These days its hard to find remnents of Passenger car shops even harder then finding old roundhouses
The Northern Pacific main passenger car shop was in St. Paul, now Bandana Square.
Ed Burns
Happily Retired NP-BN-BNSF from Northtown.
B&O’s Passenger Shop was Mt. Clare in Baltimore. Mt. Clare shop personnel also rebuilt and retyped steam engines.
Atlantic Coast Line’s passenger car shops were Emerson Shops in Rocky Mount, NC. The Seaboard’s shops were in Portsmouth, VA. Southern Rwy.'s shops were in Spartanburg and, I believe, Chattanooga.
The Southern’s shops were actually in Hayne (HE), a few miles west of Spartanburg, where the line from Biltmore joined the main line.
C&NW passenger car servicing was at the California Avenue shops. I think Metra does some work there.
The long distance cars were maintained at a shop located between 40th St and the Belt just west of the current locomotive servicing facility. It’s very visible on the Historic Arerials archives. The California Ave shops were built new to service the bilevel fleet, don’t know what was at that location prior. METRA does its heavy repairs/rebuilds at the Rocket House (47th st.).
New York Central used Beech Grove, the same shops Amtrak uses today.
Illinois Central maintained its MU cars for suburban service at Burnside shops, it is now the site of Chicago State University.
Would the OP and others please note, it’s Nickel Plate, not Nickle Plate.
You might remember it the way I did as a kid, thanks to the Mickey Mouse Club theme song:
"N i c, k e l, P l a t e…“Nickel Plate, Nickel Plate, forever let us hold our (fallen) bannners high, high, high, high!”
Buslist, you are right. The CNW 40th St. (west of Pulaski RD. formerly 40th St., 4000 W) shops were originally for steam locomotives. The two concrete coal towers were there and once three roundhouses as well. The newer M-19A diesel shop is still standing. The Streamliner yard was adjacent.
The primary commuter coach yard was at Erie St. until sometime in the early 1950s when much of the valuable land was sold. After that all commuter servicing moved to California Avenue (2800 W) through the present (near the Keeler flag stop for employees).
C&NW shops and yard were at 40th Avenue, not 40th St. 40th Avenue later became Crawford Ave, then Pulaski Rd. Then, as now, 4000 west.
You are correct and I should know better. Cicero ave. was 48th to my Grandparents and Lavergen was 50th Ave. The CA&E when built went to 52nd Ave and IRM has 50th Ave station because the Town of Cicero didn’t change the name on many of the streets.
| Fight for 40th Street |
|---|
In 1913, as part of an effort to eliminate duplicate street names, the city council named the West Side 40th Street after Peter Crawford, an early Cicero Township landowner. In 1933, Mayor Edward Kelly sought to consolidate his ties to Polish voters by renaming Crawford Avenue to honor Count Casimir Pulaski, a Polish hero |
Sone of the PRR passenger car shop complex still exists in Renovo, PA.
So when I am walking around a old railroad yard what kind of buildings and equipement would I be looking for that would have been used for passenger cars? I can only think of Metro North ex NYC Croton Harmon which might be the oldest car shops around. Then there would have been Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven CT.
Transfer tables seemed to have been popular around large carshops.
The Missouri Pacific had passenger car shops in Sedalia, MO, 94 miles east of Kansas City. I don’t think this was the only location for passenger car however.
There is a transfer table at Metra’s ex-Rock Island 47th Street shop.
Wasn’t Bellevue oh the site for nkp shops.