The old Southern Railway Coster shops at Knoxville, Tennessee are to be demolished within the next two weeks.The land is being turned into an industrial park.The Coster shops were a sister complex to the Spencer shops in North Carolina.One freight depot building will be spared for possible use by Gulf & Ohio railways.

TS1474@aol.com

johnny,

thanks alerting us to this sad news. for those who want to read the knoxville journal sentinal article, the address is:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/business/ar ... 51,00.html

jim

Wrinnbo@aol.com

Is there anything that needs to be saved there that could help other roundhouse projects? Machinery, historic electrical, heating and other stuff, heavy support timbers, window frames, etc., etc.? Perhaps this loss could be someone elses gain, in an architectural salvage way... Too often, such buildings are destroyed without anyone investigating these things.

> johnny,

> thanks alerting us to this sad news. for
> those who want to read the knoxville journal
> sentinal article, the address is:
>
> http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/business/ar ... 51,00.html

> jim


bobyar2001@yahoo.com

> Is there anything that needs to be saved
> there that could help other roundhouse
> projects? Machinery, historic electrical,
> heating and other stuff, heavy support
> timbers, window frames, etc., etc.? Perhaps
> this loss could be someone elses gain, in an
> architectural salvage way... Too often, such
> buildings are destroyed without anyone
> investigating these things.

Bob, the buildings are empty caves as is SR and now NS practice. The biggest building left is the Back Shop, which, as Johnny pointed out, is a twin to the one at Spencer. Most of the items in the building have been replaced over the years. Jim


Wrinnbo@aol.com

> As Jim said the shops were gutted. I was in the backshop three years ago and it was quite shock to see it compared to the memories of being in there when it was in operation. One important note that this shop was converted to a car shop in the fifties after the end of steam so most of the old machinery was gone years ago.

One interesting exception,was one that I saw on one of my first visits about 20 years ago. I was going through the material storage area for the Blacksmith shop when I came upon two and a half Locomotive tires. I asked the foreman and he explained that the quality of steel made good dies for the drop forge. The shop made various small parts such as handholds and whenever a die wore out they would cut a piece off and machine it to shape.

The wheel shop was in operation under NS until this year. I think it was sold to Progress Rail Services.

Charlie

Bob, the buildings are empty caves as is SR
> and now NS practice. The biggest building
> left is the Back Shop, which, as Johnny
> pointed out, is a twin to the one at
> Spencer. Most of the items in the building
> have been replaced over the years. Jim


tennesseans@juno.com

Even though the big machinery may be gone, there may be historic bits and pieces that could be useful, as small as those unique electrical outlets (that used a wooden handled plug) that were common in railroad installations. Certainly some windows and support timbers could be useful also.

> thanks alerting us to this sad news. for
> those who want to read the knoxville journal
> sentinal article, the address is:
>
> http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/business/ar ... 51,00.html

> jim


bobyar2001@yahoo.com