Singapore in 1926, and the factory was based at Anson Road. The factory’s modern assembly equipment was used by the Royal Air Force to assemble fighter planes, but most of the aircrafts never took flight. They were flown out of Singapore at the end of January 1942 when the prospects of Singapore looked bleak.

During the invasion of Singapore,  Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese Commander of the 25th Army, moved his headquarters from the Sultan’s Palace in Bukit Serene, Johore Bahru, to the Ford Factory, which went on to became the location where the documents for surrender were signed. It was where LG Tomoyuki waited while Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival (his Allied counterpart) and his aides discussed their options at the Battlebox, a bunker at Fort Canning. LG Percival and his troops then set off on their journey from Fort Canning Hill to the Ford Motor Factory, where they formally surrendered to the Japanese.

During the Japanese Occupation, the factory was took over by Nissan to manufacture vehicles, namely Nissan trucks, for the Japanese army. It was also used as a servicing depot. After the war, the factory was used as a repair depot for the British Military Administration vehicles. Thereafter, the factory resumed its car assembly operations.

The factory remained in operation until its closure in June 1980 and the factory was used as a warehouse until 1983, when Hong Leong Corporation acquired the site. Hong Leong Corporation wanted to demolish the factory to build condominiums but was held back by the Government as they wanted to preserve the factory for its historical significance instead.

After much discussion between the company and two government agencies (Ministry of Information, Communications and The Arts and Urban Redevelopment Authority), it was decided that the rear portion of the building would be demolished to make way for a condominium called “The Hillside”, despite the pleas from history buffs.

The remaining portion was handed over to the Ministry and the National Heritage Board, who announced their plans to convert what remained of the building into a World War II museum.

Today, the Memories of Old Ford Factory stands as a national monument since the February 2006, on the 64th anniversary of the historical surrender. It remains as a popular destination for school trips where primary school children are educated on Singapore’s history in World War II.

How to go there? Old Ford Factory is located at 351 Upper Bukit Timah Road. The nearest MRT stations are Bukit Batok MRT (Board 173 at interchange and alight opposite bus stop of Ford Factory), Choa Chu Kang MRT (Board 67 at interchange and alight opposite bus stop of Ford Factory.

Other buses that bring you there are SMRT: 75, 171,  178, 184, 961 and SBS: 170.

Opening Hours are 9AM to 5.30PM from Mondays to Saturdays and 12Noon to 5.30PM on Sundays.

Free admission for : All Children under 6 Singaporeans and permanent residents Singapore student pass holders Museum Roundtable members Free admission to all on Open House Day (Open House Day is on all Public Holidays, including Monument Weekend and International Museum Day. More details here.)

Else, you have to pay $3 admission fee (but I’m not sure if they actually enforce this).

Getting around 

The exhibition area is about the size of a three-room apartment. You could clear it in 5 minutes if you skim through the articles, or 30 minutes if you want to read every word they have in that room.

*Unfortunately, I can’t post individual pictures now because they take up too much space. I’ll just briefly run through the highlights that they have. You may view the photos at the end of the article.

Upon your entry to Old Ford Factory, take the staircase up and enter the main building (don’t confuse it for the archives building that is out of bounds to the public).

There are a couple of information boards out in the main lobby that tells you about the documentaries that they have (seriously, nobody watches them) and how to effectively use your time while you are there. There is also a map that gives you a brief summary on how the Battle of Singapore in 1942 played out, and the key locations involved. If you’re feeling generous, the main lobby is also where you can purchase some books about Singapore in World War II or about the history of Old Ford Factory.

Skipping the documentary show, head through the one way entrance and you will find yourself in a short tunnel where they showcase some of the firearms and military equipments that were used during World War II.

Moving on, you will reach a replica of the Boardroom of Surrender, where you can read the dialogue between Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival and General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Their life size figurine greets you at the entrance of the Boardroom of Surrender. The boardroom has been specially furnished to resemble the room that was used back then, including the table which was reconstructed.

Anything after this point is about how the Japanese Occupation changed the livelihood of the citizens during that dark period. It tells about how the citizens were being screened for being “anti-Japanese” almost immediately after the surrender, leading to Operation Sook Ching, where Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 were summoned to various mass screening centres and those suspected of being anti-Japanese were executed. I’ve read the article myself and I found it an interesting but gruesome tale, of how hundreds of Chinese corpses were found floating at sea.

It also tells of how the new Japanese government was established and how they changed the school syllabus. The food shortages faced by the locals during that period of time was also covered. There is also an article board dedicated to those who fought back against the Japanese Occupation, most famous being Major-General Lim Bo Seng, Elizabeth Choy and Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi.

There is an interactive map at the heart of the exhibition where it traces the route of the Japanese as they embarked on their Malayan Campaign. It allows you to hear the stories and first-hand experiences by the survivors of the Japanese Occupation recorded by the Oral History Centre. On your way out, there is a wall painting about the end of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, that’s about all the interesting things that you can do at the Old Ford Factory. If you still have some time to kill, take a 5 minutes stroll through their Syonan Garden, where you can find some of the common food items (such as tapioca, sweet potato, bananas, to name a few) grown during the Occupation.

Why should you go there?

-Only if you are truly interested in how life was like in Singapore during World War II. Plenty of information boards with WWII articles plastered all over. Else, there isn’t really much to do here.

-Old Ford Factory is a reportedly haunted place.  It is believed that many Japanese soldiers and officers who opposed to the surrender (surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces, not surrender of the British) ended their lives the “samurai” way by committing suicide.

-Tourists might be interested to attend the free guided tour held every Saturdays and Sundays at 2PM (except for the month of February and 29th March). Each tour takes about 1.5 hours.

My thoughts

Finally, I’ve a new SS article after a 20-0ver days break!

Well, that’s it. My last Singapore Stories before I take hiatus from writing. I planned to write at least 50 stories (you know, just to claim my share of the fame from SG50) but unfortunately, I just don’t have the space to do so.

Anyway, Old Ford Factory is a pretty cool place. Not something that you would visit everyday, maybe somewhere you would only visit once or twice a lifetime. Still, it is nice to know that a place like this exist.

For more information

Memories of Old Ford Factory website Wikipedia on Old Ford Factory Infopedia on Old Ford Factory

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Singapore Stories : Memories of Old Ford Factory, The Historic Surrender The Old Ford Factory is a historical building dedicated to showcasing the memories of life during the Japanese Occupation. 

[wilsons-girl]

MADE IN DAGENHAM IS ON IPLAYER! I HAVE THE DVD BUT I NEED TO WATCH IT NOW I'VE SEEN IT! SO MANY LABOUR PARTY 60s FEELS! :')

[mosesford]

I love these old pictures of the Ford factory.

[mosesford]

Machine makes the ultimate machine.