Roundhouse near Pittsburgh

Cliff McKay · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:52 am **Posts:** 49

I was using the satellite photos on Google Maps to view the Pittsburgh area and noticed the remains of a roundhouse and turntable on the east bank of the Monongahela River, south of the "Hot Metal Bridge." Could anyone give me some history regarding this structure? Is it still used for anything, and are there any preservation plans?

Thanks in advance.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3013

Sounds like the Roundhouse at Robot City. It's now used by Carnegie Mellon and their robotics center

Quote:

RED TEAM AND ITS ROBOTS MOVE TO HAZELWOOD SITE

The robots once housed in the Planetary Robotics Building--including the Red Team and its famed robotic race vehicles--have moved to new quarters on the former LTV site in Hazelwood. The university is renovating part of an old locomotive roundhouse on the site to serve as the home for the Red Team and elements of the Field Robotics Center. For now, the robots are being housed temporarily in old buildings on the LTV site. The move was necessitated by the pending demolition of the Planetary Robotics Building to make room for construction of the Gates Center. Further information: http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/060323_robot.html

More details and a nice photo of the roundhouse in it's current condition can be found here:

http://www.robotcity.org/

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:15 pm

What RR used this roundhouse? Robot City sounds like a small geekoid operation - that will probably end up another Microsoft...

artschwartz · **Posted:** Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:04 pm

The Monongohela Connecting Railroad was the plant railroad for the J&L (later LTV) mill. I think it still exists as a one engine operation to serve the industrial park that occupies part of the mill site.

Bruce Manwiller · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:25 pm **Posts:** 41

Last I looked, this structure was hosting the two EMD switchers from the West Virginia Northern, whose entire trackage to Tunnelton was removed several years ago.

David H. Hamley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:07 pm **Posts:** 705

It was the Monongahela Connecting RR, as correctly noted. Later used by loco dealer Damien Hantz. Now no longer in railroad use, as the MonCon, a very minor operation once most of the former J&L Pittsburgh Works was gone, has now gone away itself. Any remaining customers, if any, would now be served by the Allegheny Valley RR, which took over the adjacent parts of the former B&O a couple years ago.

In the "good old days" you could visit this roundhouse if you were in the good graces of MCRR Master Mechanic Vic Innocenti, one helluva nice guy and very proud of his fleet of Alco S2/S4 switchers. It was somewhat separate from the main J&L mill property and was not "protected" by the J&L security folks, who vigilantly guarded the rest of the property against the ever present threat of unauthorized photography!