Okay, maybe I'm a mope but I don't get it! After reading tons of books and watching countless hours of videos and looking at God only knows how many pictures of PRR steam locos, I still don't see any difference between Juniata Shops and Altoona Works products. Can someone help?
Also why is it that Juniata was "shops" and Altoona was "works"?

Hi,
If I understand correctly, The PRR locomotive repair and erection facility was Altoona. About 2 miles south of the City of Altoona is the Juniata works where, as late as 1998, I saw PRR lettered rolling stock waiting to be scrapped (just one sole box car white lined). Juniata was the car repair and erection facility. When CR/NS wanted the delivery of diesels in "kit form" a number of years back to speed delivery due to a backlog at the builders, They were assembled at Juniata.
Juniata was still there in 1998 and I think it is still there but with my family (all ex-PRR) now in the ground in Harrisburg, I do not know if this is still true. I think I heard that Juniata was to be scrapped.
The Altoona shops is long gone and redeveloped. The Altoona Railroaders Museum has one of the remaining very few buildings that remain from the complex.
I hope this helps and I have not made too many errors.
Doug vV

See:
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/onli ... d/shst.htm
and
http://www.trainweb.org/horseshoecurve-nrhs/Juniata.htm

DPK

The term "Altoona Works" referred to the entire group of shops in Altoona, composed of several smaller shops - the Altoona Machine Shops, Juniata Shop, Altoona Car Shop, and South Altoona Foundry.

The Altoona Machine Shops (sometimes referred to as "18th Street Shops") were the first shop buildings in Altoona. This was the triangular area bounded by 17th Street to the south, 8th Avenue to the east, and the main line to the west. The current Museum building and adjacent facilities of Altoona Pipe & Steel comprise all that remains of the Altoona Machine Shops - everything else was torn down, including the Test Department, which once stood near the present site of the 17th Street bridge. A shopping center now occupies most of the land.

Juniata Shop was, essentially, the portion still in use today by NS. (You know NS, they're those guys with the black diesels who used to run 611 and 1218.) It stands roughly between 8th Street Juniata (not the same as 8th Street Altoona) and about 1st Street, near the present site of Altoona Hospital. Some of Juniata's former buildings have come down, and the former boiler shop burned down in the early 80s, but the main erecting hall is still in use and was expanded during the Conrail years. The power house still burns coal to produce power for the shop, and the steam whistle (which can be heard from nearby Penn State Altoona) still blows at the beginning and end of every shift. The boiler shop's site was reused to build a modern paint shop, which is the steel building visible from Chestnut Ave. The full-circle roundhouse that served as the Locomotive Finishing Shop, sadly, is long gone, and the site is now used to store locomotive parts and truck trailers.

The Altoona Car Shops (unclear if this was a separate entity, or part of Juniata) were the car shop buildings between 1st Street and about 9th Street. As with Juniata proper, many of the smaller outbuildings are gone, but most of the larger buildings are still in use. Lumax I believe makes light fixtures in one building, and Union Tank Car uses the old passenger car paint shop for repair of tank cars and covered hoppers. The transfer table is still in place and in use. The old PRR Fire House #2 and another nearby building are used as offices by a home nursing agency.

The last portion of the Altoona Works was the South Altoona Foundry. This is where the cast-iron Keystone number plates came from. The buildings are still in use by industry, but I do not recall what. I do not believe they use rail service either. The foundry complex was not located along the main in the heart of Altoona with the rest of the Altoona Works; rather, it was located on the branch that comes off the main at ALTO tower, along Route 764 in south Altoona.

The car shops in Hollidaysburg were not considered part of the Altoona Works. It was opened by the Pennsy in 1956 and remained open through the Conrail years, though it was closed by NS in 2003. The yard trackage was removed a year or two ago, maybe three. The building was sold a couple years ago to the county economic development agency, and last I heard they had plans to lease it to a company that manufactures wood roof trusses.

A couple other tidbits:

Juniata Shop is where Conrail and NS built diesels from kits. I know Conrail did build a few new locos for other railroads (NS and Alaska RR come to mind, maybe CSX as well) as well as themsleves, but I think NS has only built their own. PRR built the more modern steamers there as well, with the early stuff being built at Altoona Machine Shops.

The term Juniata refers both to the shop, and to the adjacent neighborhood. It was at one time a separate boro from Altoona, which is why there's a 1st Street in Altoona and two 2nd Streets - 2nd Street Altoona and 2nd Street Juniata. Juniata as a boro was annexed by the City of Altoona around 1920, but locals still refer to the neighborhood by that name.

Lastly, separate from Altoona Works was the main line. Somewhere in my research I read that the East Altoona enginehouse alone was a full-circle affair that employed 1200 men. It was torn down in the early '60s, and the turntable was removed sometime thereafter (1984 sounds about right), but the turntable pit, roundhouse floor, drop pits, and some rails in the floor are still visible if you go looking around a bit in the bushes. There are a few small outbuildings and a patch of brick walkway giving the site away as a former loco terminal as well. I'm told the remains of the coal tower are still visibvle as well, but I never did go look for it.