On turntable in front of roundhouse

NG502020

On turntable in front of roundhouse

Steam Locomotive

The twenty-nine stall roundhouse at Riverside was the last facility on the New York Central System to do major inspections and heavy maintenance work on steam locomotives. It became the lone holdout after Bellefontaine roundhouse was closed to steam on February 12, 1956, and it carried on into early 1957. On April 27th of that year, however, the end was reached here, too, with the dispatchment of the 1587 on a 9:30 AM Beeline pusher. Then, on the following day, the last dispatchment out of Sharon signified the end of the line for steam power on the NYC. When the photograph below was made in December, 1953, business was down and so were dispatchments,'. yet the pair of diesels arriving on ON-1 and departing on ON-2 (the Bellefontaine-Cincinnati merchandise hotshots) were all that prevented Riverside from being one hundred percent in the steam business. The geep snout on the left belonged to the 5772, which, coupled with the 5773, represented the ON-1/ON-2 power on that occasion. The little 0-6-0 on the turntable, no. 6835 of class B-11n, was being readied for the 4:00 PM Universal yard job at Mill Creek. She was one of the ten six-wheeled switchers which were still serviceable at that time and which were assigned to light yard work in the Cincinnati Terminal and on the Indiana Division at Lawrenceburg and Connersville. Amazingly enough, the demand for these doughty little cabbage-cutters remained constant and held down the mortality rate so that, when hostilities ended in 1957, nine of the ten were still intact.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

12/1953

To buy a copy of this photograph; click here NG502020

0-6-0

363

B-11n

#6835

Alco-Brooks

Cincinnati, OH