Train X448 in depot at Columbus Union station

NG501038

Train X448 in depot at Columbus Union station

Steam M&E Train

NYC terminal operations at Columbus, Ohio, are divided, unfortunately, from the standpoints of efficiency and economy, into two supervisory and labor jurisdictions. These are the Ohio Central Division or Line West and, of course, the Ohio Division or Big Four. The former handles the largest volume of traffic, particularly lake coal interchanged from the N&W and C&O, and consequently has the largest facilities. Neither "side", however, has adequate yard space, and that which is available is poorly located. This is especially true in the case of the Ohio Division, which serves, among other industries, large General Motors and Westinghouse plants, and which carries on a very considerable interchange business with foreign roads and the Ohio Central Division (another disadvantage: because of the separate terminals, the latter must be transferred across town in slow-moving pullers). Of the two Ohio Division yards in town, the eastbound, known as the "Fair Grounds", has a total of eight through and three stub tracks strung out in end-to-end pockets of four, four, and three, respectively, and sandwiched between the main line and an embankment carrying the Sandusky branch of the Pennsylvania. The westbound yard, called "East yard", is too much of a hodge-podge to attempt to describe; suffice it to say that it has eleven through and fifteen stub tracks, all of them short and very closely-spaced, and is located on a combination of a curve and grade in a congested downtown area. In the scene above, train X-448, a Cincinnati-Cleveland mail and express run which is now extinct, stands behind L-4 no. 3103 at Columbus Union Station (operated jointly by the NYC and PRR).

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

May-53

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321

L-4a

#3103

Lima

Columbus, OH

See NG501038a