(see below for satellite)
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Ernie Julian posted
I've been a life long lover of steamers, diesels & electrics, roundhouses & turntables.
Also a N-guage model railroader since it first came out in the 60's, still collect to this day.
Also its kinda in my blood thanks to my Grandfather. Dads, Father.
My Grandpa worked here at the B&O Washington Indiana roundhouse.
He told me many stories of pulling the engines in for servicing as well as a lot of other interesting things about working on them.
Then taking them back out to the ready track.
A Hostler.
And on Moms side of the family, my other Grandpa owned the general store, passenger station and PO. Also from her side one of my Cousins was the engineer for the South Wind which was operated jointly by the Pennsy, L&N and Atlantic Coast Line. Remember making many trips with her to Chicago Union Station to meet my Uncle that lived in South Bend Indiana who came to pick us up. As a kid I loved to walk through all the coachs to the observation and just watch the tracks past as we went over them.
Mike Breski posted
Washington, Indiana, is an old railroad town. The railroad came to town in the 1850s. In the 1880s the shops opened. B&O Railroad chose Washington because the town is halfway between Cincinnati and St. Louis. Also, the town donated $75,000 and sixty acres of land to build the shops
The B&O line which is now CSX: that predominantly serves the gypsum mines to east of there, correct?
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You can still see the foundation of some of the roundhouse. The town also had a big backshop operation. You can still see the transfer table between the two buildings on the right.
Seeing how big the operations used to be on this B&O route makes it even more sad that CSX choose not to use most of it across Ohio and Illinois. (I don't know about Indiana. The
INDOT map has been broken the last few months! :-()
Update:
I noticed that a Sep 2020 access of a satellite map caught a car being moved on or off of the transfer table.
Here is a version of the roundhouse photo that did not crop the top off. So we can see all of the wooden coal tower and the interlock tower at the top at the throat of the yard.
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Fans of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad posted
Here is a clip from the 1896 Sandborn Fire Insurance map of Washington. Note the various connections. As usual, this just leads to more questions.
I think the two tracks heading south went to coal mines. The one heading south east went close to the conservation club and the one heading south west went to sunny side road area.
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Terry B. Carlson commented on Rick's post
Shows to be a 32 stall RH. I'm using a 4-5-1998 Google Earth Image as it still shows the RH. The next image if 2003 and the RH is completely gone.
Location: 38°39'23.99" N 87°11'35.02"W |
I shrunk this photo because the Rick's photo above has a better exposure.
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John Steele shared
This photo was posted by the Daviess Co. Historical Museum with the following description.
8 x 10 black and white aerial photograph taken in 1948 of a Baltimore and Ohio rail yard in Washington, Indiana. At the top (west end) of the photo is the "Round House/Turn Table" which turned trains 360 degrees. This picture was part of a collection of railroad photographs obtained from the Al Peek estate. According to the 1952 Washington City Directory, Albert C. Peek was a conductor for the B & O Railroad Company and he resided at 21 Green Acres in Washington, Indiana with his wife, Lois Peek.
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Daryl Kempster
posted seven photos with the comment:
Washington Indiana was a major spot for the B & O railroad. The railroad opened the shops in the 1880s as it was halfway between Cincinnati and St. Louis. The land for the complex was donated by the town. This was the St. Louis Division headquarters. Between Cincinnati and Washington the line was referred to as the Indiana sub. Between Washington and St. Louis it was called the Illinois sub. There was a massive roundhouse and shops complex as well as a very impressive classification yard. Washington was also set up to handle heavy engine repair and there were car shops for building and repair there as well. Box cars and cabooses were built there into the early to mid 20th century. In the early 80's Chessie System closed most of the shops and the entire classification yard when the consolidated Queensgate yard in Cincinnati opened up.
[Some of these photos are redundant, but I wanted to keep Daryl's work intact.]
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Michael H. Riddle commented on Daryl's post
I used to run to Washington, IN as an Engineer from 2001 on and off to 2006. The roundhouse was long gone. But the other shop buildings were there. Rescar was using the facility at the time. The tall building behind the roundhouse caught fire and collapsed. Can't remember what year, but hated to see it fall. On the front of the building, at the top, was a very ornate carving. It read Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, 1890 (?) I believe and had vines or something fancy in the stone work. After it collapsed, I caught a trip to Washington and looked thru the remains. The lettering was busted up in 3 or 4 massive blocks. Almost the size of a sandstone block. Wish it could have been saved. |
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Michael H. Riddle commented on Daryl's post
Found these photos of the building in the Library of Congress. My memory isn't as good I guess, as it was the O&M RR shops, erected 1839? It doesn't look as large from the ground, but it was definitely carved into a large block. I always enjoyed swapping crews at Washington and seeing the old shops. |
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Michael H. Riddle commented on Daryl's post
Frank Wegloski That building burned in the summer of 2002 or 2003.All the buildings in the black & white pics are now gone. I'm pretty sure that does constitute all the old O&M/B&O buildings unfortunately. I believe all the buildings currently left were much later additions, possibly from the old Washington Railcar enterprise. |
Frank Wegloski
posted five photos with the comment:
Here are a few pics from that B&O building fire, in Washington. I'm fairly certain now it was 2002. The fact that the building was completely boarded up and (from what I understood) used for storage of documents, amongst other things, did nothing to help the situation.
You can see what was left of the roundhouse foundation in these pics.
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