Indianapolis, IN: Pennsy Railyards: Panhandle Repair and 1916 Hawthorne

Repair: (Satellite, Pennsy had the grass above the mainline, B&O had the State Yard that is now CSX intermodal car storage.)

Hawthorne: (Satellite, a lot of it is grass now. It stretches between Southeastern and Arlington Avenues.)

I researched these yards while trying to determine the location of this roundhouse. The topo maps go back to just 1948. I could not find which yard had this roundhouse, but I note it because it is a rare example of a single roundhouse with two turntables.

IndianaHistory, Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society
Pennsylvania Railroad, turntable, 1913 (Bass #32698)
indyencyclopedia, Credit: Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society View Source
This webpage gives a history of the Pennsy properties that connected to Indianapolis.

Tim Starr posted
Railway Age suggested this as an ideal design for a full circle roundhouse in 1919. It has two 125-foot turntables and stalls 120 feet long with a section of 125-foot stalls for Mallets. A clearing track at center could be used in case one or both turntables went down. It was estimated this setup could handle 200-250 locomotives per day. As far as I know, this type of design (not exact) was only used twice in the US, at Jersey City and Ivy City (Washington DC).

Repair Yard, the first Panhandle Yard in Indianapolis 

I don't know why this map doesn't show a roundhouse. There was one just east of Willard Park.

1948/48 Indianapolis West and East Quads @ 24,000

intransporthistory
1937 aerial photo of the original Pennsylvania Railroad Indianapolis Repair Yards.

Hawthorne, Penny's Replacement Railyard

It was out in the countryside when it was built in 1916 just east of the Indianapolis Union Belt Railroad.

1948/48 Indianapolis East Quad @ 24,000

When they built the yard, they also built tracks on the east end that connected with the mainline at THORN junction. This allowed freight trains to avoid going through Irvington, which contained Butler University at the time. On the west side, Pennsy used the Indianapolis Belt to connect to their mainline. Pennsy owned 60% of that terminal railroad. [intrasnporthistory_hawthorne]

1948/48 Indianapolis East Quad @ 24,000