Re: What went on in the machine shop....

Having a locomotive in the machine shop proper would pay productivity dividends for running gear overhaul in particular due to: Probably better lighting than in a sooty engine house; a cleaner atmosphere without steam and soot in the air to make new parts (and machinist’s tools) rusty and dirty before they were properly assembled; and not being in the way of operating engines having to switch into and out of the engine house, thus interrupting work on the engine being overhauled.
It would be less advantageous to do boiler work in the machine shop due to its being dirty by nature, and with a lot of the work being done inside the boiler, poor lighting conditions outside don’t really matter.
Even if they didn’t overhaul locomotives in the machine shop, a track leading into it would be useful for taking deliveries of the heavy machinery in the shop itself, as well as repair parts from the 2-8-2 at the far end of the line.