Norfolk Southern (PRR) Juniata Shops

The growing business of the Pennsylvania Railroad and crowding at the original 1850 Altoona Machine Shops Complex led PRR officials in 1886 to begin developing plans for construction of additional shops for locomotive repair and building of new locomotives. The site selected was a large tract of land in the eastern section of Altoona known as Juniata. The reason that an entirely new location was needed for locomotive repairs was the ever increasing size of locomotives used in road service. Prior to 1880, most American locomotives were relatively small machines, rarely over 30 tons. Individual parts could be moved with hand power, swing cranes, blocks, jacks, and human muscles. New power cranes with large clearances were now needed to clear a finished engine above its neighbor on the shop floor.

As far as size of locomotives used on the PRR, the first real jump in size came in 1885 with a new design (Class R) Consolidation engine built in Altoona weighing 57.3 tons. The old design Consolidation engine had weighed only 48 tons. Larger capacity cranes planned for the Juniata Erecting Shop would effectively solve both locomotive size and weight handling problems at the same time. Railroad officials in their 1886 plan determined that the Juniata complex would contain a paint shop, boiler shop, blacksmith shop, boiler house, electric and hydraulic house, two story office and store room, paint storehouse and gas house, and hydraulic transfer table and pit. Construction of these structures began on September 15, 1888 with most of the construction work completed in 1890. The first locomotive was built in 1891. The layout of the four principal shops in the Juniata complex capitalized on the success of the longitudinal (assembly line style) layout of the old Altoona 12th Street Erecting Shop, which was laid out parallel to the machine shop. At Juniata, the Boiler, Blacksmith, Machine, and Erecting Shops were laid out on an identical parallel relationship. This arraignment made possible a smooth, orderly production flow. Raw material came in at the west end of the Boiler shop. As it passed through the building, it was flanged, punched, assembled, riveted and exited at the opposite end as a completed boiler. From there, the boiler was moved to the Erecting Shop (present day, Welding Shop building) directly opposite. From the Blacksmith Shop, frames and forgings entered the west end of the Machine Shop directly opposite it. The layout of the Machine Shop was such that the forgings were finished as they passed through it, without going over the same path twice, reaching a completed stage at the center of the building.

Cylinders and other castings entered the Machine Shop from the east end, reaching a completed stage at the center of the building where they met the finished frames and forgings. From the Machine Shop, matched parts were delivered through an outside door to the Erecting Shop, where they were met by the boiler which had come in from the Boiler Shop. With all of the parts delivered to the west end of the Erection Shop, assembly of the locomotive could now begin with the finished locomotive coming out of the east end of the shop about one week later. The Juniata Erection Shop had three run-through tracks. Tracks on the left and right were used for locomotive assembly and the center track served as access for supplying parts and materials. Work increased steadily at the Juniata Locomotive Shops and by 1895, the number of people employed rose to 789. In 1902 and 1903, the original Erecting Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Machine Shop, and Boiler Shop were increased in size, with the Machine Shop more than doubled in length. In addition, a new storehouse and Blacksmith Shop (No.2) were constructed.

In 1917, a second Machine Shop was constructed. This building, completed in 1918, served as a Tank Shop to repair and construct locomotive tenders. Tender repairs lasted only until 1925 when the building was refitted for heavy machining work. In 1952, this structure became the first Diesel Engine Shop. When diesel engine repairs were moved to the Erecting and Machine (E&M) shop in the early 1960’s, the building was converted to a storehouse. An extensive modernization program of the Juniata Locomotive Shops in 1983 included upgrading of the storehouse to modern "high-rise" material storage center for parts needed for locomotive repairs at both Juniata and the entire Conrail System.

In 1924 and 1925, the PRR further expanded the Juniata Locomotive Shops with construction of a 50 stall E&M shop (present day A through D bays) on the east side of the existing shop buildings. A three story storehouse and a small flue shop were also constructed. All of this new construction was part of management’s long term plan to move the locomotive work away from the aging Altoona Machine Shops Complex. Today, under Conrail Management, the 1925 Erecting and Machine Shop building is the primary location for locomotive component re-manufacturing and locomotive overhauls. The 1925 three-story storehouse serves as the general office building for the Altoona Manufacturing Division of Conrail. By 1926, the Juniata Locomotive Shops contained two Blacksmith Shops, a Boiler Shop, two Machine Shops, a Tank Shop, two welfare buildings, and an E&M shop. The Juniata Shops at this time could repair four locomotives a day and build 12 new locomotives a month.

	The E&M Shop. Looking South from the employee's parking lot. Fall 1995		The E&M Shop. Looking Southwest. Fall 1995
	The E&M Shop. Looking west from the Sheetz store parking lot. Fall 1995		The E&M Shop. Looking Southwest. Fall 1995
	The turntable at the E&M Shops. Fall

A disastrous fire broke out at the Altoona Machine Shops Complex on December 27, 1931. The fire and the resulting damage sealed the fate of the Altoona Machine Shops as the principle locomotive shop of the Altoona Works. In the succeeding years, more and more locomotive work was transferred or eliminated. Finally on August 1, 1938, all locomotive work was transferred completely to the Juniata Locomotive Shops.

The Juniata Shops were busy during the WWII years with increased locomotive maintenance work due to greatly expanded war material movement on the PRR and a fair amount of war related work as well. Related work included machining castings for gins and straightening armor plate for tanks. After the war, the PRR began converting from steam to diesel electric locomotives. This decision had a significant impact on operations at the Juniata shops. The new diesel electric type locomotives required less maintenance than the old steam engines. Less maintenance resulted in less need for shop space and repair facilities. The predictable outcome was a number of furloughs, layoffs, and recalls.

In the 1950’s, the PRR began moving shop facilities away from Altoona and reducing the workforce. The company announced in 1953 that by the end of December, the steam locomotive program would be abolished. In spite of this order, the Juniata Shops still repaired steam locomotives for the next several years. Juniata also repaired electric, gas electric and diesel electric locomotives during this period. By 1957, steam work at the Juniata Locomotive Shops ended.

In 1964, the E&M shop (A through D bays) was partially upgraded by the Pennsylvania Railroad to better accommodate repairs to diesel locomotives. In addition, the Juniata Locomotive Shops adopted a disassembly and assembly line technique known as the "process line." This technique meant that the locomotives moved from one work position to another on a time schedule until all work was completed and the finished locomotive was ready for final testing.

Merger of the PRR and New York Central Railroad on February 1, 1968 to form the Penn Central had dramatic impact on the Juniata Locomotive Shops. In the first year, many furloughed employees were called back to work to overhaul locomotives as part of Penn Central’s $6,500,000 modernization program. Success for the shops was short lived. On June 21, 1970, the Penn Central Railroad was forced to declare bankruptcy. The shops struggled through three years of uncertainty. In 1973, Congressional action prevented collapse of railroad transportation in the Northeast section of the U.S. by having the United States Railway Association (USRA) step in to manage the bankrupt railroad, study the problem, and submit a railroad reorganization plan to Congress.

The USRA study recommended that a private corporation, to be known as Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), be formed from the Penn Central and five other bankrupt railroads. Part of this study selected the Juniata Locomotive Shops as the major locomotive repair shops for the new railroad. On April 1, 1976, Conrail took over operations from the six bankrupt railroads, including management of the Juniata Shops.

Legislation to form Conrail took over also provided money (later paid back) to upgrade the shop facilities and a three year modernization program completed in 1983 brought the Juniata Shops up to state-of-the-art technological standards for locomotive maintenance and overhaul work. It was during Conrail’s 1983 Modernization program that the large open-air "midway" area between the west end of the Erecting and Machine (E&M) Shop building and the east of the Main Storehouse, Machine Shop and Welding Shop buildings were covered over with a huge addition to form the present day (E bay). The new E bay addition was the first major new building construction work at the Juniata Shops since the 1925 completion of the E&M shop and the three story General Office Building. Several of the original 1889 buildings still remain in use today, although all have been modified over the years. The original boiler shop burned to the ground in 1981 and a new, modern Locomotive Paint Shop was erected on the site in 1982.

Today, Conrail’s Juniata Locomotive Shop is the most modern locomotive heavy repair facility in the railroad industry. Juniata’s capability includes repair and overhaul of complete locomotives, traction motors, main generators and alternators, diesel engines, power assemblies, air brake equipment, engine governors, fuel injection equipment, fans, blower motors, and virtually all of the other components used on Conrail’s own fleet of locomotives as well as for a variety of commercial contract customers who take advantage of Juniata’s Insourcing Program, which began in 1990. In 1995, the Juniata Locomotive Shops received a contract from EMD to assemble, test, and paint brand new SD60I locomotives. This group of units were the first new locomotives to be built completely at the shops since 1946. (From 1891 through 1946 over 7,000 locomotives of all types were built from the ground up at Juniata.).

In 1998, another historic event took place at the Juniata Shops. For the first time ever, both new EMD and new GE locomotives were assembled under the same roof. Currently, employees are assembling, testing, and painting new GE D9-40CW’s for Norfolk Southern. This project, along with a growing list of other projects, such as painting of the GE P42 for Amtrak, assembling, testing, and painting of the SD70MAC for CSX and BNSF and the SD709DC) for Norfolk Southern serve as a few recent examples of the excellent work the Juniata Locomotive Shop’s workforce has achieved on a continuous basis since 1889.

A Special History Study, Pennsylvania Railroad Shops and Works. U.S. National Park Service, 1989.
Blair County and Cambria County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. U.S. National Park Service. 1990.
Photo of K-4 from the Altoona Railroader’s Memorial Museum archives.

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Photos are by Chris Behe unless otherwise noted.