Logansport, IN: Pennsy Roundhouse and Backshop

(Satellite)

The PRR's Panhandle route not only had a roundhouse in Logansport, IN, it had a car repair shop. The facilities are now owned by Transco Railway Products. Since the railyard is between the Wabash and Panhandle mainline, it was hard to be sure who owned it. But the following from CassCountyIn confirmed it was a Panhandle yard.

1912: 1,100 men are employed by the Panhandle Shops, making it the city’s largest industrial employer. An electrical plant on the premises lights the compound so workers can be on the job around the clock.

Before providing an overview, I cut to the chase concerning its transfer table next to 18th Street. I spent part of a day in Logansport taking photos of the bridges and railroad remnants downtown. I visited 18th Street at the beginning of my trip and then before I left town. During my second visit, I saw a car coming out onto the transfer table. I grabbed my camera and started shooting through a chain-link fence. The video is shaky and has wind noise, but it does capture the speed with which they could transfer a car.
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This overview shows that the table not only feeds the building, but it feeds some storage tracks between the table and the street.

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The end of that building now (Sep 2020) looks different.

Anthony Brooks posted two photos with the comment:

I still haven't had a chance to sort through my photos and video in order to post anything, so for now, here are some photos of my last project. The wall itself was around 96ft wide by ~70ft tall. The painting is probably about half as wide? The second photo has me in it for scale

Anyways, I'm really happy with the turnout of the piece and if you're ever in Logansport, IN, check it out .

I'll do a more in-depth writeup on the piece later when I go through the video and have a moment. Currently, I'm in Lafayette working on 2 more murals (one on a wall, and one on the street).

Photos by Kelley Satoski

Dana Hile shared 

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You can see the storage of cars better in a satellite image than in a ground-level photo.

Satellite

R.W. Julian posted
This August 1968 aerial view shows what part of Logansport ?
Jason Jordan shared

When I saw a worker walking across the table and getting into the cab...

...I switched the camera to video and caught the table moving one stall. This was during my first visit to 18th Street. At the time I did not know that later I would be able to catch a car movement. Since I got the movement of a car, this video has become a test of using Blogspot instead of YouTube.

Some closeups of the table.

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA, cropped

In the captions of the pictures, RDS&SNA is an abbreviation for the Railroad Depots, Shops & Structures of North America Facebook Group. The picture above not only shows the tracks for the transfer table, it shows a car on the transfer table. It also shows a lot of cars queued up to be repaired. Judging by the number of boxcars in the mix, this picture must be a few decades old.

Satellite

Let's start with an overview. I'm using a Flash Earth image instead of Google because it shows the yard full of vehicle cars. This is consistent with what we will see in Jason's pictures. Note that the roundhouse building has been torn down, but some of the spokes still exist and are used. Some newer buildings have been added south of the turntable. Jason explained in a later posting that they are sand blasting and painting sheds.

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

Looking east across the turntable, cars are parked on the roundhouse tracks, and the car repair shop is in the background. The tracks to the right of the white sand blasting building in the photo below is were the remnant of the roundhouse building existed in the following 1962 aerial photo.

Jason Jordan  >> RDS&SNA

1962 Aerial Phot

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

The red rectangle marks what I belive to be the arched door building in these two views.

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

The view on the right is looking northish between the roundhouse tracks and the repair shop. Note the base of the water tower on the left. It sill exists in the satellite images.

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

Jason Jordan >> RDS&SNA

This must be the roundhouse we can see in the 1962 aerial photo above.

Update: In a later posting of this picture, Jason explained:

Summer 1988, we are looking south at Transco's former P.R.R. round house in Logansport, IN. Here we see the last seven stalls of about 26 or 30 stalls, before they came down in the early 1990's to make room for new sand blasting and painting sheds. A Jason Jordan photo.

Jason Jordan -> RDS&SNA

Jason's comment:

Late 1980's, we are looking southwest at the former P.R.R. round house in Logansport, IN. over in what was once called their Yard B. Now this is Transco Rwy. products. They rebuild train cars here. The round house was removed in the 1990's, so that a sand blasting shop could be in its place. The turntable is still used though. A Jason Jordan photo. — in Logansport, Indiana.

Jason Jordan shared
Summer 2008, we are looking southeast at the former P.R.R. turntable in Yard B at Transco Rail Car in Logansport, IN. A Jason Jordan photo

B&O Railroad Museum posted

Built for the Chicago & Indiana Central Railway (CC&I) in 1882, the Clinchfield No.1 is a typical late-19th century freight locomotive. Originally numbered as CC&I No. 423, it was one of fourteen 4-6-0 Class G7 steam engines produced at the Logansport, Indiana shops. In 1883, the CC&I was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), and the No. 423 was put into service on the PRR’s smaller subsidiary railroads. 

In the late 1800s, the town of Johnstown, PA was devastated by a catastrophic flood. Shortly after the disaster, the No. 423 pulled a relief train stocked with food, clothing, and coffins into Johnstown.

In 1900, the No. 423 was sold to the Ohio River & Charleston Railway, renumbered as No. 5, and sent to work hauling logs in Tennessee and the Carolinas. Three years later, the Ohio River & Charleston became part of the South & Western Railway. In 1908, the South & Western was acquired by the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio – more commonly known as the Clinchfield Railroad, or CRR.

In 1913, the No. 5 was sent to the Black Mountain Railroad – a North Carolina logging route owned by the Clinchfield Railroad – and renumbered as the CRR No. 1. The No. 1 continued to serve the Black Mountain until 1955, when it was cosmetically restored and sold to the town of Erwin, TN. For 13 years, the engine was displayed in one of Erwin’s urban parks. In 1968, the No. 1 was sold back to the Clinchfield Railroad and restored to operating condition. It was used to pull scenic passenger trains throughout the Clinchfield territory until 1979, when a cracked frame ended its century-long career. 

The No. 1 was cosmetically restored and donated to the B&O Railroad Museum in 1981, where it received greater repairs in 1982 at the B&O Riverside Shop. The engine emerged from the shop, in working condition, in 1983. For the next two summers, it was used to pull the B&O Express. Today, the Clinchfield No. 1 is on permanent display in the Roundhouse.

“CC&I #1 Clinchfield,” 1882. From the B&O Railroad Museum Collection. 1979.001.1

Randall Hampton shared

Jason has an album of 37 photos.


They had a freight house at the other end of the railyard.

PharosTribune

In the upper-left corner of the above photo is the old freight house.

Roger Holmes posted
May 2, 1980, Logansport, Indiana with the Pennsy freight house in the background.
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for pointing out the freight house. Judging from a 1960 aerial photo, Little Turtle Waterway used to be the access road to it.
https://www.google.com/.../@40.7496935,-86.../data=!3m1!1e3
Jason Jordan I remember when it was still standing in the early 1980's. As Conrail started to cut back it's operating hub in town, it was one of the first buildings to be brought down by Conrail.