West Albany, NY: CSX/NYC West Albany Railyard

(Satellite, today's yard is a lot smaller. It seems to be mainly a tank car transloading facility.)

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany shops This is an interior photo looking south to north of erecting shop "c" at West Albany. It was the first modern steam locomotive erecting shop built at West Albany with electrically "dc" operated overhead Niles cranes having a maximum lifting capacity of 90 and 15 tons! Electrical lights and small electrical machines with compressed air tools in each of 22 locomotive pits were also added. There was a centrally located hot air blower with warm air in winter carried by conduit to each bay. All electrical ac and dc power, compressed and heated air came from the centrally located, coal fired huge power house! The north end of the new erecting shop had three additional building stories added for tool hand out and storage rooms, piece work recorder and pay calculating areas, file and shop office rooms along with an extensive apprentice school for shop employees! In later years the maximin lifting capacity of the main crane was raised to 125 tons to accommodate the heavier Hudson engine boilers! The new erecting shop was designated shop "c" with "a" and "b" at the new 1895 similarly designed NYC&HRR shops outside of Buffalo and shops "d" to be built parrel to shop "c" at West Albany with a transfer table between the two shops! Erecting shop "c" was used primarily for passenger engines while shop "d: handled the heavier freight engines of the NYCRR. The whole locomotive department at West Albany was rebuilt through enlargements and the use of electrical power throughout occurred over a period of 5 to 10 years before WW1! The new modern shops were built over the tops of the civil war era shops with the workman keeping their work efforts continuing! Shop "c" and the other locomotive shops ended the repair of steam locomotives in the fall of 1952 with the full dieselization of lines east! Steam crane work and car boilers continue on with a very small crew of repairmen until the summer of 1954 when all railroad machinery of value had been removed from the locomotive department buildings. The whole West Albany complex was sold in 1956 by Pearlman/Young to local investors for new industry but the new owners went for the quick dollar and trashed the facilities for scrap metal prices. They then sold the shells to a simple candy maker who unable to sell or rehab the building shells quickly went bankrupt and the proprieties were taken by local government with a final demolition of the shells in 1964 and 1965. Only two buildings still stand of west Albany shops There followed a light industrial park which exist up to today.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Skipper's post
1953 Albany Quad @ 24,000

 

Dennis DeBruler commented on Skipper's post
It looks like it had two transfer tables by 1952.
[AR1ZC3760110524 @ 24,000]
Skipper L Swartout: Dennis DeBruler thank you that photo is a very nice s shoot of the upper yard That bridge  is still standing to get up the upper yard. The upper yard now is where the bakery is now  today I have the map of the upper yard thank you so much.

 

Skipper commented on Dennis' comment
0-6-0T #633 at West Albany, NY year 7/14/1935 she on the transfer table. For many years this tank engine served as the shop switcher/goat for the West Albany locomotive department! It moved steam engine of all sizes in and out of two erecting shops, each having 22 beys with pits and one large boiler shop along with a four-track inspection shed used for firing up repaired locomotives. Another choir of the tank engine was to move repaired dead engines to part of the locomotive department propriety for sand blasting and spray painting! The tank engine cab was very hot during the summer months but cozy warm during the cold of the winter months! It fit tightly with disabled engine tenders on the transfer table between the two erecting shops. It was also used to push flat cars with heavy engine repair parts into the boiler shop! With the complete closing of the locomotive shops during 1953-1954 the 0-6-0 went to the scrappers torch like the engines it had moved in and out of the shop buildings! Great photos capture the tank engine on the transfer table alone and pulling a rebuilt, freshly painted tender car!

Tim Starr posted
I grew up in the Capital Region of New York, so obviously the New York Central and the Delaware and Hudson are my favorite railroads. This is a picture of the NYC West Albany Shops, which were objectively one of the largest in the country, with a peak employment of 6,000. Typical Class 1 railroad shops usually employed between 1,000 and 3,000 people, so West Albany was well above the average. The terminal is on the left (north) side of the yard (one roundhouse for the Mohawk Division and one for the Hudson Division), while the heavy back shops are on the right, with the classification yard in the center. Just below the roundhouses are livestock pens where cattle and pigs could rest and feed on their way to New York City and Boston. Albany and the Hudson River are off the photo at top right. The yard at this time is less busy since the new Selkirk Yard had just been built a short time prior to this 1928 photo. This aerial picture came from the New York Central System Historical Society collection (NYCSHS) and their impressive Collinwood Shop, which has thousands of photos, books, models, and more.

Skipper L Swartout posted
West Albany shops Albany New York

Skipper L Swartout posted
It’s early in October of 1941, and J-3a Hudson 5429 is being prepared for Empire service in the company shops at West Albany, New York. The manner by which the locomotive’s smokebox door could be accessed is evident. 
It appears that the engine’s tender is on the adjacent track. NYC Negative 5978-17, NYCSHS Collection

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany Shops Albany NY year 1932
John Blaine: Have some piston rods!
Howard Pincus: There are split brasses (bearings) that go into those elongated holes.

Skipper L Swartout posted three photos with the comment: "Construction of New York Central West Albany Shops"

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Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany shops Albany New York

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany shops

Skipper L Swartout posted
Then and now New York Central West Albany Shops and Watervliet street bridge west Albany New York the west Albany Building Shop are still standing thats the only thing is left of the shops and the bridge is long gone.

Skipper L Swartout posted
Then and now West Albany shops

Skipper L Swartout posted
employees at West Albany, NY Showing Harold Belles, Machinist Apprentice, at various jobs in shop 10/29/1946

Skipper L Swartout posted
West Albany shops Albany NY New York Central at a point and time they made there own Engines.
I know at a point of time New York Central made there own engines maybe that’s why they have all those wheels. Builder west Albany shops 4-4-0 NYC&HR #903 William Buchanan (locomotive designe) by rear driver. At west Albany shops William Buchanan (1830-1929) was a nineteenth century Scottish American mechanical engineer specializing in designing train locomotives. He spent most of his career designing fast steam train locomotives for the New York Central Railroad he design #999 speed Queen. Americans 4-4-0 became known as Buchanan Americans, tenwheelers and others.
Jim Arc: Wheel shop. New and used wheel sets waiting to be turned on that lathe.

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central Shop at West Albany, NY 12/17/1946
John Scott: Center drive axle lathe.

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany shops Albany New York
Walter Boland: This was a trailing truck axle. The gear is for a booster engine, usually a two cylinder steam engine used for extra starting tractive effort. Also notice the axle journals sticking out beyond the wheels.

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany Shops Albany NY
Howard Pincus: McCabe flanging machine and two boilermakers producing a rear tube sheet for a locomotive firebox.

zzz

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central 2 Truck Shay #1896 at West Albany Shops Albany NY Used on New York City's west side streets. With West side Cowboys Shays were commonly used on logging railroads because their slow speed and small wheels were easy on track. The New York Central owned five Shays for use in New York City because an old city ordinance required them to be shrouded to avoid frightening horses. When most of the street trackage was removed and the West Side line was electrified around 1932, the Shays were replaced by box-cab diesels. The Shays were transferred to New York Central subsidiaries Genessee Falls Railway in Rochester, and the Owasco River Railway around Auburn. The Marcellus & Otisco Lake (M&OL) RR leased #7185 in 1942. It was returned to the New York Central on 1943-01-13 with a broken frame and exchanged for #7187. The Shays were scrapped in 1948.

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central 4-4-0 #870 at West Albany, NY at the roundhouse

Skipper L Swartout posted
Coaling station at West Albany, NY
This before they the build a mammoth coal dock this when west Albany shops was new
Neo Haven: Although coaling with a hand filled bucket may seem like something from ancient history, I witnessed a Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 being coaled with a bucket in 1959 in Chipman, New Brunswick. I was one of many who traveled to the Norton-Chipman branch to photograph the three 4-4-0's that the Canadian Pacific used on the branch until the end of steam.

Skipper L Swartout posted
employees at West Albany Shops , Albany NY Working on a large press

Skipper L Swartout posted
New York Central West Albany Shops Albany NY
Howard Pincus: That press has dies for pressing a locomotive flue sheet or possibly a combustion chamber flue sheet. The press is most likely hydraulic powered, which in those days meant water as the hydraulic medium (not oil).