Any idea what the "roundhouse" mentioned in this newspaper article is? Perhaps a metal building used to store a military 44-tonner?

http://www.harvardhillside.com/Stories/0,1413,108~5347~1622626,00.html
ryarger@rypn.org

Bob asks:
> Any idea what the "roundhouse" mentioned in this newspaper article is? Perhaps a metal building used to store a military 44-tonner?

I was the variously the Physical Security and Military Police Investigations Oficer at Devens before it closed. There is/was not enough track on post to justify a captive switcher, even as small as a 44t. the B&M (Guilford)line from Ayer to Worcester bisected the post North/South There was one switch on the west side and this spread to a whole two track loading yard extending not more than a half mile from the switch. Even without counting the MBTA commuter line to Fitchburg on the north side of the post, the B&M was our largest neighbor if measured in "Feet of Fence"

B&M (Guilford) Hill Yard, however, was located adjacent to the post along the Worcester line and I believe that "Plow Shop Pond" was on the east side of the yard. I recall the remains of an engine facility there and I suspect that is the location of the roundhouse mentioned in the article

Mike Allen



ptrmgtsvc@juno.com

> Any idea what the "roundhouse"
> mentioned in this newspaper article is?

I posted this question on another forum and got this link to a very interesting topo map from 1935. It was a B&M roundhouse in Ayer, MA and it's possible that the land on which the roundhouse sat became part of Fort Devens at a later date.

Now that the fort is gone, it may be possible to photograph what remains of the roundhouse site. On this map, find Plow Shop Pond and you'll see it.


http://docs.unh.edu/MA/ayer39sw.jpg
SJHussar@aol.com

That map brings back a few memories even though its data is a decade or so older than I am. When I reported there in the summer of 1990 the two branches to the north were intact but abandoned. The engine facility I'm thinking of was on the east leg of the wye. The area where the roundhouse is on the map did not become part of the post even though a significant amount of land east of the track was acquired, I think, during World War Two. Of the track on post, there was no sign of the spurs south of Shepley's Hill and there were only two tracks, not three, in the warehouse area.

Rte 2 on the map through the town is now 2A and the new Rte 2 is a limited access hiway running east/west just north (IIRC) just north of Hell Pond and crosses the Worchester line on an overpass.

And that brings me to a war story...

One afternoon I got a call from the police desk that the State Police had a report of rocks being thrown at passing cars on Rte 2 but hadn't found anything. About half an hour later there was another call that they had a one car MVA near the overpass but could not find the driver and could we run the post sticker for them and see if we could find him. Just about the same time we got a call from a very fightened kid that somebody was "trying to break down the door to his parent's quarters". A few minutes after that one of the patrols going to the disturbance was flagged down by a Green Beret Master Sergeant who had a twelve year old by the scruff of the neck.

When we finally got the mess straightened out what had happend was that was that four kids had been under the highway on the tracks throwing chunks of ballast up at passing cars. They had hidden the first time the troopers came by but didn't know when to quit. One of them had thrown a track bolt which had taken out the windsield of the Sergeant's Blazer. Being a typical Beret when he found them he had gone right over the side of the bridge and then chased them on foot for about a mile and a half and through a hole in the fence until he caught them in the housing area.

The kids were adamant that they hadn't done anything wrong - hitting the blazer was an accident. Yeah, right. When the Trooper asked why they ran if they hadn't done anything wrong, the ringleader of this little band of houligans replied with, "This Green Beret was fallig out of he sky yelling 'You're going to die!'". We had to give him the point.

Guilford's Police charged them with railroad tresspass (that cost their parents $250 each), the Troopers brought malicious mischief, destruction of property, et c. Being young juveniles they did not get locked up but the total term of community service that the oldest one (13) had to perform was in excess of 1,000 hrs. Since they lived on post guess who got to supervise them.

I still have the track bolt. I use it and a picture of the windshield as a visual aid when I do railroad safety presentations for Boy Scouts and similar groups and tell this story.



ptrmgtsvc@juno.com