Inside turntables?

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:44 am

tim o'm wrote:

Is anything in the Martinsburg, WV Roundhouse? I remember passing it on an excursion during the 2003 NRHS convention, but don't remember any comment beyond, "there it is."

http://www.martinsburgroundhouse.com/Roundhousetoday.html

Stephen

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:46 am

robertjohndavis wrote:

Not sure how the Norwich roundhouse escaped my New England roundhouse list, but there it is on Google maps. Time for a detour on the next New England road trip.

No kidding...how did we not know about this?!

Stephen

RichardWilliam · **Joined:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 5:57 pm **Posts:** 58

Many thanks to all who have responded to my question. Very interesting information and photos.

CPR4000 · **Joined:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:07 pm **Posts:** 150

[quote=The oldest roundhouse that I'm aware of, which may for all I know be the oldest one still standing in the United States, is the former Norwich & Worcester facility on North Main St. in Norwich, Connecticut, built about 1840. The stall area is fan-shaped, like a "modern" roundhouse, but the turntable was (is?) fully enclosed within a cylindrical structure about 30' in diameter - perfectly sufficient for the Norris haystack-boilered 4-2-0s that originally used it, but ensuring early obsolescence as a railroad facility. It's been a plumbing supply store for many years, and due to commercial additions along the street frontage is very well-hidden. The N&W car shops, dating from about the same time, are still standing nearby, with end doors that appear more suited for Maine 2' gauge boxcars and thus demonstrate diminutive size of the earliest American rolling stock.[/quote]

Apparently the roundhouse is now "Granite Group" at 55 North Main. Is the car shop next door at 66 North Main, home of "Kitchen Beautiful?"

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=67+north+ ... 0&t=h&z=19

I was able to look down the alley in Google Street View; you can see the sloped roundhouse wall and the structure that covered the turntable -- it is proportioned quite like a modern cylindrical corn bin.

Very cool. Thanks, Rob!

Walt L.

Randy Hees · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:39 pm

The Central Pacific had an enclosed roundhouse and turntable in the style of the B&O facilities, but in wood at Truckee early on... It burned down early on...

The most recent enclose turntable is likely the the shop turntable inside the Washington Mason Cable car barn in San Francisco the result of the 1982-84 system rebuilding.

Randy

ebtrr · **Posted:** Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:34 pm

The Denver, South Park and Pacific had two engine houses with indoor turntables. One was at the west end of the Alpine Tunnel near Pitkin and on at the top of Boreas Pass. They were rectangular with the turntable centered and three tracks radiating from it in each direction along the length of the buildings. They also had water tanks integrated into the building. I believe both burned and the ruins of both still exist.

ebtrr · **Posted:** Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:39 pm

Stephen Hussar wrote:

tim o'm wrote:

Is anything in the Martinsburg, WV Roundhouse? I remember passing it on an excursion during the 2003 NRHS convention, but don't remember any comment beyond, "there it is."

http://www.martinsburgroundhouse.com/Roundhousetoday.html

Stephen

"Roundhouse Rail Days - 2010 Rail Days Canceled"
"Visitor Information - At the present time the Roundhouse and it's office are closed and we will not be conducting tours until further notice."

Sounds like there is _nothing_ going on there.

crij · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 12:15 am **Posts:** 585

RichardWilliam wrote:

I have run across a discussion wherein the general definition of railroad turntables states that they were/are inside the roundhouse. In my very limited experience, I've never heard of such an arrangement. Have I missed something?

Technically all turntables are inside the Roundhouse, as they are the center point of the roundhouse's curved front and rear walls... Whether a roof was placed over the turntable is another matter completely separate from the OP's quoted definition.

Rich C.

aswright · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:40 am

wilkinsd wrote:

Dennis Storzek wrote:

Interesting question; when was the LAST roundhouse with an enclosed turntable built?

My guess would be the old Union Tank Car dome facility in Wood River, IL, near St. Louis. The "roundhouse" is a Geodesic dome that contains a turntable and car repair tracks radiating out from it. I believe it was built in the 1960s and is similar to a structure built by Union Tank Car in Baton Rouge, LA. The Baton Rouge facility had a different type of turntable, one that did not pivod on the center of the table. It was more like a transfer table that made a circular path.

The dome in Wood River still stands, owned by a railcar repair facility known as Dome Services.

Here's Google's view of it:
http://g.co/maps/8cb59