Huntington, WV: 1913 CSX/C&O Heavy Rebuild Backshop, Depots and Business Office

Backshop: (Satellite)

Depot: (3D Satellite)

Office: (3D Satellite)

Any backshop that CSX is still operating is worth noting. It is strange to see a big locomotive service facility without a nearby classification yard. I found that Russel Yard is a few miles downstream from here.

There must be a transfer table inside the building. 

3D Satellite

Tim Starr posted two images with the comment: "Extensive Chesapeake & Ohio shops at Huntington, WV. These facilities are still an important back shop site today for CSX."

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"When Collis P. Huntington acquired the land that would become the western terminus of his Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1871, he ordered the construction of car and locomotive shop facilities, houses for workers, and a three-story passenger depot." [Satterfield, Emma. "Huntington C&O Railroad Depot." Clio: Your Guide to History. August 7, 2020. Accessed December 11, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/111796. This page includes a history of the C&O as well as several historical photos of the depot.]

Street View, Aug 2022
This depot replaced the original 1872 depot in 1913. The statue of Collis P. Huntington was added around 1924.

 

Tom Dunne
Chad Fannin: Huntington, West Virginia. The station Is still standing and now called Heritage Station.

Eric Hansmann: Pre-B&O.

This line was built as the Ohio River Railroad, as noted on the sign. It was built by Johnson Newlon Camden. The B&O bought it around 1900.

Camden had also built the WV Short Line, Monongahela River, and West Virginia & Pittsburgh railroads. All went into the B&O about the same time

Susan March via pinterest
C&O Railroad Shops, Huntington, WV @ 1929

Andy Chabot posted
SD70AC visits the Huntington Locomotive Shop for some TLC
04/20/2005
Andy Chabot posted again
CSX 722 gets a visit to the Huntington Locomotive Shop in April of 2005.
 ©2005 Andy Chabot
Michael Numbers: The amazing part of this picture is the 16 cylinder motor. Originally designed EMD in the late 1940 rated at 1650 Hp. The motor upgraded for these units is 4400 Hp. That over 120% increase in HP. And making tier 4 emissions. This motor is a work of art.

 

Tim Starr posted
Photo of a Chesapeake & Ohio stores department at the Huntington WV shops in 1954. From a teacher's kit "The Stories Behind the Pictures."

I was going for a street view of the buildings but instead found a locomotive storage line for as far as I could see.

Street View, Aug 2022

Street View, Aug 2022

This map has a 1950s style instead of a 1980s style. And since CSX was formed in 1980, the C&O and B&O names did not exist in 1985. And I doubt the roundhouse still existed in 1985. It is always disturbing when I come across a USGS error of this magnitude.

1985 Huntington Quad @ 24,000

The backshops are in the background of this photo of the water towers and roundhouse.

Rick Shilling posted
Undated Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Roundhouse, Turntable, Shops and Yard, Huntington, West Virginia.

Rick Shilling commented on his post
1942 aerial C&O Huntington shows Roundhouse and found date of above photo as 1948.

 

Tim Starr commented on Rick's post
The shops are on Map 57 in 1931

One of 635 photos in a search result using https://archives.cohs.org/ with the keywords: "huntington shops"
C&O Huntington Shops.  4/19/1919

Number 26100 is a 1955 aerial view and shows the current backshop was built and the roundhouse shown on the topo map still existed.

Number 29335 is another aerial. This one includes the coaling and water towers.

Number 33444 shows the construction of a transfer pit in 1929. In the background is a different type of coaling tower.

Number CSPR-76 is a forging hammer.

Satterfield, Emma. "Huntington C&O Railroad Depot." Clio: Your Guide to History. August 7, 2020. Accessed December 11, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/111796
The first C&O depot, built in 1872
Today's depot was built in 1913.

 

LC-DIG-highsm- 31793 (ONLINE) [P&P]
The CSX (formerly C&O) train station in Huntington, West Virginia
"Here, Collis P. Huntington, president of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway, chose to put the westernmost terminal of the C&O in 1869. The statue outside the terminal, by Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of the famed Mount Rushmore monument in South Dakota, is of Huntington. Two years after the station's opening, the city of Huntington was incorporated. In 1873, the first C&O locomotive steamed into Huntington, completing a connection from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Ohio River which served to turn Huntington into a bustling city. The C&O remained the city's largest employer for the next century, with its large rail yards. Much of the city's fine architecture dates from this period of railroad dominance."
Credit line: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

John Rappold Flickr
C&O Railroad Passenger Station - Huntington, WV
Now used by the CSX Freight Division. This photo was taken from the location of the current AMTRAK Station in Huntington

"C&O Building at night, Huntington, W.Va." (1955). 0812: Anderson-Newcomb Company and Family Collection, 1884-1980. 36. https://mds.marshall.edu/anderson_newcomb_co_collections/36

Evidently there is a static display of a 2-6-6-2 steam locomotive in town, but I could not find it on a satellite map.

Bonus: a history of the C&O