THE MEMPHIS BUFF
VOLUME 35, ISSUE 12
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DECEMBER 2008
VMV's Paducah Shop Frisco's 1925 Memphis Riverfront Cave-in Member Photos
Memphis Chapter Officers President – David Chase
dchase@memphisredbirds.com
Vice President – Bruce Smedley National Director – Bill Strong
williambstrong@bellsouth.net
Secretary – Oliver Doughtie
doughtio@bellsouth.net
Treasurer – Thomas Doherty
TRDoherty@aol.com
Librarian – Mike Pendergrass Publication Editor – Tom Parker
tscottparker@gmail.com
Last Month’s Meeting Last month's program was a round table discussion of travel by Amtrak chaired by Bruce Smedley. Tom Parker presented a 30 minute video of a trip from Chicago to Seattle on the Empire Builder in May of 2008. Bill Strong reported on his trip from Chicago Il to Portland, Oregon and return via the California Zephyr to San Francisco, the Coast Starlight to Portland and the Empire Builder back to Chicago in a vintage privately owned Pullman car.
This Month's Meeting Decembers program will be “Passenger Service In And Around Memphis Before Amtrak”, a slide presentation by Terry Foshee. BUFF ONLINE: www.buff.illinoiscentral.net User Name:Member Password: Buff (Capital “M” & “B”) Cover Photo: The highlight of the 2008 Illinois Central Historical Society's Annual Meeting in August was a tour of the VMV Shops in Paducah, KY. Tom Parker Photo
VMV's Paducah Shops from VMV Handout 8/22/08 for ICHS Annual Meeting (T. Parker photos)
Some familiar faces, Ann and Michael Jack and Bill Strong, enroute to Paducah Shops
HISTORY OF PADUCAH'S LOCOMOTIVE FACILITIES Paducah's first shop facility was a wooden engine house and turntable built by the NO&O in 1855 near 11th Street in 1855 between today's Washington and Clark Streets. That facility buned in 1865 and in 1872, soon after the Civil War ended a new roundhouse was built just west of where the old one stood. In 1884 the CO&SW, largely through tireless efforts of Q,Q,Quigley, decided to relocate its industrial units in Paducah; this $107,000 investment included machine, car, boiler, and blacksmith shops and brass foundry, with trackage and 6-stall roundhouse.
An aerial view of the Paducah Shops: “A” Machine Shop (245'X682), “B” Boiler Shop (167X625), “C” Tank Shed (100X625), “D” Blacksmith Shop (85X460), “E” Personnel Building (7200 SQ FT) ,”F” Maintenance Office & Storage (46X140), “G” Power House (95X230), “H” Lift Truck Repair (50X171), “J” Iron Store Warehouse (67X315), “K” Storehouse (67X620), “L” Maintenance Shop (85X247) In 1897, shortly after the ings in the area:.(which inIllinois Central's purchase of cluded rail lines serving Paduthe bankrupt CO&SW’s hold- cah, along with the hospital and shop facilities), the IC consructeded a new fifteen STALL "Paducah Roundhouse" – which was enlarged one year later. That facility was expanded again in 1902, as more and more repairs were performed at the centrally-located Paducah site.
A locomotive High Voltage Cabinet
in 1918, despite the onset of WWI and tough economic times, the Illinois Central made what proved to be a wise decision to build another, totally new 36 stall mechanical facility at a cost of
Inside the Machine Shop Building
$250,000. It was referred to as the Paducah Roundhouse" andd was situated along Kentucky Avenue near the previous facility. Much of the IC's motive power was then upgraded at the Paducah Shops. (This 1918 roundhouse was utilized for upgrading, maintenance and repairs of the Illinois Central's steam engine fleet through the 1950's - until steam's demise.) oon after WWI, with' the IC's locomotive repair costs accounting for roughly a tenth of its operating expenses and wanting to improve efficiencies, the company resolved to build an entirely new locomotive shop, Official announcement that the Illinois Central Railroad would locate its new shops at Paducah was made on January 15, 1925, Ground was broken and construction begun on the new buildings on Maroh 12th of that year. Known as the PADUCAH
SHOPS, the new facility was situated adjacent to the existing roundhouse, along Kentucky Avenue, between 13th &. 16th Streets.
ral Railroad, who, as its Chairman of the Board, furthered the project and was the IC executive given most of the credit for bringing the massive shops to Paducah. The complex was the largest ever erected by the Illinois Central. It represented an investment of several million dollars and expanded the IC's repair plant area to some 110 acres. At that time it was one of the four largest industrial plants in the state. The latest in tools and equipment, including electric cranes which could lift an entire locomotive twenty feet above the floor increased the efficiency of the IC's repairs. All repair work for the IC previously done by Burnside Shops, Chicago, was trans-
A prime mover being rebuilt
After two years of construction, the IC finally completed its new Shops and a great celebration was held June 15, 1927. The entire city and Paducah railroad employees erected a bronze bust to honor Charles H. Markham, former' president of the Illinois Cent-
This is the "High Bay" in the Boiler Shop Building where steam engines were stood on end to weld the fire boxes on re-manufactured engines.
The Machine Shop viewed from between the Machine shop and Boiler Shop Buildings
ferred to the Paducah facility, which was capable of building complete locomotives. In fact, twenty (20) heavy, Mountaintype freight engines (2600Series) were built here in Paducah during World War II at a cost of $2 million each. They were contracted for by the US .Government, primarily for ' handling trains hauling our troops. These were the finest steam engines ever to appear on the IC. During this time, the IC continued to upgrade and improve performance of existing locomotives here at Paducah; the Paducah Shops flourished. By 1956, the Paducah Shops was faking on an more and more diesel repair work and new machinery for diesel repair and rebuild was installed in the newer Shop facility. In 1965 the "Paducah Roundhouse" (built in 1918) was razed.
CG&.T Industries. Subsidiary, VMV Enterprises began operation of the shops shortly thereafter. In 2003, VMV Enterprises, Inc., filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and, under court supervision, assets were sold to an affiliate of National Railway Equipment Co., Inc., and the Paducah rebuild facility began to operate as VMV Paducahbilt, an "assumed" name. Most all the buildings con-
Boilers are few and far between in the Boiler Shop Building these days.
In 1967 the IC began extensive modernization and upgrading of its Paducah Shops, In 1972 the Illinois Central merged with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, forming the Illinois Central Gulf (ICG). The Paducah Shops were included in the merger/sale, On February 25th, 1986 the Paducah Shops were sold by the ICG to
structed by the Illinois Central in 1927 stand today, housing VMV Paducahbuilt's locomotive and component manufacturing facility. VMV's Paducah Shops paint, repair, and rebuild E.M.D. locomotives and component parts, and totally manufacture "EnviroMotive" locomotives.
THE BUILDING OF THE "NEW" PADUCAH SHOPS From The Story of Paducah by Paducah resident Fred G. Newman (Original Printing 1927 by Young Printing Company; Revised Printing 1979 by Image Graphics)
"While work was progressing on units at the north end, such as driving piles for the foundation, laying concrete bases and erecting steel framework, a forlorn hollow extending from Washington to Jones Street was raised to the level of the yards. This stupendous undertaking was started In March, 1926, and completed in 190 working days. It made a remarkable change in the appearance of the place. A total of 625,000 cubic yards of dirt were needed to fill the large ravine, and nothing short of a near-mountain would answer the purpose. Engineers immediately set about removing Coleman's Hill, sixteen miles away and long famed as the highest point in McCracken County, and brought it to the basin at the rate of 235 cars a day. Altogether 44,560 carloads of dirt were hauled to the hollow. "All buildings in the new shops area are set on concrete foundations pillowed with red cedar pilings. In constructing the locomotive shop, [now known as the Machine Shop]
Paducah Shops in the steam era
which measures 682 feet in length and 245 feet in width, 3,760 piles were driven into the ground, or 89,770 lineal feet. Twenty-six carloads of creosoted wooden blocks were used in laying the floor. The steel alone in the mammoth structure weighed 2,865 tons, while a total 1,659,000 brick was used. "The locomotive erecting shop has a floor area of 3.9 acres and houses a veritable forest of machinery. There are 181 machines of various dimensions, including a device for slotting locomotive frames, which cost $42,000. This unit
also contains twenty-seven engine pits and five cranes, the largest having a capacity of 250 tons and costing $57,750. This monster crane spans 95 feet and is capable of carrying the largest locomotives. The clearing limit is 22 feet and six inches. "Other buildings in the layout also make an interesting study in colossal structural work. The boiler shop, harboring four cranes and diverse machines, including a hydraulic flanging machine weighing 280 tons and costing $44,900, required the driving of 1,369 piles and laying of 1,055,000
brick. Measurements of the storehouse are 622 by 67 feet; the blacksmith shop 460 by 84; and the paint and tank unit 624 by 100 feet. Two chimneys at the powerhouse measured 44 feet in diameter at the base and rose to a great height. Outside craneways extend from Kentucky Avenue to Tennessee Street, bearing two 20-ton cranes which, like the others, are electrically operated. Total cost of the buildings when completed in 1927 was $27,000,000."
Built at VMV Paducah, Genset 3GS21B, CSXT 1302, one of a five unit order for delivery September 2008
Paducah built narrow guage locomotives for export are loaded on flat cars for shipment.
Three of these self-contained diesel/generator modules are installed in the 3GS21B. Each "Genset" unit can be swapped out in case of malfunction, thereby reducing locomotive downtime.
SD9043MAC INRD 9001 leaves Paducah with a brand new paint job
Switch Tracks Damaged in Freakish Cave-in on Memphis River Front Ten Billion Cubic Feet of Ground in Frisco Yards Fall Into Mississippi River on July 25th Reprinted from September, 1926, Frisco Employees Magazine)
"I went to lunch and when I returned the little shanty from which I took the level was fifty feet down in the bosom of the earth. But we had started getting our equipment out of the way a few days before. We had a similar cave-in four years ago down near the roundhouse and lost a bunch of equipment and I didn't want to take any chances. When we ran the last Cracking and rumbling its be- front trackage lated warning a freakish cave- During the hour after the first string of cars out at noon I could see the earth giving way in occurred Sunday, July 25, rumbles of the approaching ahead of the engine. When I at Memphis, Tennessee, when calamity, the mass of earth ten billion cubic feet of ground settled to a depth of fifty feet, came back from lunch I found our fears multiplied ten fold." at the foot of Butler Avenue on although not a foot of the the Mississippi bluffs, earth went into the river itself. The extent of damage can be crumbled downward to a For more than a year officials learned, partially, from the above picture, which was depth of fifty feet. at Memphis had expected The switch tracks of the Frisco something of the sort. Cracks taken fifteen minutes after the cave-in. The track at the right between Butler and Trezevant in the ground have been visStreet sank with the entire ible for twelve months, but not is the industrial track to the plant and yards of the West until a few days before the ca- Pease & Dwyer warehouse. It Kentucky Coal Company and vein did they become danger- sank with the earth without a lot of equipment of Pease & ous. On the day of the cave-in, disturbing the dirt around the ties. A long section of the rail Dwyer, feed manufacturers, reports the Memphis Comthe destruction combining to mercial-Appeal, J.J O'Neil, su- can be seen leaning against the an approxlmated damage of perintendent of the Frisco ter- far wall of the bank where it was torn loose and broken $250.000. minals, became convinced of from the ties by the force of The caved-in land was approx- the impending disaster, and the collapse. The track at the imately eight hundred square began moving equipment and left which slid down the bank preparing for the cave-in. feet, running in width from a is the main lead track to the narrow strip to one hundred "Just before noon on the day Frisco river front trackage. and seventy-five feet. The of the cave-in we took a level The Frisco equipment on top cave-in completely cut off the and found that the earth had of the bank was saved, and no Frisco main lead track runsettled .98 of a foot," Superincars or lives were lost. ning north into Frisco river tendent O'Neil told reporters.
Member Photos Here are some photos taken by our newest member, Sam Peregoy. Welcome to our group, Sam!
This is old L&N (NC& StL) mainline (Bruceton, TN to Paducah, KY) running down the middle of the street in Paris, TN.
The old GM&O mainline in Middleton, TN after the track was removed in March, 2007 at TN State Highway 57.
Former Rock Island Bridge across the White River at DeVall's Buff, AR (Background)
CABOOSE
Illinois Central 8045 on display on display in downtown Paducah, KY Tom Parker photo Meeting Schedule December 8, 2008 January 12, 2009 Februray 9, 2009 March 9, 2009 April 13, 2009 May 11, 2009 Meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month in the White Station Branch Library from 7-9 pm. 5094 Poplar Avenue Memphis, TN (in front of Clark Tower)
Contact the Editor Tom Parker 3012 Wood Thrush Drive Memphis, TN 38134 tscottparker@gmail.com
THE MEMPHIS BUFF welcomes contributions for publication. Copyrighted materials must contain the source. Original documents and photos are preferred for clarity. Enclose a SASE for the return of your materials. Articles sent via the Internet should be in Microsoft Word format. orthern Photos should be JPEG files @ 72 dpi and at least 800x600 size. Consideration for a cover photo would require a much higher resolution. THE MEMPHIS BUFF is a not-for-profit publication for the Memphis Chapter of the NRHS. All credited photos herein are copyright by the photographer and may not be reused without permission.