Locomotive Lawn

Tucked underneath a Highway in Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, lies B.E.D.T. #25.

This Diesel Locomotive is an Alco S-1 model that worked the Brooklyn waterfront for 32 years before being retired in 2000. This train hauled boxcars and flatbeds with goods that just came off boats and needed to be sent to warehouses along the river. This locomotive worked alongside some of the last operating steam trains in the country during its time as a shunter.

In 2007, it was chosen by the city to be restored and repainted for preservation. It wears the paint scheme of the New York Central railroad and bares the number “8625.” 

The train was placed there to commemorate the history of the park as a former New York Central rail yard, which connected to what is today now known as the elevated High Line Park.