As my username suggests, I’ve always been interested in railroad backshops. By chance, I just found a 3 volume series on them. The first two are published and the third is 25% finished. They are called The Back Shop Illustrated and the author is Timothy Starr. I’m not sure on the etiquette is for naming outside vendors here, so lets just say they are available from a regular Trains advertiser out of Harrison, NY and the historical society of a railroad that parallels the Hudson River.[:D] Each chapter has a 2-3 written intro and then aerial and interior photos, line drawings, insurance track charts, etc of each erecting shop. I just finished Vol 1, which cover the Northeast. A couple of the smaller shops were missed, but some were added that I wasn’t aware of. The books aren’t cheap ($60 range) but are well worth it.
Backshop:
Not ever having worked for a railroad, the term “back shop” is foggy to me. However, many very close friends were employed by a railroad. One was a key person that ordered parts, and his wife was a secretary in that shop complex. Another was a crane operator that moved locomotives in the air from one place in the building to another place. Was that book about such things?
Thanks.
Yes. Are you referring to the Santa Fe’s San Bernardino’s shops?
Yes, the San Bernardino shops.
TO ADD A NOTE ON THIS TOPIC.
The Katy RR was originally chartered as the Union Pacific Railroad (Southern Branch) It was chartered to run from Junction City Ks. to Chetopa,Ks [right at the edge of what was then the Indian Territory/ nee: Okahoma]
The back shop for the then Katy RR(Sou.,Br.) was laid out to be at Parsons.Ks. It was a major facility, that could biuild, and rebuild, the locomotives, and car fleets for the Katy RR.
As the years passed, and the lines of the railroad built out, and extended into Oklahoma and Texas; the railroad foind a need for, and built another Backshop at Waco,Tx., it became known as The Wardens Shops.
linked here is the first part if a two-part U tube video of that Texas shops faciity: …
@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srSPbuIrtcI
In 1986/88(?) when (nee:Katy Industries) was sold, and became part of the Union Pacific RR. The Parsons Back Shops were converted to other uses, and were not completely razed. They now, since then, housed companies that function to repair /build(?) various railroad MOW equipment, and track structures(?).
Back in the day ‘Backshops’ were numerous. First off you had over One Hundred Class 1 carriers with each carrier having one or more backshops to undertake the heavy duty repairs/rebuilding of the equipment they owned - both cars and motive power.
Secondly, with steam engines, on many carriers were restricted to working narrow areas of the carrier due to the geographical nature of specific territories. Logistics of the day had backshops being built to cover the geographical restrictions of the motive power.
My memory may be faulty, however, I believe the B&O had backshop facilities at Mt. Clare in Baltimore, Cumberland, Glenwood, Dubois.
You are correct. I think a predecessor had a small one in Washington, IN and Chillicothe, OH may have had a small one.
What’s really surprising is that even with Altoona, the PRR still had a few others. They had one in Renovo, Columbus, Ft Wayne and Wilmington, DE. Everyone thinks of Wilmington as being an electric shop, but it was orginally built for steam before the electrification period. Both NYC and Southern had a shop for each of their subsidiaries, i.e. B&A West Springfield NYC&HR West Albany, LS&MS Collinwood, Big Four Beech Grove, MC Jackson, CASO St Thomas, P&LE McKees Rocks.
For the B&O Mt. Clare was a multi-faceted shop facility. Not only involved in the repair and rebuilding of freight cars, passenger cars and locomotives, but they also built the same from the blueprints to the rolling objects.
For the C&O their locomotive shop was Huntington and the car shop was Raceland - Huntington and Raceland are adjoining communities with Huntington being in West Virginia and Raceland being in Kentucky.
Did NYC’s Harmon Shops at the outer end of NY electric service make it into the book?
Yes, it is mentioned, along with a small mention of White Plains. That being said, the vast majority of the NYC chapter concerns the West Albany shops.
Another factor to consider with steam locomotives was the almost complete lack of standardization of locomotive design from railroad to another. USRA designs and the various Van Sweringen designs (primarily 2-8-4’s and 2-10-4’s) are the exceptions that prove the rule.
Some of my favorite backshop views:
North_Western-Backshop_edited-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Collinwood (Cleveland) on the NYC. The backshop is to the far left of the photo.
Collinwood_shop by Edmund, on Flickr
Inside the Collinwood shops:
NYC_backshop by Edmund, on Flickr
Santa Fe, not sure of location:
SantaFe Shop_ by Edmund, on Flickr
After washing, hang to dry:
Union Pacific Railroad - UP gas turbine electric locomotive Nr. 75 - Salt Lake City Workshop, Utah by Historical Railway Images, on Flickr
Regards, Ed