Major shops on the NYC - Where were they, what did they do?

Can we review the major shops of the NYC? The only ones I know of (and can recite off the top of my head) are Harmon, West Albany, Beech Grove, and Collinwood.... where were the shops, what did they do, when did they shut down or get conveyed to another operator? I know Harmon is still with us as a major shop for Metro-North; Beech Grove is Amtrak's car shop, and Collinwood is still performing as a diesel shop...

more?

-otto-

Syrauce, NY had a rebuild shop for Locomotives and Railcars at one time. the Locomotive shops produced a small number of heavey rebuilds when the larger shops were backed up They did light rebuilds and services on steam locomotives. The shops did work on diesel locos and carryed on Under the Penn Central and Conrail Days 25 ALCO RS-3's were rebuilt with EMD 567B, C engines. An RSD-15 Slug Mother, w/RSD-5 slug set were built at Syracuse with 567B engions on 1/1975. The Hevay rebuild shop remained active till the early 90's when it was cheanged from a 12 bay engion shop to a 4 bay building.

West Albany maintained steam locomotives and passenger and freight cars. When NYC finally won approval to close (early '60s?) they fairly quickly removed any visible evidence of the shops. I was told by oldtimers that they saw rolls of new seat cover material and many brand new tools buried.

Major shops, Locomotives: West Albany for steam only, Beach Grove,
Indiana, Collingwood, Ohio (the main diesel shop) and Harmon, NY which
was the main passenger diesel shop and electric shop.
Passenger cars: Beach Grove, Indiana
Freight cars: East Rochester, NY, which was closed under Penn-Central.
There were probably others but they slip me at the moment.
OH yes, in Canada - St. Thomas, Ont. for the Canada assigned locomotives and probably some cars too.
Noel Weaver

Syracuse, NY: East Syracuse Shops in DeWitt Yard had a service shop for passenger Cars the shop ran till the Penn Central dumped passenger traffic to Amtrak. The current building transfered to Speano Rail Services, then to Pandral Jackson, & Hasco enterprises befor it was sold to a Recylceing company who has sents then remodeled the building and covered the tracks leading into the building with stone and dirt.

Rolling back the clock some more; Springfield - Boston and Albany.

work safe

coalmine wrote:Rolling back the clock some more; Springfield - Boston and Albany.

work safe

Actually the shops were in West Springfield, across the river from Springfield.

Jackson, Michigan comes to mind on the Michigan Central Middle Division. A huge shop complex with roundhouse and backshops. Many of the shop buildings still survive today and cover several acres of land.
Note: Jackson was a the division point for the Middle, Detroit, and Air Line Divisions of the MC. It was also the Northern terminus of the Cincinnati Northern RR and the Fort Wayne Branch of the LS&MS.

How could I forget about East Rochester! Closed in 1970, I believe.

How about west of Collinwood... were there any shops close to Chicago terminal area? Or St. Louis? I'm thinking of the extremities of the system...

-otto-

LCJ, I heard the same thing about East Rochester. When it was closed they had a backhoe dig a large pit (or maybe more than one). Sheet steel, rivet guns, tools, air compressors, you name it.

I was going to mention Jackson but I see someone beat me to it. I was taken through that shop as a boy, around 1946. I had my first ride in a steam engine there, in H-10 No. 2345. (Anyone have a photo of it?) One thing I remember is the wooden cowcatchers they were building for locomotives, and painting black to look like steel, due to the steel shortage after WW II.

"morning all. Would anyone know the "code" letters for these shops? I'm refering to the letters and date stenciled on the sides of freight cars when they were reweighed, repacked or rebuilt.
Thanks in advance,
Ed

The Ohio Central shops were in Bellefontaine and I think these may have been shared by the Big Four. There was an article years ago about a pacific boiler explosion in the roundhouse there during WWII published in Trains Magazine.

Mike Fleming
Bartlett, Tn

The shops at Bellefontaine were actually part of the CCC&StL, or Big Four. The principal Big Four locomotive shop was at Beech Grove, but Bellfontaine performed some of the lesser classified repairs on steam locomtives.

The principal shops of the Toledo and Ohio Central were at Bucyrus, Ohio. The T&OC was never part of the Big Four, and operationally it was run by the New York Central as part of Lines West of Buffalo (LS&MS, etc.) Even after the NYC actually merged with the the Big Four, the Ohio Division at Springfield (Big Four) was separate from the Ohio Central Division (T&OC) at Columbus. They were later combined, around 1960 +/- as the Ohio Central Division under the Southern District at Indianapolis.

Lets not forget that prior to East Rochester the NYC had car shops at

Lyons,NY,. They were located on North Side of main, opposite depot.

NYC also had extensive shops at Corning, NY. Avis,Pa. and Berwick, Pa.