According to a post on Altamont Press Newsline, the one-stall Rock Island enginehouse at Hutchinson, Kansas was recently demolished (by UP?). These were prefabricated metal structures which arrived in kit form and were assembled by the road's B&B forces to replace the old roundhouses, which the RI began destroying soon after the end of steam. Other roads used them as well, and they were usually two stalls in width, though often the second stall did not have an overhead door, being used for machinery, storage or office space.

There are several of the RI structures still extant, though few remain in use. The one in my Kansas hometown was empty and abandoned last time I saw it. Though kids had broken all the windows and pigeons had taken roost, the basic structure was sound and would make a good place to shelter and work on equipment. As they were modular to begin with, they could be reused elsewhere with careful documentation, dismantling and reassembly. Worth looking into if your organization needs an enginehouse and can't afford a new metal structure...

bobyar2001@yahoo.com

> According to a post on Altamont Press
> Newsline, the one-stall Rock Island
> enginehouse at Hutchinson, Kansas was
> recently demolished (by UP?). ///SNIP///

> There are several of the RI structures still
> extant, though few remain in use.

Seems to me there's one up in the Texas panhandle..

Trinity Valley RR Historical Assoc.
hi_plain@yahoo.com