Collinwood, OH: NYC/LS&MS Coaling Tower, Roundhouse, Backshops & Transfer Table and (QD) Tower

Satellite

Railyard: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite, the arc of this parking lot was the south side of the roundhouse)

Thomas Wentzel shared his post

Looking east across 152nd Street at the massive Cleveland, OH Collinwood Yard of the New York Central Railroad, with its many shops and roundhouse. Dated May 9, 1948.

A hub of economic activity that employed adjacent Slovene and Italian neighborhoods.

This was one of the two places where steam engines were switched out for electric Cleveland Union Terminal locomotives that pulled passenger trains into the Terminal Tower train station. On the west of Cleveland, that location was in Bellaire.

The COLLINWOOD RAILROAD YARDS & Diesel Terminal, one of the principal repair facilities and freight transfer points of the NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD, originated in 1874 when its new subsidiary, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern RR established a rail center in the village of COLLINWOOD. A brick roundhouse was built to house and repair locomotives; nearby, a machine shop, housing an engine room, blacksmith shop, and an office was constructed with upstairs apartments for the use of the road's employees. The freight transfer yards were located on the south side of the LS&MS main tracks, with extensive stockyards north of them. In 1874 at least 500 engineers, firemen, brakemen, conductors, and other employees made their headquarters near the yard to handle the 72 freight trains arriving daily. As the railroad grew, so did the village of Collinwood, with its population reaching about 3,200 by the 1890s. The yards, situated along present-day E. 152nd St. just south of the Lakeland Freeway, were expanded in 1903 and again in 1929; at that time they included 120 miles of track and could handle 2,000 cars daily. In 1933 the facilities employed about 2,000 workers. By the end of World War II, the Collinwood yards became a major switching and diesel repair facility for the NYC and later for the PENN CENTRAL TRANSPORTATION CO. Although CONRAIL, which took over the Penn Central properties in 1976, committed $3.6 million to upgrade the yards, in 1981 it closed Collinwood's extensive diesel locomotive repair facilities, idling 250 workers. The following year it sold 49 acres of the rail yard east of E. 152nd St., a major part of the facility's freight complex, to developer A. Arthur Bates for $1.4 million. The diesel terminal west of E. 152nd St. was not affected. In 1986 a new $800,000 warehouse for diesel train parts was added to the terminal facility, which refueled and repaired diesel locomotives for Conrail's Western Division. The yard and shop operations were not affected when Conrail closed its administrative offices in 1988.

Like so many other historical structures in our fair town, it would have been amazing to have seen this area preserved.

(Photo compliments of the Corner Field Model Railroad Museum & Trading Post Train Shop in Middlefield, OH)

Rick Shilling posted
New York Central Collinwood Turntable and Yard, Cleveland, Ohio

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rick's post
I never realized that the yard had such extensive backshops until I saw this photo. On this map, I noticed that there were turntables on the west and north side of the backshops.
1953 East Cleveland Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rick's post

Another exposure:

Tim Starr posted
The community of Collinwood is situated at the extreme northeast side of Cleveland, and after its rapid growth in the early 1900s was annexed by the city in 1912. The first eastern Lake Shore back shops were established here in 1874, anchored by a roundhouse with a small machine shop and blacksmith nearby. Within a year about 500 people were employed in the Collinwood roundhouse, shops, and yards. At the turn of the century it was apparent that the Lake Shore back shops at Elkhart, Buffalo, Englewood (Chicago), and Norwalk were not up to the task of repairing the large new locomotives then being ordered and put into operation. Since the railroad’s general offices were in Cleveland and Elkhart was already serving the western part of the system, it was decided to purchase a large tract of vacant land in Collinwood to greatly expand the shop capacity there. Site work began in 1901, starting with raising about 50 acres of low-lying land five feet with 300,000 cubic yards of fill. The cost of the shop expansion exceeded $2 million. (The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 2)

 

Tim Starr posted
1912 map of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern shops at Collinwood (Cleveland), Ohio.

I think this is the biggest coal tower I have seen. This was on NYC's mainline between Chicago and New York. CSX has turned part of the yard to the east into an intermodal yard. Transflo uses the land the tower used to stand on.

Robert Bogie commented on a posting
Interesting there are only two steamers visible there for what was still a very busy place for steam in 1950. Just a J-1b or J-1c class Hudson and a Niagara, with no engines on the ready tracks in the foreground.

Dennis Corso commented on Brian M Fox's posting
Collinwood Yard. NYC, PC, Conrail on the East side of Cleveland
George L Hoppert It stood just out infront of the roundhouse but could be entered by a laborenth of track from the mains. Brought loaded coal cars through the tunnel on the far riht side to dump the coal into the pit below. they didn't fill or cover the pit for decades after they stopped using it . It was filled with black water to the top of the pit. Many trainman fell into the water filed pit while taking a short cut while switching the ajacent tracks. The elivator is just to the left of the pit.

Pete Avery posted

New York Central Railroad Collinwood Railroad Yard Coal Tipple, Between East 146th Street & East 152nd Street, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH

Bill Osborne posted
From railroad cyclopedia 1945. Collinwood coal dock when it was new.
Dino Peris Deeper then it was tall.
Once saw an accurate HO model of it at an NMRA show in Cleveland.
[If it was new in 1945, then they made a huge investment soon before steam died on the railroads.]

Phil De Franco posted
Here is a pair of shots of the coaling tower in the Collinwood yards. I'm told that the tower stood until the late 1980's or so, long after steam locomotives ceased coming through the yards.
[His first photo is a duplicate of the top photo in these notes.]
Bob Kalal pics of demolition, but no date. sbiii.com/rr5.html [Specifically]
William L. Vanderburg According to historic aerials it was there until 2013

Bob Kalal provided four photos as comments on Phil's post: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

American-Rails.com posted
A pair of Amtrak SDP40F's, led by #550, have the "Broadway Limited" at the New York Central's old terminal in Collinwood, Ohio in November, 1978. American-Rails.com collection. [Note the coaling tower in the background.]
Ron Tutt shared
Dennis DeBruler shared

 

Hawthorne Holden posted
Collinwood coal tower being demolished - New York Central Collinwood Yard in Cleveland, Ohio.

Matthew Jettrainfan Gray: The tower that they said would never come down. We all believed it, but CSX had some change of mind.

Now how about a steam engine on the main line?

Brian Davis: Matthew Jettrainfan Gray Sadly with PSR it will be more likely they'll rebuild the coaling tower than you'll see mainline steam again.

Deacon Shupp: Back when I could still drive a few years back, this stood tall and proud. Lately, I keep hearing train horns up in Cleveland Heights from the Collinwood yard. Not that I mind, but I wonder if that is because the trains are switching tracks more now. The Cleveland Collinwood yard brings in a fair share of international shipping containers. [My emphasis. At first, I thought this meant containers coming in from the Seaway, but then I realized it probably meant containers coming from the eastern ports thanks to the bigger Panama Canal.]

Amelia Eva shared
John Wootton: What year?

Pinball Jeremy: John Wootton 2014

Brian Wolf shared
Collinwood

Giancarlo Treano: Demolished?

I thought Coaling Towers are too dangerous to demolish? When was this taken?

Dennis DeBruler: Giancarlo Treano According to comments on Amelia's share, 2014.

Giancarlo Treano: Dennis DeBruler 😢

I hope NYC’s Nemisis Coal Tower isn’t next to be removed!!!

 

Michael Doyle commented on Amelia's share
Demolished in 2014.

Phil De Franco posted
Here is another shot of the Collinwood yard roundhouse area. In the upper left of the photo is where the roundhouse used to stand. In this view you can see where E 152nd St intersects with I-90, which was built in the 1960's.

Tom Wells posted
Collinwood 1949, Photo by Robert Runyan.
Brian Goodknight It's easy to tell that Beech Grove shops were in some ways patterned after Collinwood.
Bob Jungmann According to info from Steamtown, Penn. when they went from all steam to all diesels the work force went from 1200 people down to 250 people---steam was very labor intense.

Phil De Franco posted

I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. The Collinwood yards were a large facility and handled most of the rail traffic from the East Coast on its way to the midwest.

This is an aerial view of the roundhouse that once stood in the yards at its heyday. The road running right behind it is E 152nd Street, which was a major access road to Lake Shore Boulevard, which was the forerunner of the Interstate. The Boulevard is now part of I-90.

The roundhouse was demolished in the very late 1950's or maybe very early 1960's. I saw the demolition from the E 152nd St. overpass.
William L. Vanderburg It was torn down sometime in 1962. The table was removed by 1970.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Phil's post
1953 East Cleveland Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Richard Stewart posted
On their way from their birthplace to their new home on the Santa Fe, five brand new C30-7’s travel west out of Conrail’s Collinwood yard. May 19, 1979. Narrative and photo credit: Doug Lilly. http://www.railpictures.net/photo/566323/

Joe Quinlivan posted
This is QD tower. It sits on the west of the Collinwood Yard. It's still there. My father took me in it when I was very young and the switches were manual.
Tim Shanahan shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Joe's post and Tim's share
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4...

Hagan Meinke posted
QD tower in collinwood yard all mile post east of this tower are marked QD all mile post west are marked CD and all mile post in the short line sub are marked QDS
Tom Barnett: Busiest tower I ever worked. Was there, summer of 1975. You could have up to 10 moves going on, at one time and the phone ringing with more. We filled the train sheet every 8 hours. What kind of shape is the building in, these days? Last time I stopped in to visit was mid 90’s, CR era, and Al Lini was the opr on duty. Had a few rail fans with me that day, and thought they would be impressed with inner workings of a manned tower.
[Some comments imply that Quaker was another name for this tower.]

 

1 of 4 photos posted by Jim James
August 1999. Collinwood, OH. We just arrived at Collinwood Yard from New Castle, PA on Q640. Conrail's Short Line Sub was the last piece of the puzzle to complete the trip. Of course, like many large terminals, there's always an "all red" signal before the tour of duty is done. This is where the Short Line Sub and the Chicago Line converged at CP 175. On this particular trip we had to take our power to the "P-1a" shop to end the day. The P1-a shop name dated back to the days of the 22 unit fleet of P-1a locomotives that were painted New York Central style, but lettered for Cleveland Union Terminal and went into service in 1929.

Dan Konkoly posted

Phil DeFranco posted

In case you prefer a blue tinge with a higher resolution scan to a red tinge.

Phil Fair posted
Another postcard image. Collinwood OH engine terminal July 1952. Steam/diesel transition period Ed Nowak
Kenneth F. LeFauve Photo taken from the top of the old coal dock at Collinwood Yard !!!

Jim Arvites posted
View of New York Central A-B-A F-7 units on the lead of a freight train at Collinwood Yard east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in August 1949.
(William Rinn Photo)David Mackay Delivered in July '49.
Ray Bottles Re crewing at what NYC called THE OLD ZONE probably NY 2 because it’s carrying REEFERS on the Head-end !!! SWIFT Co lots of PFE’s !! Before it became mechanical REEFERS !!!
Raymond Barr Perfectly framed by centenary towers w streamers in the background. Great!

Todd Moore comment on above posting

Rick Fleischer posted

The New York Central roundhouse at Collinwood.(Cleveland,Oh)

Scott Morgan Looks like it expanded as business demands grew and was added onto 5 times.

Christopher Peck also shared
NYC roundhouse at Collinwood, OH. May 4, 1949
Kent Melcher Of the locomotives that I can see when I zoom in, all of them appear to be steam. 1949, and the NYC seems not to have made the switch to D-E power. I would be interested to know when this RR retired it’s last steamer.
Christopher Peck The diesel shop was on the east side of 52nd street, just off the top of the picture.
Wayne Horvath The last steam operation on NYC occurred ca 1957 in Canada on their Michigan Central Lines--an older 4-6-0 as I recall.
Kent Melcher Reason I asked about last steam operation is that from 1954 until about 1959, my parents took me frequently to Chicago by train for prosthetic fittings. We took the train from Kankakee on the the I.C.
I vaguely remember seeing steam locos on the tracks when we got off our train, but people tell me that by then it would have been all D-E power.
I found that in the 1950s the I. C. used Central Station in Chicago. Interestingly, the Big Four (CCC&StL) also used Central Station, and the Big Four was part of the NYC system.
I do remember, growing up in Findlay, IL, on the C. & E. I. main line that it was a big deal when railroads we’re converting to the new, modern D-E locomotives.
C. & E. I. had converted its entire power roster to D-E by the late 1940’s.
[The comments include diagrams of the "cutting edge" 1900 roundhouse.]

Phil De Franco posted

Dan Konkoly comment on above posting
Rick Shilling posted

Baltimore Chapter, National Railway Historical Society posted  (shared)

Charlie Easton posted
Sad day from about 5 years ago [from Aug 2019] when the massive Collinwood (Ohio) coaling tower was demolished.

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central #3118 Steam Locomotive Cleveland OH Collinwood the roundhouse in the background

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch
[The transfer table is at the far end of its pit.]

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch
[The table is to the right of the truck.]

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch
[Note that the car is on the transfer table.]

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch

One of 77 photos posted by Robert Jovanovitch

Four photos of the coaling tower