1936 Mercury location?

The attached postcard just came up for sale on eBay. It would appear to be a photo of the new Mercury in 1936. The only information given was that the locomotive number was 6515. In 1936 the number would have been 4915. Can anyone identify the location as West Albany Shops where the two Pacifics were streamlined or as Beech Grove Shops where the cars were rebuilt? And if neither location, then where?

Hi Dave
Just guessing I would say West Albany , because Beech Grove was mainly for building and rebuilding of passenger cars. Pat.

Not West Albany. Power house had two stacks and no L-shaped buildings like that.

From Stauffer’s New York Central’s Later Power, page 173:

“K-5b 4915, built as M.C. 8355, sold in 1927 to Big Four and renumbered 6515. Streamlined and booster removed 1936. “Mercury” streamlining removed and booster reinstalled at Beech Grove, Jan. 1947.”

The locomotive was apparently caught in the middle of the system-wide locomotive renumbering of 1936 as it emerged from the West Albany shops in May 1936. The Mercury cars were retrofitted at the Beech Grove shops near Indianapolis. The cars and locomotive were united and were displayed around the system between May and July 13 when it was put into Detroit-Cleveland service.

From Cook’s New York Central’s Mercury:

Page 14 shows the rear of the tender bearing the number 6515. Page 13 shows the locomotive fresh from the West Albany shop. The caption reads – “Note the absence of a number or marker lights, the train name under the cab window and large road name on the tender being the only marking.”
Page 34 shows the original seven-car train in a much-circulated publicity photo of 1936. The same photo was used in a public timetable advertisement as shown on page 36. The train appears in open country with just some trees in the distance and no cars. No image matching that of the postcard appears in this highly illustrated book about the Mercury. It is almost as if the image of the train from the publicity photo was superimposed on an image of the large factory for the postcard. The view of the train is at the very same angle in the publicity photo and the postcard image. Even the wisp of steam above the locomotive is the same in both images. The postcard image may be artistic license. I cannot determine the intended location of the postcard image.

Thanks for the replies.
"From Cook’s New York Central’s Mercury: Page 14 shows the rear of the tender bearing the number 6515." Interesting! I have the book and hadn't noticed that.
"Page 34 shows the original seven-car train in a much-circulated publicity photo of 1936." I think the postcard image is the original and the fence railing and telephone pole were "photoshopped" out and the image placed in a rural setting rather than vice-versa.
Since nobody definitively identified the location, I did some searching of my own files and with Google.
I am now pretty sure the location is Beech Grove and the long building in the background is what was originally called the Boiler Shop.
The key points are the two small rectangular projections and the large multistory section on the end of the building. I've outlined these in red in the attachments. The complete Beech Grove drawing can be found on Roger Hensley's Big Four website.