Sangamon Ordnance Plant (Illinois)-- Part 2

Around 15,000 workers were employed and construction was largely completed by  September 1942 at a cost of  $35 million.  It employed thousands during the course of the war, including many Woman  Ordnance Workers (WOW) and produced 20, 57, 75, 90 millimeter shells as well as 3 inch armor-piercing and high-explosive artillery shells.

It also produced  bomb fuses and  the core of fire bombs known as "Bursters."

****************************

Transporting Workers to the Plant

The plant used  IRT  Second Avenue Elevated coaches to get workers to it from Springfield.  Some photographs show that the IRT cars were riggesd with trolley poles for the job to obtain power for car heating and lighting.    At the end of the war,  the Defense Plant Corporation discarded these cars from the various plants.

--GreGen