Glad to be among fellow modelers...Have a question that I'm not quite sure of the answer.
Were turntables and roundhouses still used in the mid to late 70's and into the 80's? Or were engine houses used? If engine house, how many tracks? Where the fueling facilites located on the same tracks or were they seperated from the actual repair show. I have 9 diesels, soon to be 10 and an area large enough to house a turntable and an open sided roundhouse. But before I commit to that I want to see if a multi track engine servicing facility would be the proper way to go.
My thinking is that roundhouses and turntables went the way of the steam engine...but I'm not sure. There probably is an example somewhere of an all diesel railroad using such facilities.
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Many roundhouses and turntables survived in the 80s and 90s. Some are still in use today. The old C&O Parsons ave yard in Columbus Ohio still has theirs....Mike Posts: 97 | From: Columbus Ohio USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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I think the best answer is that round houses where the old design, and railroads, being cheap and practical just used the round house because they could. As they needed to tear them down, due to maintance, or the lack there of, they replaced them with a more modern, and practical design. This includes transfer tables and tghter radius appropriate to deseils. Also, Deseils were always lower maintainance then steam, which is why they are with us today and steam is not. Steam loco's needed more servicing and so there had to be more service locations. More locations meant less space available overall, hence the roundtable making the best use of a small area.
Does this help?
Posts: 62 | From: Carmel, Indiana, USA | Registered: Dec 2000
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Dragondawg, Amtrack uses (and in fact to my understanding just refurbished) the roundhouse adjacent to L.A. Union Station. The roundhouse is a very efficiant system, fact is not everything new is better. Remember many of those "high maintenance" steamers survived in useful service for over 75 years.
Posts: 127 | From: Gunnison, CO, USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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On MY favorite railroad (the Ann Arbor)turntables were used into the 80's - in particular they were used to turn the diesels so that the wheels on each side of the engine were exposed to equal wear on the grades and easements of the line. Articles say that the roundhouses bacame storage sheds, but that the use of the turntable continued... you can still see a couple today, although they may be removed soon as they haven't been used since the late 80's.
Hope this helps.
Posts: 3 | From: Saline, MI USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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Turntables are still in use on many lines though the original roundhouses may have been razed and rebuilt with a more modern facility with only a few doors. These rebuilt facilities are usually just an adjunct to the larger repair shops that handle the big rebuilds by doing the smaller routine stuff . Enviromental concerns about spills have made the fuel facilities a world unto their own now with multiple staging tracks, containment tanks and on and on.
Posts: 13 | From: calgary | Registered: Mar 2001
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Roundhouses are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but unfortunately many railroads stopped using them due to the high cost of maintenance. I actually saw a roundhouse in Memphis being used as a shopping mall!! Most roundhouses were (and those still in use are) located at central facilities and terminals. Often they were used in combination with car shops and other maintenance facilities. They came in many shapes and varities. To see some really great pictures of these things simply type in "roundhouses" on your server...there are about 350 sites regarding roundhouse structures.
Engine houses were, and are, found at smaller facitlities and along branch lines. These may or may not be at terminals, but are usually located where engine work is needed and can be easily done. Generally these things have a single track entry. Although a lot of engine work can be done in them, they are not as well equipped as roundhouses. To view a model of an engine house go to: http://www.jstrainstation.homestead.com
Hope this helps !! Happy Modeling!! John
------------------ The Santa Fe and Southwestern, Chief of the Southwest!
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Hi,All. As an aside , Not all roundhouses were round. The V&T had a square, (rectangular), roundhouse in Carson City. It was built of cut stone. Sadly it was demolished for the material and the site redeveloped. Also, thanx for the roundhouse link. Bobby
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