The Beech Grove Shops is a railway maintenance facility in Beech Grove,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, outside

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. Beech Grove is

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's primary maintenance facility. It also contains a very large freight yard.

History

The shops were originally constructed in 1904–1908 by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway (the "Big Four"), servicing a network stretching across the Midwest into

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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, and

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. The facility was used as the company's repair shop for steam locomotives and passenger and freight cars. The Big Four was acquired by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

(NYC) in 1906, but operated as an independent business until it was formally merged with its owner in 1922. The facility passed to

Penn Central Transportation The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

in 1968 when the NYC merged with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970. Amtrak purchased the facility from the bankrupt Penn Central in April 1975. On September 20, 2002, an F2 tornado hit the shops, damaging Coach Shop 3, which was going to be torn down after the tornado; it had been used to overhaul Superliner passenger cars until 2000. In the early hours of May 2, 2021, two storage buildings on the site were destroyed by a fire.

Gallery

File:117 and sisters.jpg, Amtrak P42's under repair at Beech Grove File:A damaged Amtrak loco at the Beech Grove facility - P1080695.jpg, Damaged Amtrak P42 #8 at Beech Grove after a collision with a

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

freight in 2007. File:Amtrak equipment.jpg, Amtrak equipment at Beech Grove shops. File:Amtrak cars undergoing HEP conversion at Beech Grove, 1980.jpg, The shops in the 1980s

References

External links

Photo tour of Beech Grove Amtrak facility
Amtrak facilities Railway buildings and structures in Indiana Railway workshops in the United States Transport infrastructure completed in 1908 Transportation buildings and structures in Marion County, Indiana 1908 establishments in Indiana Rail yards in the United States {{Indiana-transport-stub