Front view, at coal tower

NG503041

Front view, at coal tower

Steam Locomotive

Even the bright Memorial Day sunshine could not dissipate the atmosphere of decay which casts an inevitable pall over Shelby Street. Weathered structures, rusting machinery, twisted rails, littered grounds - all combine to suggest that here is the very epitome of that most persistent plague of railroading, obsolescence, and that here also is the excruciatingly stark evidence of its raison d'etre, financial instability. The pair of GP-7's, serving as passenger protection between stints on race specials, seems grotesquely out of place among the other occupants of the area - so much so that it is hard to reconcile the legend "New York Central" as being common to them and to the pathetic hulks which predominate in this veritable morgue. The only live steamer in view is the 3015 in the center foreground, and except for her pumps, which emit an occasional soft whine and pant, she is almost as mute as the corpses on her left. The dead line is made up mostly of 2800-series L-2s and various members of the J-1 class. All are consigned to scrap and are waiting for a buyer.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Spring, 1954

To buy a copy of this photograph; click here NG503041

4/8/2002

408

L-3a, GP7

#3015,#5763,#5766

Alco-Schen

Shelby St., Indianapolis, IN

See NG503041a