I'm trying to create a list of all system steam backshops from the era of 1900-1960. Here's a start for the Northeast. I'll continue with other regions and people can throw in additions and corrections.
MEC-Waterville, ME BAR-Derby, ME B&M-Billerica, MA B&A-West Springfield, MA, NH-Readville, MA D&H-Colonie, NY NYC-West Albany, NY RDG-Reading, PA DL&W-Scranton, PA, CNJ-Elizabethport, NJ Erie-Hornell, NY PRR-Altoona, PA PRR-Renovo, PA B&LE-Greenville, PA BR&P-Dubois, PA B&O-Glenwood, PA LV-Sayre, PA B&O-Glenwood, PA B&O-Cumberland, MD B&O-Mt Clare, MD NKP-Conneaut, OH W&LE-Brewster, OH PRR-Columbus, OH NYC-Collinwood, OH
Here's some for the Midwest and South Central--GTW-Battle Creek, MI NYC(MC)-Jackson, MI NYC(Big 4)- Beech Grove, IN NKP-Lima, OH C&NW-40th St Chicago, IL RI-Silvis, IL IC-Paducah, KY CB&Q-West Burlington, IA MILW-Milwaukee, WI SOO-Shoreham, MN WC-Fon du Lac, WI C&EI-Danville, IL Monon-Lafayette, IN DM&IR-Proctor, MN DM&IR-Two Harbors, MN MP-Sedalia, MO WAB-Decatur, IL L&N-South Louisville, KY SSW-Pine Bluff,AR SLSF-Springfield, MO KCS-Parsons, KS T&P-Marshall, TX AT&SF-Topeka, KS MKT-???
You're doing good! Must be a labor of love!
PRR Dennison, Ohio (until around the 1920's); B&O/BR&P Dubois, PA.; ACL Rocky Mount, NC; Southern Railway, Spencer, NC.
Tom
Minor correction: MKT shop was in Parsons KS, don't know about KCS.
NYC Collinwood (Cleveland) OH. C&NW's shop in Chicago was 40th Avenue, not 40th Street. 40th Avenue was later renamed Crawford Avenue, and is today's Pulaski Road.
Don't forget Canada, here's a few from north of the border:
Canadian National: Transcona (Winnipeg), MB, Stratford, ON, Point St. Charles (Montreal), QC.
Canadian Pacific: Ogden (Calgary), AB and Angus (Montreal), QC. They also planned to build one at North Transcona, MB about a mile north of CN's but I don't think it was ever fully completed.
Pacific Great Eastern: Squamish, BC. Not sure if this one qualifies as a full steam backshop, but it was the only large shop on the railroad and seemed capable of doing every kind of repair.
I think there were more but my non-eidetic memory has failed me once again. I was also going to add their American subisiduaires but I see you have already covered the SOO and GTW.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Amtrak's Beech Grove Shops (Indiana)were built on the property of a former NYC back shop.
You can add Delano PA to the Lehigh Valley. They erected quite a few locomotives there.
N&W - Roanoke, Va. and Portsmouth, Oh.
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CSSHEGEWISCH Minor correction: MKT shop was in Parsons KS, don't know about KCS.
The KATY RR Shop facility at Parsons, Kansas was more or less in the Center(?) of the KATY System[ Parsons (Ks) was named for Levi Parsons]... Main Building at one time was about a mile long; capable of building and rebuilding whatever the KATY needed...Building has been partially demolished, and resides on UPRR property, with other rail related tennants.
Then there was the WARDEN SHOPS located at the KATY's Bellemeade(?) Yard, at Waco,TX. A facility that could build and repair steam locomotives.
Here is a link to a FORUM Thread with links to videos and discussions of activities at the Warden Shops @ http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/740/t/208233.aspx
KATY also had some facilities in the former Company HQ at St. Louis,Mo. Missouri also has The KATY Trail over parts of its former ROW with a State facility in Sedalia, Mo...
You can call This a P.S. KCS RR-
The KCS RR in Pittsburg (no"h' on the end . It i(was) approximately halfway in its journey towards the Gulf. There a lot of history in SE Kansas; and even today Pittsburg is important as a major point of maintenance and supply [Railroad Back Shop? maybe?]
It came south as the Kansas City Pittsburg & Gulf RR . A local entrepreneur Franklin went to KC and spoke with Arthur Stillwell, and convinced Stiullwell by dint of land guarentees to build into Pittsburg. The Hotel on Broaway still bears the name of Stillwell. The draw to get the railroad was also local minerals. Lead, Zinc, and Coal ( Weir-Pittsburg Coal Seam). See @ http://pittsburgksmemories.com/Pittsburg_Transportation/pitttransportkcs.html
The availability of coal drew not only the KSC, but also SLSF and AT&SF to come into Pittsburg. At one point there were about 28 [Lead & Zinc] smelters in Pittsburg. Not to mention about 110 miles of Interurbans that serviced the area and its coal camps. Pittsburg is also home of WATCO Corp, and its Operations.
I don't know for a fact if it was a steam backshop, but the Pere Marquette maintained a major shop complex at it's Wyoming yard in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The large building still extant just west of the roundhouse site has the appropriate shape for a backshop.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9427276,-85.7050502,837m/data=!3m1!1e3
And there's (or was) the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac shop at the Acca Yard in Richmond VA. The shop complex/engine terminal is still there but totally remodeled for diesel servicing.
The old RF&P paint shop still stands, right across Tomlynn St. from the engine terminal, but it belongs to another unrelated business now.
samfp1943 ... in Pittsburg (no"h' on the end)
As far as I know, Pittsburgh, PA is the only one that's spelled properly (two guesses where I grew up) and it was misspelled there for a few years. Unfortunately those few years included the years when PRR's Pittsburg Union Station was being built and the misspelling was literally in stone (OK, terra cotta). As far as I know, the facade still has that misspelling.
ChuckAllen, TX
Don't know much history but the Virginia Southwestern ( VSW ) had a back shop in Bristol , Va. Locally know as furnace bottom (s ?). VSW was a line from Appalachia Va - Bristol, Va ( connecting to SOU and N&W )- Elizabethton, Tn ( connecting to ET&WNC ) to Mountain City, Tn. VSW looked for connection to Roanoke beyond Mountain City but never went further. Abandoned south of Bristol sometime after SOU RR took it over.
VSW passenger trains always used the SOU / N&W station in Bristol, Va.
Back shop never had a turntable AFAIK but used a wye about 1/4 mile south. After SOU RR takeover backshop sold to mine car manufacturing company. SOU then used N&W roundhouse in Bristol, Va.
When Union Station in Pittsburgh was built the correct spelling was Pittsburg without an "h".
My father operated the locomotive crane in the ACL Tampa shop. After his death, my mother was able get a pass a year for herself and her dependent children from the ACL; the passes were good east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio and Potomac rivers.
Johnny
Here's a few more in the South and West, sorry I have been busy---
WP-Sacramento, SP-Sacramento, SP-Los Angeles, SP-Houston, AT&SF-Albuquerque, NM AT&SF-San Bernardino, CA AT&SF-Cleburne, TX GN-Hillyard,(Spokane) WA NP-Livingston, MT DRG&W-Burnham (Denver) CO SR- Pegram (Atlanta) GA SR- Coster (Knoxville) TN NC&STL- West Nashville, TN CRR- Erwin, TN GM&O- Iselin (Jackson), TN
I'm short of ACL, SAL, UP, GN and NP. Can anyone help there?
UP was in Omaha. Hard to believe now what was once there.
CGW - Oelwein, IA. Oelwein became the CNW's system diesel back shop. Some buildings may exist, but I know a couple have been torn down within the last 10 years.
While Silvis became the system back shop for the RI in the modern steam (and diesel) era, there were other back shops in earlier times that handled major steam repairs and overhauls. I would guess the same would apply to some of the other large railroads. As power got bigger and money tighter, the economy of scale for one large backshop made more sense.
Other RI back shops, some inherited from predecessor lines, include: Valley Jct (West Des Moines) IA, Trenton MO, Cedar Rapids (BCR&N) IA, Horton KS, Goodland KS, Chickasha OK, Shawnee (CO&G) OK. After the CO&G was fully absorbed into the RI, the Chickasha shop was closed in favor of the Shawnee shop.
At the beginning of the Depression, all but Silvis and Shawnee shops were phased out. Shawnee was eventually replaced by a facility in El Reno. El Reno eventually became the primary car shop for the system.
Some of the shop buildings for those smaller back shops may still exist. One building at Valley Jct was for sale or lease a few years ago. I think it's used (or was used) by a plumbing supply company. Some of the Cedar Rapids complex may also survive, I haven't been back in that part of town for quite a while.
Jeff
SOU RR Spenser and the Chattanooga shop that closed out SOU steam operations.
Somehow, I forgot to list the C&O in Huntington, WV.
Two more Canadian shops were the NYC(CS) at St Thomas, ON and CN at Moncton, NB. I know that there were backshops in Waycross, GA and Jacksonville, FL and one was SAL and the other ACL, but I don't know who had which one.
Detroit & Mackinac, Tawas City, MI. GT has large engine facilities at Battle Creek and Durand, MI.
CP - Lyndonville, VT (I was taken through it as a small child).
The Virginian had their main backshop in Princeton, WV.
NYC-Depew, NY closed before WW2
Wasn't Ann Arbor's in Owosso, MI?
Also PRR (Lines West) had a shop in Fort Wayne, IN capable of building locomotives. The panhandle line had a shop in Logansport, IN, though this one may have been just a car shop, it still has both turntable and tranfer tables.
How about Norfolk-Southern's ex PRR, ex Penn Central, ex Conrail Juniata Shops?
PRR, PC, CR are gone, but those shops are rockin' on!
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