The Beech Grove Shops is a railway maintenance facility in Beech Grove, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Beech Grove is Amtrak's primary maintenance facility. [1] It also contains a very large freight yard.
The shops were originally constructed in 1904–1908 by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway (the "Big Four"), servicing a network stretching across the Midwest into Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The facility was used as the company's repair shop for steam locomotives and passenger and freight cars. [1]
The Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in 1906, but operated as an independent business until it was formally merged with its owner in 1922. [2] The facility passed to Penn Central Transportation in 1968 when the NYC merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970. [1] Amtrak purchased the facility from the bankrupt Penn Central in April 1975. [3] [4] [5]
On September 20, 2002, an F2 tornado hit the shops, damaging Coach Shop 3, which was going to be torn down after the tornado; it had been used to overhaul Superliner passenger cars until 2000.[ citation needed]
In the early hours of May 2, 2021, two storage buildings on the site were destroyed by a fire. [6]
Media related to Beech Grove Shops at Wikimedia Commons
39°43′11″N 86°4′40″W / 39.71972°N 86.07778°W