switchtender shanty in view

NG501018

switchtender shanty in view

Steam Freight Train

As this picture clearly indicates, the yards at Bellefontaine, Ohio, are largely set into a rural landscape of rolling fields and woodlands. The country backdrop, which is unusual in the environs of the principal terminals on the Big Four and for that matter on the rest of the system, imparts an atmosphere of peace and quiet, but this is very misleading at Bellefontaine, as the picture also suggests. The track layout, seen from a second story window of the main yard office, is part of a narrow throat between East yard (in the right background) and BN yard (out of sight on the left). Tracks are, from left to right, the BN switch lead (or "drill track", as local usage has it), the westbound main, the eastbound main, the East yard drill track, and the stock track. The train easing down the westbound main, preparatory to entering BN yard, is the "swipe", a drag run between Galion and Bellefontaine which on this occasion was comprised of L-2 no. 2961 and 64 cars. The eastbound leg of this job, which was a turnaround handled by a Galion crew, was known as the "stock pickup" because of the nature of its duties. The job was taken off when freight dieselization became well advanced. Its main function westbound had been to handle cars accumulated at Galion as through freights reduced tonnage there for the hill out of Ridgeway, a grade which has been "leveled" by the new form of motive power.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Apr-53

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293

L-2d

#2961

Alco-Schen

Bellefontaine, OH

See NG501018a