Was driving to work this morning on 64-55-70 when passing the old B&O yard and roundhouse along the highway when I noticed smoke rising from what appeared to be what remains of the old structure. Since it was rush hour traffic, I wasn’t about to take my eyes off the road and get a really good look at where it was coming from. I haven’t heard anything about it on any of the local stations. Anyone see or hear anything?
That doesn’t sound like good news at all. I hope that it doesn’t burn completely down, although it probably wouldn’t be around much longer anyhow. That is not exactly a choice area to attempt a restoration project.
That is a bad place to take your eyes off the road, even when it isn’t ruch hour. I always love the idiots that can’t decide until the last possible second whether they want to take the Poplar Street bridge or the MLK bridge.
I hope this is not the case.
Searching on Google Earth I found a remnant of a Roundhouse in East St. Louis, IL at 38° 38’ 00" N by 90° 09’ 07" W. Is this the RH in question?
This is the only one I have found in the St. Louis area. It appears to no longer have a Turntable, and actually no yard tracks in the immediate area anymore.
I have about 140 Turntables and/or Roundhouses in my database (ranging from full, working sets to vague outlines in the brush, to what appears to be warehouses/office buildings or residential reuse) that I have found just by following RR tracks on Google Earth. I know there are lots more in areas where Google Earth does not have the resolution to see them. I would have missed this one if you had not listed the Interstates that it is near.
Nothing more than a Dumpster fire. Theres been quite a rash of them recently. How do I know? I drive down IL Rte. 3 witch goes near the roundhouse.
Hey Jim! NICE PHOTOS !!
Joel
The NS has a turn table at the st.louis yard that they use . and the one you may be talking about is in madison il the old trra round house and its been burnt down for 8 years
The image I see in Google Earth is definitely in East St. Louis, which is south of Madison with small towns between the building and Madison.
Can you give me some direction to look for remnants of the RH in Madison? There are several RR Yards of various sizes around there, on all sides of the city. I can find no indication of where a RH ever was near Madison. I believe the photos in Giggle Earp are fairly new, maybe within the last 2 to 4 years.
Microsoft’s “Live Earth” seems to have much older photos, (at least in some of the areas I have checked, specifically Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the photos are over 8 years old, maybe more!) I could not find any RH’s in the Madison area with it, either.
Could you also give me some idea where the NS Turntable is located in St. Louis, like quadrant of the city or direction from some landmark (St. Lous Arch, Mississippi river, Interstate intersections, etc.)?
If you go out to look for ANY roundhouses in the Madison/Venice/Brooklyn areas, you will be sorely dissapointed. the Terminals Roundhouse and shops south of their Madison yard was completly demolished and the turntable pit has been filled in. The only shop remenints is a single, isolated track and fueling pad at the former GM&O Yard in venice about 1/2 mile Southwest of Madison Yard, and across from IL Rte. 3. I also highly recemond that you don’t go looking for it, its a very dangerous neighborhood and the Terminals Security is tight.
As for the NS turntable, it is in Luther yard in North St. Louis, about a mile northwest of the Merchants bridge, and about 2 miles north west of the Terminals Madison Yard.
Another turntable, if you can find it, is next to the grain elevator about a mile west of Downtown St. Louis along the Metrolink tracks. The pit is over grown with weeds and was last used in the mid 60’s.
Valley Jct, IL, which is the entrance to the the A&S Gateway yard for trains coming up the UP Chester sub had a turntable up untill the UP Merger. It was an SP facility since this was 3 yards all next to each other, A&S Gateway Yard, SP Gateway Yard, IC East St. Louis Yard. I can’t really tell if the pit is still there, but it is worth a look.
I only “go looking” for roundhouses from several miles in the air and I don’t leave my easy chair in the process. Google Earth and Visual Earth are my vantage points.[:)]
Last night I found a filled-in turntable and the outline of a roundhouse at the southern end of a yard that is east of Venice (the RH being east of Brooklyn IL.) (Geographic coords: 38° 39’ 15.26" N, 90° 9’ 30.03" W)
I will go looking for the other items you mention later today. Thanks.
I may have found the three turntables you listed, (above):
Possibly the Luther Yard TT at: 38° 41’ 28" N, 90° 12’ 54" W. No evidence of there ever being a roundhouse associated with it (not uncommon, many turntables were just for turning cars or engines around).
The downtown St. Louis TT and outline of a few stalls of a Roundhouse southeast of a grain elevator just north of I-64 at: 38° 37’ 56" N, 90° 14’ 46" W. Quite overgrown but a passenger in your car could probably see it if you are in the extreme right lane going west on I-64.
I cannot find any city or town named Valley Jct
Those images are very detailed, but incunclusive. Where the turntable at the RI yard, or the MKT yard in St. Louis Where’s the turntable at the CB&Q at the “old” passenger depot at Aurora? Anybody got pictures of THAT!? It’s on many maps! Along with the power station! What about the tower? hmm? It’s not showing on Google! I admit, many old abandon lines do, but not all!!
I agree they are inconclusive, but that is because I don’t know which rail yards I see in the aerial photos belong to which railroads or what their names are. I don’t know anything about the layout of St. Louis (or much of any city for that matter) so asking for information on any particular “yard” doesn’t help me to “find” anything.
Give me something to triangulate off of, like compass directions from highway intersections or rivers or some VERY promenant structure (sports stadium, Dam, etc.) makes it much easier to find stuff.
(I was not sure where the St. Louis arch was, but knew it was near the river and downtown St. Louis. I first found its shadow and then found the arch… kind’a neat seeing it from precisely above it.) Shadows sometimes play havoc with figuring out what I am seeing and sometimes make it very clear.
The only thing I have found in Aurora Ill so far is a complete round ring building near some RR tracks with what appears to be a “courtyard” with a gazebo in the middle. May NOT be a remnant of a Roundhouse, but it might be… maybe some archetech turned it into an old folks home? Look at: 41° 45’ 39" N, 88° 18’ 31" W and YOU tell me! [D)]
EDIT:
There is a working Turntable and the outline of a roundhouse in Northeast Aurora at: 41° 46’ 18" N 88° 16’ 23" W.
[quote user=“Semper Vaporo”]
I agree they are inconclusive, but that is because I don’t know which rail yards I see in the aerial photos belong to which railroads or what their names are. I don’t know anything about the layout of St. Louis (or much of any city for that matter) so asking for information on any particular “yard” doesn’t help me to “find” anything.
Give me something to triangulate off of, like compass directions from highway intersections or rivers or some VERY promenant structure (sports stadium, Dam, etc.) makes it much easier to find stuff.
(I was not sure where the St. Louis arch was, but knew it was near the river and downtown St. Louis. I first found its shadow and then found the arch… kind’a neat seeing it from precisely above it.) Shadows sometimes play havoc with figuring out what I am seeing and sometimes make it very clear.
The only thing I have found in Aurora Ill so far is a complete round ring building near some RR tracks with what appears to be a “courtyard” with a gazebo in the middle. May NOT be a remnant of a Roundhouse, but it might be… maybe some archetech turned it into an old folks home? Look at: 41° 45’ 39" N, 88° 18’ 31" W and YOU tell me! [D)]
[quote user=“Semper Vaporo”]
I may have found the three turntables you listed, (above):
Possibly the Luther Yard TT at: 38° 41’ 28" N, 90° 12’ 54" W. No evidence of there ever being a roundhouse associated with it (not uncommon, many turntables were just for turning cars or engines around).
The downtown St. Louis TT and outline of a few stalls of a Roundhouse southeast of a grain elevator just north of I-64 at: 38° 37’ 56" N, 90° 14’ 46" W. Quite overgrown but a passenger in your car could probably see it if you are in the extreme right lane going west on I-64.
I cannot find any ci
This is the CRI&P Carrie Ave. Yard on Terraserver-
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=15&X=1856&Y=10713&W=1&qs=|st.+louis||
Just to the north is NS Luther Yard, ex WAB (center) and the CB&Q N. St. Louis Yard, on the right-
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=15&X=927&Y=5357&W=1&qs=|st.+louis||
North of that was MKT Baden Yarn, with a turntable but no roundhouse at the north end.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=15&X=927&Y=5360&W=1&qs=|st.+louis||
Terraserver images can be from as early as 1990, which can be usefull when looking at how things were. The USGS maps attached usually have different dates at the different levels, and can also be helpfull.
Forgive me, please, but Terraserver stinks.
Black and white photos and a really lousy interactive interface.
When Terraserver first showed up, I thought it was great, but Google Earth is SOOOooo much easier to use and has color images.
I agree that sometimes older photos are of use, since things change so quickly in the real world. I would like to be able to pick the year of the images to use just to be able to see how things change and to help find where things used to be. I suppose it may be a few years before that becomes something that can be done… besides there are no space photos from the 1940’s!!!
But, thanks anyway for helping me to orient myself to the names of the Railyards in that area.
what in the world is a cri&p and a cbq ? I think you maybe listening to the trra merchants channel . they sound like they are singing the alphabet. geez. I am not sure what you are looking at but i did follow the first link up to see the turntable . and if you look real close i was standing by that sd 70 waving to you…with all my fingers…
Bu that whole yard is luther yard and north of the yard is nothing. the yard starts at carrie and ends at baden
Isn’t Charles (Semper Vaporo) looking around for old facilities ? CRI&P was the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, which operated Carrie Yard until 1980. CB&Q was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, now part of BNSF Railway. MKT has been part of Union Pacific since 1988.
“Old facilities”??? That is only because there are no “NEW facilities” that include turntables and roundhouses. I’m just looking for turntables and roundhouses, mainly in the U.S. (for no particular good reason). The resolution of the photos for most of the world is too poor to identify anything, but “most” major cities are good enough to find what I am looking for. If anyone knows of any “NEW” turntables and roundhouses, let me know. Well, tell me of “old” ones too, even if they no longer exist. Give me some rough idea of where they are/were and I’ll go looking, and if I find something, I’ll add it to my database. Maybe I should start a new thread for people to add to.
Oh, and thanks for using ALL your fingers, wabash1… at the resolutions available, anything less might be grossly missinterpreted!