The Big Four Shops in Sandusky in 1893

The image above shows employees of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company, also known as the “Big Four.” This railroad was formed in in June of 1889, by the consolidation of several railroads. Railroads have been important to Sandusky, because of the many jobs they provided, and for allowing a wide variety of raw materials as well as finished products to be transported in and out of the region. 

In the 1890s, the passenger depot for the Big Four was located on the north side of Water Street east of Lawrence Street. The shops for the Big Four were situated on the city’s west side, east of Harrison Street, and just north of Adams Street. These views from the Sanborn Insurance Map of 1893 give an idea of the layout of the yard.

In the view above you can see the turntables, which allowed for railroad cars to be moved in and out of the various wood shops and machine shops. Skylights illuminated the carpenter’s shop and the locomotive works. Other shops included the pattern loft, machine shop, and wood planing shop. A blacksmith’s forge was onsite so repairs could be made to hardware related to the railroad cars, doors, and boilers. A large lumber yard was adjacent to the carpenter’s shop.

To the west of the main shops were smaller buildings which housed the brass foundry,  tin shop, spring forge shop, and wood house.

It took a large number of skilled workers to keep the railroad cars and boilers in good working order in the nineteenth century. The 1893 Sanborn Map helps us to clearly see the many different aspects of this operation. Railroads were a key component to the infrastructure and economy of Ohio and the nation. 

Below is another photograph from the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center which features of a large group of employees of the Big Four in 1901. It appears that at that time there was a Big Four shop on the west end of Market Street.