On local freight "B-line switch run"

NG503006

On local freight "B-line switch run"

Steam Freight Train

H-5 class 2-8-2 no. 1576, a longtime member of the Big Four steam fraternity, hustles out of Indianapolis with the Ohio Division local freight to South Anderson and return. When this was taken, the 1576 was a veteran of a creditable forty years' service on the NYC, having been built by Lima in 1916. The run she covered on this occasion is known in Indianapolis as the "B-line switch run", "B-line" being local terminology for this particular district (formerly the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad), and “switch run" being the language generally used on the Big Four to denote local freight trains. H-5 power was in most respects satisfactory for this job, but Ohio Division officials used to frown on the assignment to it of no. 1576 and any others equipped with 12,500-gallon water tanks. These engines would sometimes run low on water, especially during grain season, and would make it necessary to cut and run (there were no water plugs between Indianapolis and South Anderson, 30 miles). Diesels have since obviated this problem, as they have in so many other instances. (The job, however, now operates through to Muncie, returning the following day.)

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Summer, 1955

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368

H-5t

#1576

Lima

Arlington St., Indianapolis, IN

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