Frankfort roundhouse

Lima Superpower · **Joined:** Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:46 pm **Posts:** 73

Les Beckman wrote:

Seeing the new thread "The Garden in the Machine" about the remnants of the Nickel Plate Road roundhouse in Bellevue, Ohio got me to thinking about the old NKP roundhouse in Frankfort, Indiana. I checked for previous info here on RyPN and came up with this thread on the Frankfort house that was started by Bob Yarger way back in March of 2006. Much has changed since then; NKP Mike # 624 has been moved out of Hammond, Indiana, ITM is no more, the IHB's Hammond "switching tower" (Hohman Avenue) has been torn down. But what's the story on that deteriorating Frankfort roundhouse? Is it now gone too? And what about the privately owned turntable that was there, and the nearby coal dock? Any info appreciated.

Les

The roundhouse is in the same suspended animation it has been in for decades, slowly returning to mother earth. The coaling tower is still there because like most of the other survivors, it isn't hurting anything and would cost money to tear down. The turntable just needs to be gotten out of there before something stupid happens to it and be passed on to somebody that will make proper use of it. Sometimes rail preservation can be just like classic cars. Some people would rather hang onto stuff until it's completely useless to anyone than let someone who could make some actual use of it have it.

nathansixchime · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:03 pm **Posts:** 948

Lima Superpower wrote:

nathansixchime wrote:

We made inquiries on the turntable two years ago and were told they still have "plans" for it. No sense trying further.

Just curious who "they" is, and what possible better use for it than the FWRHS could possibly be?

This was direct from one of the attorney representing the Frankfort Midwest Rail Heritage Trust.

The "ownership" of the turntable has also been the subject of debate. The story goes that when NS went to scrap the table, the scrapper signed the table over to a member of ITM, but the table was never collected and no paperwork/receipts exist.

We've made several visits over to Frankfort and have admired their intentions given our own plans/visions back home but have since sourced another, longer turntable that's already been removed for our own long term plans.

Lima Superpower · **Joined:** Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:46 pm **Posts:** 73

nathansixchime wrote:

Lima Superpower wrote:

nathansixchime wrote:

We made inquiries on the turntable two years ago and were told they still have "plans" for it. No sense trying further.

Just curious who "they" is, and what possible better use for it than the FWRHS could possibly be?

This was direct from one of the attorney representing the Frankfort Midwest Rail Heritage Trust.

The "ownership" of the turntable has also been the subject of debate. The story goes that when NS went to scrap the table, the scrapper signed the table over to a member of ITM, but the table was never collected and no paperwork/receipts exist.

We've made several visits over to Frankfort and have admired their intentions given our own plans/visions back home but have since sourced another, longer turntable that's already been removed for our own long term plans.

That is certainly good to hear, news I was unaware of. I applaud Frankfort's desire to do something down there, but I think they are fighting an impossible battle. That something involving someone from the ITM is an ambiguous fouled up mess is certainly no real surprise. I'm sure there are (or were) some good people involved, but collectively it may be the biggest dumpster fire in rail preservation history. Congrats on the dome car by the way! I'll probably never be able to afford to ride in it, but I'm thrilled to see the passenger car fleet continue to expand, and it should be a good revenue producer.