Berlin

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I used to drive from the Ford plant in Berlin (where they made all the door cards etc,) to the Ford factory at Speke,I’m trying to find the Ford plant in Berlin and can’t remember where it was. If anyone here recalls the address or the area where it was I would be grateful for
The information

Peter

2

I’ve never heard of a Ford plant in Berlin and there doesn’t appear to be any info about an old factory on the net, at least not since WW2.

3

There’s one just inside the border near Lux and the one in Koln.

4

peterpallet:
I used to drive from the Ford plant in Berlin (where they made all the door cards etc,) to the Ford factory at Speke,I’m trying to find the Ford plant in Berlin and can’t remember where it was. If anyone here recalls the address or the area where it was I would be grateful for
The information

Peter

Hi Peter,

I used to do a lot of Ford work from Halewood to Germany, which would have been 1988/9 ish.
It was mostly gearboxes in racks/stillages, but we did take body panels now and then.

I’m with Inselaffe on this one, I’ve not heard of a Ford plant in Berlin either.

If it jogs your memory, I can remember:

Saarlouis (kinda near Lux as bigvern1 said)
Köln (A very large factory)
Düren (between Aachen and Köln)
Rheine (I think this was Karmann rather than Ford, but I defo went there from Halewood.)

The other place I remember going to on this job was Genk, but that’s in Belgium.

5

It was definitely a Ford plant, and I used to have a Westermann drawbar outfit with two tilts one for the truck and one for the Trailer (imagine opening them both up in the middle of winter !!)
I used to clear the product in Cologne and then drive to Speke. It was a good deal as we used to get 24pounds an hour after 4 hours waiting to unload at Speke and I used to earn about 72pounds on top of the haulage rate.
However there was a Ford plant there in Berlin as I loaded there many times. This was 1987 / 1989,

Peter

6

Some info here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Germany

7

Think I may have something: VISTEON Deutschland GmbH. Producers of plastic parts such as dashboards, consoles and door panels. Used to be a subsidiary of Ford until a split in 2000
google.co.uk/maps/place/Vis … 04ead1709a

This is probably the spot

8

Thanks Inselaffe that is it, I was looking on google earth but couldn’t find it.

Peter

9

peterpallet:
It was definitely a Ford plant, and I used to have a Westermann drawbar outfit with two tilts one for the truck and one for the Trailer (imagine opening them both up in the middle of winter !!)
I used to clear the product in Cologne and then drive to Speke. It was a good deal as we used to get 24pounds an hour after 4 hours waiting to unload at Speke and I used to earn about 72pounds on top of the haulage rate.
However there was a Ford plant there in Berlin as I loaded there many times. This was 1987 / 1989,

Peter

Hi Peter,

I didn’t doubt you for a second… I remember the Westermann W&Ds, there seemed to be hundreds of them, but after following the links provided above, I’ve honestly still no recollection of having even heard of a Ford plant in Berlin.

:bulb: You learn something every day and I’ve certainly learned something today. :smiley:

10

I used to load glass globes from a place in Yorkshire and deliver them to the Osram factory in Berlin (where they turned them into lightbulbs) and then back with Ford bits and pieces to Speke. I used to use the Olau line ferries from Sheerness to Vlissingen and then it was a
straight 10 hours (usually +a bit) to Berlin including East German visa at Helmstedt.
Anyway thanks to you all, particulary Inselaffe

Peter