Whats the history here and why Beech Grove? Why not have the main car shop in Philly or Chicago?
What car shops were there in Chicago and Philadelphia?
The New York Central had a shop in Beech Grove–and it was closer to the center of long distance car usage than any other existing shop. So, why build a new car shop instead of using an existing faciilty? At the time that this facility was chosen, there was daily passenger train service to Indianapolis.
There still is.
Didn’t the PRR build and maintain passenger cars around Altoona? The Milwaukee Road built superb cars in Milwaukee. The C&NW had its California Avenue Shops.
I think thier we’re few reasons why Amtrak selected the former beach Grove shop.
Fisrt it was a major NYC shop, that did major over hauls on steam, diesels freight and passenger cars. The shop was also large enough to handle the ex atsf hi level cars and future super liners cars ordered in 1974.
The shop was Centrally located on two Amtrak lines, NYC to KC, the National limited. And the Chicago to Cincinnati James Whitcomb riely, which morphed into the wasington- chicago George Washington and later the Cardinal.
I think the Penn Central opted to keep the former Altoona shop for its own. Making beach Grove surplus.
Off topic a little but…
A lot of the Milwaukee’s equipment was auctioned off locally and formed the basis of firms such as Northern Railcar (not sure if it is still in operation). Avalon Railcar just West of Miller Stadium and the VA grounds on the former Milwaukee Road Airline stub did the VIA Rail Canada Prestige Class cars along with some other rebuilds recently…Wikipedia says Avalon Railcar was formed by former employees of Northern Railcar in 2000, they are still doing fairly good business in 2017 with mostly private and museum railcars but some public firm railcars as well.
If the state ever gets into the owning passenger cars they have a decent firm in Milwaukee to contractually maintain them fairly close to the Amtrak Depot…they do not need Talgo, even though Talgo is now rebuilding subway cars for someone in Milwaukee at the same former Tower Automotive plant they whined about not being able to use in the lawsuit with the State of Wisconsin. The Tower Plant is the former A.O. Smith plant that used to make auto frames for Detroit and I believe it is accessed via the former Milwaukee Road North line that branches off the main at North Milwaukee.
And, if Penn Central chose to keep the Altoona shop, it obviously was not available for Amtrak to use.
that is correct . Also Beach Grove was NYC primary passenger cars shop.
As I recall, PC/CR only kept part of Altoona in operation, not the passenger car shop because it was no longer needed. Obviously, if so.
obviously Amtrak took beach Grove
The question is why, not does. Obviously that choice was made. But was it wise? Altoona and the Milwaukee shops actually designed and manufactured or rebuilt passenger cars. Did Beech (not ‘beach’ Johnny) Grove do that? Maybe they did and still do rebuilds, but given the problems with Viewliner 2 cars, would not perhaps an in-house builder have been useful?
NYC beech Grove shop did do extensive rebuilding of passenger cars. The most famous being the the Cleveland/ Detroit Mercury. Heavyweight coaches and diner/ lounges were stream line and modernized. They were in service from 1936 to the late fifties.
As for the prr Altoona shops, the prr clo
There is was the old Pullman plant in S Chicago and The old Budd Car plant in Philly.
That ( Did Beech (not ‘beach’ Johnny)) is not my error. So far, I have referred to trees, not playgrounds[:)]
Sorry Johnny. I apologize for my error. It was all in good fun referring to our recent peeves about homonyms. It was Robert Willison who wrote beach, but on one quoted post (the one I was looking at) it showed up under your name. This seems to happen on Trains Forum software.
And that explains why Beech Grove, not Altoona, though Milwaukee shops would have been a better choice, IMO.
so why is the Milwaukee shop a better choice? How does it compare to beech Grove? How is it better? Just wondering?
My personal preference goes to the B&O’s Mount Clare Shops. They rebuilt all the coach and non-Pullman cars that were used on The Royal Blue Limited, The Capitol Limited, The National Limited and The Cincinnatian. However, I do believe by the time Amtrak was becoming a reality the passenger shop had been closed for several years.
While we are on the subject of passenger car shops. what about Bear?
Also central, also on Amtrak routes and very experienced at car building and in an historically strong, union manufacturing city. Maybe no better than the NYC’s shop, but as good.
