Indianapolis, IN: Railroad Hub

(Update: 1860: Railroads to Indianapolis)

safe_image for A 1941 Pictorial History: Indianapolis Area Railroad Yards

Finding the locations of the sites listed in the above linked blog was an interesting "homework" problem. The letters are defined below in the text entries and in that text the letters are linked to detailed satellite locations.

1948 Indianapolis East & West, Beech Grove and Maywood Quadrants @ 1:24,000 plus Paint

RR Aban Map plus Paint

Amtrak/Big Four Beech Grove: A   NYC started building this facility as the major shops with a company town for the Big Four "to create what would be the second largest industrial city then being built in the United States." It was turned over to Amtrak in 1975.

The Big Four, while named for bigger cities outside Indiana, basically had its center in Indianapolis. All of the railroads that were consolidated to create the Big Four did have Indianapolis in their name prior to the creation of the massive railroad company. They also owned 40% of the Indianapolis Belt Railway and Indianapolis Union Station. Being the central point of the company, it made sense to build large shops in the Indianapolis area.

Aban/Big4 Brightwood Yards: B   Safeway, KDC Trailer, Shelby Coatings, Alexandria Industries and 5 Arrow Truck are now in the footprint of the yard. The roundhouse was just north of Safeway.

Satellite

CSX/Pennsy Hawthorne Yard: H "Due to connections directly to the Indianapolis Belt, which was 60% owned at the time by the PL, all PRR traffic coming in and out of Indianapolis would be connected to Hawthorne....Hawthorne now acts as an interchange yard between Norfolk Southern (NS), CSX and the Indiana Railroad (INRD)."

INRD/IC Yard: I  The roundhouse land is now part of Prairie Material Yard 82.

Satellite

Aban/Big4 Leota Street (Hill) Yard: L  After Beech Grove was built by 1910, this yard became a coach yard because of its proximity to Union Depot. This yard is another indication that railroad yards have enough contamination that they are hard to repurpose. The roundhouse had been a "full circle" except for two leads to the turntable. It was abandoned by the 1960s when Avon was built.

CIW = Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western Railroad

Aban/CSX/B&O/CIW Moorefield Yard: M  In this yard, the roundhouse area has been repurposed as a petroleum facility. A land usage that is equally scary in terms of ground pollution. There used to be tracks in much of the area between Michigan Street and Turner Avenue.

Yards along the Monon & Nickel Plate: N

CSX+Amtrak/B&O/CIW State Street Yard: S   Horner Fan is built on the roundhouse land. The comments on this post have more information about this yard.

CSX/Pennsy Transfer Yard: T

? West Bank of White River: W    According to a comment on a Facebook post, this was GM Stamping.