1954 Anderson IN turntable

[Roger Hensley]

7741, a U-3a 0-8-0 built by Brooks in 1919 for the Big Four, prepares to move onto the turntable at Anderson Indiana in 1954

[BR&P]

Man, that thing looks like it means business! It may just be a switcher but it still has an imposing look to it.

[Allen Hazen]

My impression is that steam locomotives usually went into roundhouses "head first" (so that, if the door was open on an occupied stall, what you would see from the outside would be the back of the tender). This one seems to have backed in.
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U3 is basically a USRA standard 0-8-0, isn't it? A well-proportioned, aesthetically pleasing design, i.m.h.o! 52" drivers, so it does look massive: locomotives with bigger boilers usually had higher drivers, so, in proportions, it looks like a bigger engine.
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And thanks again, Roger, for posting these photos of the New York Central in its glory days!

[ExCon90]

My impression is that steam locomotives usually went into roundhouses "head first" (so that, if the door was open on an occupied stall, what you would see from the outside would be the back of the tender). This one seems to have backed in.

And weren't the smoke vents always above the outer ends (which also left more room for work on the engine)? Must have been some reason for placing the engine that way, and we'll never know what it was. (Maybe a railfan photographer knew somebody?)

[NYCRRson]

My first impression of this photo is that the switcher is pulling another engine out of that stall and onto the turntable. Perhaps a dead engine going to the backshops after an inspection in the roundhouse found major defects ?

Maybe pull the dead engine with the switcher all the way across the turntable and back the dead engine into the backshop via another track that goes around the turntable ?

Some of the roundhouse stalls were usually aligned with the inbound tracks so this maneuver could work. Or the live switcher could pull a cold loco onto the table and drop it there while escaping onto another stall track that aligns correctly. Then turn the table and get the cold loco with another live engine. Then get the switcher out of there with another move of the table.

Hard to tell but it looks like another engine is inside that stall behind this switcher ?

Normally a "live" engine would enter the roundhouse front end first so the stack was under the smokejacks. And the roundhouse was for inspections, "running repairs" and boiler washouts. Maybe the loco being pulled by this switcher was in the roundhouse to have the boiler washed out and to let it cool down before it went to the backshop for scheduled boiler work (ie flue replacement) ?

Or a "posed" photo ?

Either way it's just not right to drive a loco out of the round house front end leading.....

Just my two cents worth.

Cheers, Kevin.

(also just noticed that several of the tracks on the left hand side no longer go all the way to the "pit" looks like they pulled some rails up. Probably didn't need all the stalls in service in 1954 with only 3 more years of steam. Maybe the switcher is pulling a cold engine to the dead line ??).

[ExCon90]

One of those certainly seems the most likely. Another question: didn't the IHB and P&LE also have 0-8-0 switchers? Were they identical?

[Roger Hensley]

NYCRRson is correct. The loco is either pulling an engine out of the roundhouse or pushing it in. When the original photo is examined, the second loco is obvious. Thank you. I would not have noticed without your comments.

[NYCRRson]

Great photo, thanks for posting it.

Cheers, Kevin

[urrengr2003]

On the P&LE they were called "Bulldogs."

[Allen Hazen]

ExCon90--
(Re question 4 up.) IHB and P&LE steam locomotives were included in the New York Central system clasification, and both had units (apologies if the diesel-era word "unit" is inappropriate) classified, like this one, as U3. There may have been some detail differences (U3 came in many, sublettered, subclasses!), but basic design would have been the same. (The last steam locomotive build for a Class 1 railroad -- a 0-8-0 for the Norfolk & western built at Roanoke in 1953 -- was based on the same USRA design.)

[ExCon90]

Thanks. When I saw the photo I thought I'd seen photos of a similar 0-8-0 on the IHB.