Hi All

Can anyone give and update on what is going on with this project ?
I read somewhere that the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was going to built a 4 stall roundhouse on site , for the remaining Pennsy Steam which is still outside . Thanks Pat ..

Hmm... that's odd.

Nothing easy (if at all) to be found on their site.

A quick Google search brings up articles from 2013...

State railroad museum in Strasburg to build $6.1 million roundhouse

http://lancasteronline.com/news/state-r ... 44c16.html

In the article is this statement:
""By late 2015, we'll have a completely rebuilt turntable and a brand new roundhouse, full of valuable steam locomotives," Fox said."

Odd they may have thought such a building could.... would, be built in that short span of time.

/Mitch

When I visited Strasburg in September last year, I asked one of the staff what was happening regarding the roundhouse, as I was expecting to see some work underway, or at least some information about the project.
I got the impression that there was some unspecified "problem" that had held the project up, but the response was vague, to say the least.
It's not so much the steam locos outside in all weathers, its the DD1 electric that gives me concern, considering that it used to live in the main exhibition hall when I first went there in 1998.

Hi all
I did the quick goggle search before I posted on Railway Preservation , and I found the same articles . I also when up to their web site , and found no new information dealing with the roundhouse . Pat

To put it as simply as possible, the state legislature has not released the funds to build, although they have been appropriated. They've apparently found something else to do with the money.

I do recall a very modern at Roundhouse was proposed and designed but immediately halted in favor of a more authentic and nostalgic roundhouse. I think it was at the point where someone was very upset and had a zoning ordinance declared so that the new modern design was not allowed .

Is there any place on the Web that has pictures or drawings of the proposed 'modern' roundhouse? I'd like to see what they had in mind, particularly with features.

Hi
Here's a photo of the proposed roundhouse , taken from RR museum of Pennsylvania web site .

At this very moment, elements of the state legislature and the governor are deep in negotiations over a budget, which was due months ago. I for one will be very surprised if funding for any major projects of the Museum & Historical Commission are funded. They are discussing raising the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7.25 percent, and quite a number of members from both sides of the aisle have said they won't vote for it. The state has a huge deficit right now, somewhere around $2 billion. A roundhouse just doesn't seem to be in the picture at the moment.

Hi,

I hope Pennsylvania will work out its financial problems. I have always considered Harrisburg to Sunbury and down to Lancaster my family's heritage home. My favorite memories of the area are the ones with my uncle taing me to the west shore and seeing the GG1s and the E44s marching freight up and down from Wormleysburg to West Fairview and Enola.I think the earliest I recall was when I was 14 c1969 and through to about 1980 when I landed my first job in Texas.

The RRMofP helps recall those experiences.

Thanks for your hard work.

Doug vV
Atlanta GA c1961-2016 with short times in AL, WV, and TX.

Probably not, I suspect all that was trashed. I saw the artist's conception of it. My boss put it best by saying, "It looks like a car dealership." It was bad, and totally inappropriate for a museum setting.

I was just at the museum in September, having been there last time in 1998. Almost nothing had changed from the last time I was there. It was sad to know that all the stuff sitting outside toward the road is the stuff in the worst condition of preservation (seeing old rivets - GG1 4800- in that state is downright sad). I often have wondered if that prevents some people from going in, expecting the best stuff to be up front and assuming everything inside must be worse off, when the opposite is the case.

I hope it all did get trashed as Kelly says. Last I heard, the township had nixed the proposed plans for the roundhouse because, quite frankly, it looked ridiculous. Think along the lines of the redesigned museum front entrance facade that debuted about ten years ago.

My first thought when I saw that was "Did some kid win a design contest or something?".

The academic historian in me says new construction needs to be distinguishable from historic. The set designer says it needs to look 100 years old to provide the appropriate context for the audience's enjoyment. I agree more and more with the set designer, especially on a site that had no historic structures to start with.

The problem is, every time we discuss display buildings, someone points up we need to include 'viewing space' so our visitors can see what we are displaying. OK, I can understand that. In the context of a roundhouse, though, that means putting the stall tracks on maybe 15 degree angles, rather than the 7 - 10 that was more common. Once the designer did that, they found they could move the door wall almost down to the turntable pit, and all of a sudden it looks like the old Atlas HO model; a caricature of a roundhouse. I don't think you'll ever get a modern designer to agree that the way to make the place look real is to follow a historic plan, set the building at least one engine length back from the turntable, and just leave every other track out... or, better yet, include the tracks with rubber in the flangeways, and bring the outdoor displays in during the winter.