Train second SY-2 passing Beech Grove Tower (on stilts)

NG503026

Train second SY-2 passing Beech Grove Tower (on stilts)

Steam Locomotive

The partially-undressed appearance of Beech Grove tower is typical of most of those on the Big Four. Generally they are weathered clapboard structures squatting or perching on the frailest of legs. : Beech Grove is one which squats, but there are many - perhaps a majority - which sit precariously high on their "stilts", seemingly in direct defiance of the increasing frequency of tornadoes in the area served by this part of the system. Even in high winds of non-tornadic character, many of them gyrate to the extent that the operators might well be issued safety belts as standard equipment. In this action at Beech Grove, the camera has about-faced from its previous position. The train here is 2/SY-2, a noontime departure from Indianapolis bound for Sharon Yard in Cincinnati. The engine stamping out on the eastbound main at its head is the 3108, an L-4 which served a lengthy assignment on the Big Four and ultimately died there. On this occasion, the consist was light enough (24 loads and 23 empties) for the road engine to handle alone, so that the East Hill yard engine was relieved of its customary job of boosting the train up the grade which crests near the tower. The main functions of Beech Grove tower are twofold: one, illustrated here, is control of movements at the east end of Hill Yard, and the other is control of Dix, a remote interlocking 8.1 miles east where the main line reverts from double to single track.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Summer, 1955

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4/8/2002

386

L-4a

#3108

Lima

Beech Grove, Indianapolis, IN

See NG503026a