Right front 3/4 view

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Right front 3/4 view

Steam Locomotive

Here, at Shelby Street, backed in on top of the 3148 on a 'dead' track, is the last of the largest - S-1 4-8-4 no. 6015. This engine remained in service almost a year after the retirement of her twenty-five sisters. The reason for this oddity was that she just happened to be at Beech Grove receiving classified repairs at the time it was decided to close the shop, last of the Central's steam backshops. Much of the job of overhauling the 6015 had been completed when the closing day came on March 5, 1954. Although, officially, all work on her should have stopped right then, the shop force took pride in their finished products, particularly when they involved the most magnificent chunk of motive power the road had ever owned. Then, too, they were most reluctant to see their almost-completed job go for naught. Hence, by means of a little bootlegging here, a little sleight-of-hand there, the obstacles of red tape and lack of authorization were overcome (or neatly sidestepped), and the 6015 emerged as good as new.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

8/1956

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4-8-4

431

S-1b

#6015

Alco-Schen

Shelby St., Indianapolis, IN