Bellefontaine, OH: NYC/Big Four Depot

(Satellite, my guess is about where Court and Mill now intersect)

Notes on Big Four railyards and roundhouse

Brian Rasmussen posted

South and east sides of the Big Four Railroad Depot in Bellefontaine, Ohio. The Depot Restaurant is visible in the background behind the station. The Depot was built in 1898, burned in 1946.

Photo: c 1900

Source: Logan County Digital Collection

The Bellefontaine Big Four / New York Central Depot burned on September 30, 1946. Source: Logan County Digital Collection After the station burned down, the railroad built (or moved in) a traditional depot and used also used a small building (which may have been the boiler room of the old station that survived the fire) on the grounds as stations. (west2kdotcom)

Thomas Wentzel shared

Carl Jasinto commented on Brian's post
https://www.west2k.com/ohpix/bellefontainebigfour.jpg

Note the grain elevator in the background in the top photo on this image.

Carl Jasinto commented on Brian's post
https://www.west2k.com/ohpix/bellefontainebigfour1955.jpg

The map above shows the grain elevator was located on the south side of Columbus Ave. between the diverging routes. (The northwest route is now abandoned.) So the depot was south of the grain elevator. The train orders on both sides of the depot also indicate that it was between two sets of tracks.

The oldest historical aerial was 1959, which is after the depot was burned. This 1944 topo is before the 1946 fire, but it shows the tracks are elevated over Chillicothe Ave. Yet the 1955 photo at the top of the image containing the map shows the tracks were at grade level with Chillicothe Avenue. Judging from a 1959 aerial photo, Chillicothe Avenue did go under the tracks. But a street view shows that the tracks are now at grade level. So the more I investigated, the more I got confused.

1944 Bellefontaine Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

2 of 3 images posted by Scott Trostel with the comment:

I am pleased to introduce my newest book. BELLEFONTAINE, OHIO, RISE AND FALL OF A BIG FOUR TERMINAL. The book is 184 pagws of the town and development of a terminal on the newly formed Big 4. From its earliest day as a stop in the fabled Mas River & Lake Erie Railroad, a second line, the Bellefontaine & Indiana built into town. Through a succession of owners, It was Melville Ingalls who brought it all together in 1889 and established the Big 4. He brought the first shops to town, along with BN Yard and a state of the art roundhouse. The shops went on to overhaul locomotives as well as construct new locomotives.. As things progressed, 20 additional stalls was added to the roundhouse. The first of three Railway YMCA,s was constructed. The depot was constructed at BS Junction to handled 20 plus passenger trains daily. As a terminal with shops it was second in size to Beech Grove. It went on to have two additional yards, Gest and East, the three were reportedly handling over a million cars a year. The Railway YMCA reported 4,000 members. It experiences a boiler explosion in the roundhouse in 1942, then in 1943 a fire consumed the roundhouse requiring 10 fire departments to contain. Then the depot burned in 1946. The terminal came to an end with the introduction of diesels and closed out steam locomotives in 1956. Avon Yard at Indianapolis took most of the business in 1961. The stockyards and icing platform were closed and only two stalls of the 39 stall roundhouse remained in operation. BS junction was closed circa 1963 and slowly Guest Yard was abandoned and BN Yard was cut back to storage, Conrail moved the crew change point and there was no need for a Railway YMCA. It has 197 photos' and 17 maps. I can be ordered at Cam-Tech Publishing. 4890 E Miami-Shelby Rd., Fletcher, Ohio 45326-9766. Price is $46.95 plus $6.00 S&h

Scott Trostel shared

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