Did St Albans actually have an erecting shop or just a big roundhouse? I was there in the 80's and just remember the RH, although something could have been torn down. I thought heavy repairs went to Battle Creek or Pte St Charles?
NKP-Frankfort, IN; CV-St. Albans, VT
Collinwood on the east side of Cleveland:
This is where the Century changed crews and exchanged mail. Because of the late hour, the train did not service the Cleveland Union Terminal.
And this was Linndale:
Which existed just a bit down the road where I've lived all my life. Too bad I never got to see it.
Here's a great place for Cleveland railroad photos: http://www.clevelandmemory.org/cut-coll/index.html. There was also the West 130th Street yard where the CUT's big P1a electrics were repaired. Not to mention the Erie, Nickel Plate and B&O facilities all over the city.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Penny, it would be awesome if you could share the NYC round house in cle. Not many have pictures of the facility.
Please post them and ask if anyone knows who the photgraphers are. They will then serve a useful purpose for them as well as viewers.
BackshopNYC at Collinwood
Is it kosher to post scans of photos where the original photographer is unknown? Because if it is I have arial photos of both the Collinwood and Linndale roundhouses.
One I would add, the FEC Miller Shops north of St.Augustine, FL.
Al Perlman made a similar observation about Western Pacific after he became its president. He noted that WP's brand-new Stockton shop was in the wrong place, it should have been at Oroville, where power was added for the crossing of the Sierras.
Thanks everyone for your additions. I've always found it unusual, that with certain exceptions like PRR at Altoona and NYC at Collinwood (to give two examples), the backshops were not usually co-located with major yards.
Central of Georgia: Macon, Georgia
NYO&W, Middletown, NY. Some of the buildings are still standing and re-purposed.
WM at one time had thier main shops at Union Bridge, MD
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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!
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.
NYC-Depew, NY closed before WW2
The Virginian had their main backshop in Princeton, WV.
CP - Lyndonville, VT (I was taken through it as a small child).
Detroit & Mackinac, Tawas City, MI. GT has large engine facilities at Battle Creek and Durand, MI.
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.
SOU RR Spenser and the Chattanooga shop that closed out SOU steam operations.
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
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?
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
When Union Station in Pittsburgh was built the correct spelling was Pittsburg without an "h".
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.
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
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.
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