I want to scratchbuild my five stall roundhouse. I think I like the idea of a roundhouse built of cut stone. Can anyone tell me if there were actual cut stone roundhouse? I seem to recall seeing pictures somewhere. Also, I am trying to figure out what would be the size(s) of the cut stones that would be used in such a structure. I am a woodcarver and plan to carve the walls out of basswood. Any guidance will be most welcome.
wdcrvr
Is this the look you’re looking for?
There is a new start up company called google who has a great tool for finding photos like this one
Here is the search
Wdcrvr,
You might be interested in some of these:
http://www.andersenmodelkits.com/roundhousemachineshop.html
Frank
Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain (no, not East Broad Top — theirs is brick) had one at their main shops at Saxton, PA until it was torm down to make room for a grocery store. Sorry I can’t post pix. There had to be a lot more. New England seems like a good possibility.
Maryland & Pennsylvania (Ma & Pa) had a cut stone roundhouse in Baltimore, built in 1910.
Just remember that in the era when masonry was used to build roundhouses the locomotives were small. The stalls were built for that size. As bigger locomotives came on the scene, like Pacifics and Mikados, usually the increased traffic meant more roundhouse stalls were needed, and these would be built longer and with easier materials, such as concrete or brick. The original stalls might be lengthened but the slope of the roof meant that could be virtually impossible. The local yard engines might still use the short stalls, or some of the space converted to other uses. Or they would simply be demolished and replaced with new construction.
My thoughts.
John
The Virginia and Truckee had a cut stone enginehouse in Carson City. It was demolished in 1985 before I moved into the area. It was considered a roundhouse but had straight run through tracks. The tracks didn’t angle into the turntable till they were well outside. But it is, none the less a good example of cut stone construction. I have no photos but you can Google it for some nice shots.
Mark H
Here’s one I photographed back in 2002 of the Lakeside & Marblehead Railroad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_and_Marblehead_Railroad
The railroad served limestone quarries afterall…
Front view. It was more of an engine house being rather rectangular but… why not?
Side view… pretty fancy. Almost has a “Mission” style about it.
Near Sandusky, Ohio… check it out, Ed
The Book, THE LAKESIDE AND MARBLEHEAD RAILROAD by Dean Fick, Montevallo Historical Press, Inc, Columbus, Ohio, 2000, says theL&M’s rectangular stone enginehouse was 80 ft. deep, 160 ft. wide. 22 ft. tall, with 16" thick cut stone walls, built in 1903. It had (has) 5 narrow gauge stalls and 6 std. gauge stalls. The road also had an earlier 2-stall cut stone enginehouse, which was used to store passenger equipment after the larger enginehouse was built.
My roundhouse is brick / plastic, but my turntable pit wall is stone:
I bought this mold from Dave Frary. I think Sterling Models handles them now. It’s a flat rubber mold that I filled with Hydrocal and then covered with plastic wrap after about 10 minutes. At that point, the Hydrocal was set up, but was not yet hard, so I could form it over a curved surface to get the round shape.
A nice stone wall mold and Hydrocal can produce a very detailed, realistic wall. It’s not part of an engine service area, but this stone wall is another example:
It’s still there.