Other "Faux" roundhouses

Dave · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:20 pm

softwerkslex wrote:

Alabama sure has a thing for roundhouse museums. How about those trees growing around the pit in Huntsville?

And places that should be museums....but aren't.

There's a beautifully unpreserved set of ruins in Montgomery that could be a bigger version of the Savannah museum, with better (any) live rail connections. Well worth exploring if you ever find yourself in the area. Bama Foundry is close by, as are a set of coal fired brick kilns no longer in use. Back to the railroad shops ruins; the pit is still there but the turntable has been removed.

dave

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 4:58 pm

The comment that Huntsville has a Crown 4-4-0 got me curious. Here are some photos I found:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/ ... sville.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23711298@N07/3428534677/

Looks like there is at least one other steam locomotive in the area

http://earlyworks.com/the-museums/train-depot

It also seems to be a popular wedding venue:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Roun ... 3487425039

http://heathermcalisterphotography.com/blog/?cat=26

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:34 pm

Alan Maples wrote:

stephenpiwowarski wrote:

. . . where are there recently constructed roundhouses?

I suppose one more for the "Faux" list would be the Knox & Kane Railroad's four stall roundhouse at Marienville, PA, which was cobbled together with a combination of new construction and creative reuse of an existing building. Like a lot of things on the K&K, it didn't look quite right, but it served the purpose until the railroad's demise.

Alan Maples

I was curious to see what the Marienville one looked like...so here it is (or what's left of it)

p51 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 8:14 pm

Geez, note the houses with that in the background. Can you imagine waking up every morning and seeing that behind your back fence?

AmericanStandard · **Joined:** Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:53 pm **Posts:** 49

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it's going to be torn down.

p51 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 12:31 am

J3a-614 wrote:

The comment that Huntsville has a Crown 4-4-0 got me curious.

It's really odd to see that Crown sitting on what is set up for a standard gauge turntable that is railed for 3-foot as well. The approach to the turntable is oddly laid odd, with some real kinks in how the track is laid out. I can't see anything big rolling up to it from the outside tracks other than a diesel with flexible trucks...
Odder still is a 'trolley' that looks like something yanked out of a 1930s cartoon that goes around the grounds, right past said 'roundhouse'.
The station is well worth the admission to the museum, but everything out back was just really strange to me.

Brian Norden · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 6:03 pm

Don't forget the new roundhouse/exhibit/conference facility at West Coast Heritage Park at Squamish, B.C.

http://www.wcra.org/index.php/cn-roundhouse

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J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 6:10 pm

The Squamish roundhouse looks great--except that it's too clean! Where are the puddles, and oil stains, and soot, and grime we expect to see on the inside?

Bet it doesn't smell right, either--no coal smoke and oil, just fresh concrete and paint.

It just ain't natural!! :-)

Tower Operator · **Joined:** Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:51 am **Posts:** 28

Don't forget the Newly built Roundhouse at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Truly a First-Class Job!

Brian Norden · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 10:46 pm

J3a-614 wrote:

The Squamish roundhouse looks great--except that it's too clean! Where are the puddles, and oil stains, and soot, and grime we expect to see on the inside?

Bet it doesn't smell right, either--no coal smoke and oil, just fresh concrete and paint.

It just ain't natural!! :-)

That is why it is a "faux" roundhouse. The word "faux" is an adjective that means imitation or false.

Looking at the Merrian-Webster on-line dictionary we also find this:

Quote:

Synonyms: artificial, bogus, dummy, ersatz, factitious, fake, false, imitation, imitative, man-made, mimic, mock, pretend, sham, simulated, substitute, synthetic
Antonyms: genuine, natural, real

hamster · **Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2013 11:13 pm

So a "faux" roundhouse is one that, regardless of its origins, no longer supports the repair and maintenance of "real" railroad equipment? A repurposed facility serving as a museum is no longer a "real" roundhouse but is instead a "faux" roundhouse?

k5ahudson · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:30 am **Posts:** 773

The West Coast Railway Association's 'CN Roundhouse and Conference Centre' in Squamish, BC. Home of the Royal Hudson 2860. Built only two or three years ago...
http://www.double-shutter.com/roundhous ... 2-360.html

derail · **Joined:** Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:45 pm **Posts:** 142

hamster wrote:

So a "faux" roundhouse is one that, regardless of its origins, no longer supports the repair and maintenance of "real" railroad equipment?

I think by "Faux" they mean one that is not original, however, it seems to be questionable what that even means.

stephenpiwowarski wrote:

T Preserved roundhouses and roundhouses in need of preservation obviously have pride of place on this forum, but where are there recently constructed roundhouses?

Steve

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 12:26 am

To avoid another argument re: the English language, I suggest the thread be re-titled "Roundhouses that are Roundhouses but not really Roundhouses in the traditional manner that we normally think of them as/in". Or something to that effect. *bloody hell...*

Mark Z. Yerkes · **Joined:** Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:47 pm **Posts:** 486

If we're using the term "faux" meaning not real, I suppose Steamtown would make this list, since half of that roundhouse houses the museum. The other half is very much real, however.